The Hockey PDOcast - Takeaways From Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Corey Sznajder to break down Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, adjustments the Golden Knights can make for Game 6, and how the Hurricanes have gotten to within one game of winning the title. 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 PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Corey Schneider. Corey, we're going to have to turn these Fridays in the PDRS cast into Corey Schneider's corner because it seems like you're on with me every week on Fridays. But I think deservedly so, given this run by the Carolina Hurricanes and how much fun we're

having, breaking it all down. What's going on, man? Yeah. Thanks for having me back on again. Maybe the Hurricanes can do a playoff series every week this summer so we can keep doing this. I've enjoyed it, though. It's been like my own little therapy session after these crazy games. They have been certainly fun, although I will say, you know, despite the last kind of couple minutes scrambles and the late game push from the Golden Knights, game five was probably on the more conservative side in relation to the rest of this series with how.

crazy the first four games were, but we had game five this end up final on Thursday night. The hurricanes wind up holding on and move within one game of winning the title. And you and I are going to break it all down here today, all the stuff that mattered. Look ahead a little bit to game six on Sunday night as well. I've got a kind of checklist of things that I want to hit here with you today that I thought were the most relevant notes coming out of this game five. And they're not necessarily in chronological order. I kind of just work my way through them as I was rewatching the game this morning.

But I want to start off talking about Nikola Euler's because he is such a stone cold badass on the Sportsnet feed. They ran a pregame interview on the ice with him and Kyle Bukascus. And he's getting asked about, you know, the magnitude of this game five, the proximity to the Stanley Cup, whether it feels different. And he's just like, nope, it's just another game. all business and goes out there. I know, and he was self-deprecating after the game, talking about the puck over the glass penalties, and he took two of them in this one.

I thought his performance was better than he suggested because his playmaking was on full display in this. He winds up with three more assists, his second straight three-point game in this series. Third multi-point effort of the Stanley Cup final, now tied with Mitch Marner for the scoring lead in this series. you know the first and third assists in particular

were just brilliant plays by him. I think the precision of the passing is one thing, but I think the general kind of velocity with which one he fires all of these passes is also just as remarkable. And so he pulled off a couple of

the type of high skill level plays that I think this team clearly needed in previous seasons, why they valued him so highly in free agency this year. And this game was real kind of validation for that or I guess proof of concept of what he brings to the table and why he's been such a difference maker for the hurricanes this season. He is the perfect player that just compliments the way they play and how they score most of

their goals, which is quick plays to the net deflections, jam plays. He's the one that dominates around the perimeter and gets the puck to a dangerous, dangerous area quickly. And he can score himself from distance to and create the quick strike offense. that's like an element of the game that they've been building and he's the guy that really just like takes the cap off of it when that situation arises

but this is a game where he kind of did his thing in like the doldrums of it that first goal just hitting stall stick in front of the net getting the deflection and on the power play especially like this power play it was dormant all playoffs and they got six goals and four games now and Euler's huge part of it

especially on especially on that last power play goal to Sveshnekov. I actually thought like rewatching it I was kind of surprised McNabb didn't break the play up

because like Gostis Bears pass was behind dealers he had to kind of spin corral it but he still got to Sveshnikov in time and I thought McNab

was going to get back there and get a stick on it but that's just dealers for you. He just fired that Rasker Luzon's legs and Spatch made no mistake. Yeah the the pass

to the shot pass to Jordan Stahl for the 1-1 goal. I feel like I've seen that assist from Nikola Eelers a million times over his NHL career, and Stahl scored a bunch of them, and it was a big reason why he finally got back to 20 goals this regular season for the first time in a decade or whatever. The 4-1 goal, though,

not only the gatherer, but then the backdoor feed and just how quickly and seamlessly he pulled that off was outlandish. And, you know, I think games like this are exactly why he was so, important for the hurricanes and why they gave them $51 million this summer because I don't know if you agree with this but I feel like just off the top of my head this was probably Carolina's worst game offensively from a process perspective especially at even strength like I had them down for I think eight five on five scoring chances in 47 minutes but you don't necessarily need volume when you have elite playmakers that can single-handedly turn the couple opportunities

they get into goals for you. He had another play in the third period where he's kind of coming around the net and he finds stall out front and gets a great chance off of that as well. So it could have been an even bigger game for him. But I just feel like, you know, in the analytics community, we probably don't do a good enough job still of sort of we've obviously value like the process and the quantity and that'll win out in the long run, but particularly in a Stanley Cup final or a game like this.

like game breakers who can turn whatever looks you get into goals reliably and Eelers is one of those players, it just makes such a massive difference. And they clearly didn't have an adrenaline shot like this previously. And so I feel like that's a worthwhile way to start the today's show and talking about this game vibe because I think it's a neat kind of comparison to previous seasons and why this team is now one win away from winning the Stanley Cup. Yeah, just precision that he has with making those quick plays to the first. front of the net, it's such a difference maker because he's had a lot of, he's had a lot of games and a lot of plays this series, especially in, especially the two games in Vegas where he kind of,

he dominates from the outside, he creates a lot of, a lot of point shots, a lot of perimeter shots, a lot of shots and volume, but like the chances weren't there, but he'll have a, but there's the opportunity to always create better chances just because of how often the puck is getting to the net, just how well he's creating space or he's, he's, he's taking to, he's, he's taking defenders away from the front of the net, too, just how much he likes to carry the puck. And that opens up space for stall. And then, I mean, even Jarvis, the series has gotten open a couple of times since he got moved to that line.

But the other, I guess, like, what's been interesting with this series is, like, going back to game four is that Vegas didn't have a lot of shots, but they had 10 chances. I had them on 10, I had them with 10 chances on 19 shots. And Carolina had only, I think I only had them with 11 chances. So it's like, there's not a lot of. chances in volume, but the chances you are getting are very high quality, high danger. It looks like the defense is scrambling, and that just flips the game on its shoulders. And I wanted to see some of that from Carolina a little more often because it was a little

plot. After the first three goals, it was a little plotting the rest of the way. And this game, they finally kind of flipped the script on Vegas and did that. And I wasn't sure if they had that in them. And lo and behold, they did. And I haven't finished tracking yet, but I had Aho. All I was the only five-on-five chance I had them in the second period. And I was, like, kind of double-checking to make sure of it, because that's very unlike this Hurricanes team to do something like that, where you get just, you go long stretches without a shot or even a scoring chance,

but the one you do get is something like that, where it's a cross-seeing pass going high to low with no defender around you. And that was like, that's like, it just kind of installs like a huge belief in the team and the fan base to be like, hey, this team can do this. Like there are things we're seeing from this club that we haven't seen in previous years. Like they just kind of keep pulling out something new every game where they just show that it's, this is a different group. Yeah, I can't imagine there's been too many wins over the years for the calendar hurricanes

where they had this little volume, but were this efficient regardless. And it's easy to point to him as a big reason why that's the case. I think also in general, I know he takes the puck over the last penalty in the final couple minutes. and they have to sort of white knuckle it across the finish line. But it's still been cool seeing him kind of relied on in some of these critical late game situations as well,

even defensively. And he winds up closing out the game four with the empty netter from behind the net. But it's all just been so validating for someone like myself, who I feel like for years was just screaming into a void about this. And what an injustice, you know, his usage and what he was being tasked with in Winnipeg was. and now you're seeing what it looks like at full capacity. So I think it's been really exciting. What is that six penalties in this series now with players shooting the puck over the glass and

that? I mean, there were three in this game alone, two for the U.S. and one from Kejandro Miller, and there was a Jankowski one earlier. And I think Vegas had as well. Yeah. I guess that's what's going to happen when the teams are just using these high flips out of defensive zone as often as they are, not to mention the forechecking pressure from both sides, like the decisions.

that hates that. As somebody that hates the high flip play, I kind of enjoy the delay a game penalty, honestly, just because I hate watching the high flip out of the zone every single time. Yeah, that's fair. Jordan Stahl scores the goal that we talked about to tie it in the first period. And it was an alpha effort from him, I thought. Like, he had three or four hits on that sequence, where he's just finishing checks ultimately leads to, you know, he kind of crunches McNabb before him to pass the puck up the wall. Chatfield, I believe, cuts it off. And then he beats McNabb to the front of the net to redirect.

Eelers' pass up to six goals now in the Stanley Cup final has scored in every single game. He's jumped up to the favorite, the prohibitive favorite, in the cons my thoughts as well, with the hurricanes being one win away from closing the deal. And I haven't looked this up in the meantime. I imagine, like, he's at 12 points right now this postseason. that's got to be the lowest total, I think, by any potential winner. But honestly, despite that, I think given the lack of clear-cut candidates for the hurricanes, and I think you could honestly construct a pretty compelling case for any of Stank-Ovenhall or even Blake,

based on what they've done in the entirety of this postseason. But with the way this series has gone and how high leverage and tight it's been and obviously being the most important stage of the postseason against their toughest competition, the outside impact he's had and just how he's dominated across the board and then the goals on top of that I think make a pretty reasonable argument for Saul to wind up winning this. I'm not sure how you feel about it in terms of this discussion of like the totality of the work compared to just this one series because obviously it has a postseason award in the NHL compared to the NBA where it's just a finals recognition. But I think it's fair. Like he's been their most important player in this series. He's probably been the biggest differentiator, especially when you compare with the head-to-head battle against

Jack Eichol's off the lineup. And so if the Hurricanes wind up winning this fourth game, and especially if he scores another goal and winds up scoring in every single game of this series, I think it's almost a lock at this point for the Hurricanes. Yeah, if he scores like at least one or two more goals, I think he's pretty close to the record for most goals in a final. I didn't see what it was, but he's like two goals away. But if he gets that, he's absolutely going to the cons might provided the Hurricanes win this series. It's me knocking on wood right there. But it's also just the,

it being just kind of open season with Kahnst-Myth candidates. I mean, the Hurricanes had a goalie switch. Kiannre Miller, unfortunately, has kind of played his way out of the, out of the consideration there. It's been such a by-committee, all-hands-on-deck approach with this group. But Jordan has just had all,

he's had the biggest moments of the biggest times, the biggest goals. And it's kind of, have just been incredible to watch because if he gets eight goals, that's like a, that is almost a full season total for him sometimes. And, um,

and just like he's always been just this, he's always been just a heavily relied on player for the team to like all these years. And I feel like Brandon Moore's having a massive just vindication with how much he just, he has deployed him all over the years. Despite like low offensive totals, despite like his line always being where offense goes to die. then in the biggest series of his life, it's the line that's been the offensive life line for

this team. And it's been pretty, like, as a long time fan, it's been pretty like incredible to see Stahl just kind of come up big in these situations over and over again. I mean, how many guys over the years have the hurricanes brought in, whether it's drafting them or signing them or trading for them? And it was like, well, this could be the successor to the Jordan Stahl role for this team. And in year 20 now, it's just still him. And he, He's stepping up on the biggest level, at the biggest stage. And he's been remarkable. I had the stat on the previous show, and now he's matched his goal output from the previous

four post seasons where he had scored six goals in 55 games. And he has six in just this series alone through five games. One, 14 of his 19 face-offs in this one as well and is pushing 70% for this series. And, you know, talking about the head-to-head and we'll get into what Vegas did atop their lineup and what their top line looked like in this game, he winds up playing 928 out of his 12, 43, 5-15 against Eichol, and they hold Vegas to just two shots. In that time, nearly seven minutes against Marner and the shots were two nothing. Hurricanes completely kept the Golden Knights off the board with shots, and I think the shot counts

12-5 now for Carolina in the 24 head-to-head minutes between Stahl and Marner. And so there's a lot of moving parts there, but I think what he's done as a suppressor, as well and it's generally been lower than hockey and then just scoring on the power play the way he has it's probably been the biggest battleground i think the hurricanes have won in the series and and why they're up three to right now do you want to get into Vegas's top line or do you want to say that for a bit later because we're kind of running through our hurricanes notes and i've got a ton on the golden nights as well but i don't know if you want to just get into it now because it's a pretty neat segue yeah yeah i did want to talk about that because like most of my game

notes are basically about the new Vegas lines and what's not clicking there. Let's do it. So, you know, I thought we saw certainly out of the game in the first period, they went to Marner playing with Stone and Eichel with much more frequency than they did in the past and not necessarily even just four offensive zone draws. I believe, you know, they didn't use them at all for the first two games when the series went back to Vegas. They started using them late in game three, some more in game four when they were trailing and

pushing for a goal. and the total was under four minutes, 5-1-5 through four games. It was, what, seven or eight minutes in this game alone. And I thought in the first period, right after the one-nothing goal by Dorothea on the power play, they had stacked together two or three really strong shifts, where it felt like the hurricanes were kind of just in survival mode. And they did so because they didn't give up a goal in that time. But there was the Marner Rush Chance with the Stone rebound.

Marner had another one that Ikel set up that was blocked in front by stone, unfortunately, for them, and a couple other good looks along the way weren't able to turn it into a goal. But I do wonder, as we look ahead to game six, with the William Carlson injury and his unavailability, I do wonder whether it is possible to just keep leaning on that. There's going to be a level of desperation for the Golden Knights with their season on the line and then being at home. and there's probably ways to get around that more easily than they were here. But it will certainly make things more difficult from a matchup perspective and from a lineup construction perspective as well because Carlson has been so huge.

And now all of a sudden you're probably using cold and Sizzins a little more than you want to. We've seen them very reluctant to use Tomas Hurtle at 515 at all in this series, which has been a bit strange to me. And so I'm not sure what Tororella is going to do with that line and whether we're just going to see them right out of the gate in game five in game six but um they certainly use them quite a bit more here and despite not having the goals i thought it was a pretty encouraging performance from them yeah i thought it was a good start but as they got into like the doldrums of the game i thought they struggled like i thought ikel had kind of a frustrating game in the second period he was getting

knocked he was getting knocked out of the playoff the rush all the time marner wasn't really that involved at all like because ikel always wanted the puck on his stick marner Hett didn't have a lot of entries, and if he did have an entry, it was a dump-in. And there is one in the second period where Ikel got a chance off a turnover, and Marner was in the neutral zone. Ikel missed the net on the shot,

and there wasn't really like a passing option for him at all right there. So, but I know Torderella's been pretty encouraged about their play, though, especially with Ikels. He thinks, like, the dam is about to break from him soon. And I thought it was going to happen in this game in the first period, but they just had the one power play goal. And a couple of close calls after that,

the blocked chance by Stone was the one I thought Carolina was going to be in the most trouble on. But after that, I thought he might have tried to put Mariner back with Houghton because that would probably put him out against the hall, the stank of an line a little more. And while that lines been good offensively, they've been getting burned on playing end-to-n hockey a lot

and getting caught on bad line changes. getting caught but not keeping pucks in the offensive zone and martyrs caught marters been able to catch them going the other way a few times but a lot of that is having Carlson too is Carlson has been such a good reliable outlet player just hitting guys in stride coming out of the zone and I don't know how you replace that like I like Colts and Sissons very also very reliable player but he doesn't really have like the skill that's that Wild Bill does so I want to see if like what I don't like about loading

up the top line is like it makes it easier for the hurricanes just to send stall out against them and just neutralize and turn everything into just like a stale made mud show whereas like you put him you put marner with howden that puts him out against ahho and potentially against stank open a little more in the plays but a little more open in those sequences although i did think ah ho aho has been playing a lot better defensively these last two games he's been disruptive especially off of like failed offensive sequences like offense has been really tough to come by for Aho, but he's been so good and just playing so hard

on the back check that he's kind of like making up for it there. So I do want to see if I'll be interested to see like what Tortorilla does there. Because like I thought the top line had a good start, good moments, but as the game settled in, Carolina kind of figured out what to do

against them. And I thought like it kind of just neutralized Marner's impacts by being like more of a secondary, like more of a secondary player rather than the that's like leading the charge. Yeah, well, then Carlson is such a good player.

I've talked so much this postseason about how like he's very near the top of my list of guys who really turn up in the postseason and just elevate their game and are so reliable for all the things that you mentioned. He's been particularly good in this series at kind of forcing some of those changes of possession high in the defensive zone near the blue line and then quickly out letting it to a Houghton, for example and all of a sudden they're cooking in transition and have a numbers advantage and so that's going to be a big loss there they're up nine four in carlson's five on five minutes in the series but five one specifically in the stank oven matchup as you mentioned and not having him available will

potentially free up stank open hall and blake to be even more dynamic at five one five heading into this game six it's it's a shame as well um because i was thinking you know at some point in this game like I think partly why I'm enjoying this series so much is I've generally it's a tradition come to Stanley Cup final that both teams are so banged up and a bunch of key guys are missing or you know there's shells of themselves physically and you don't get to see the best versions of the two best teams in the league and relatively speaking both sides were pretty healthy throughout this series I know that you know McNabb takes that shot to the face and misses a good chunk of game two Hanifin gets hurt in game three William Carey. I mean a bunch of game three as well. And I'm sure guys like Jarvis and Eichael, for example, part of their lack of efficiency offensively is probably going to be explained by some sort of a injury that's revealed after this series. But for the most part,

everyone's been available in both teams have all of their top guys playing. And so that's been really fun. And now all of a sudden you remove a player of Carlson's caliber. And that certainly takes a hit. I did like what I saw from Howden playing with Barbishev, for example. I thought they created a lot of disruptions and good looks in this game. I mean, Howden had another couple close calls off the rush, and it seems like every shot he takes in this series is a high danger chance.

I can't really recall anything like it. Maybe Sam Bennett in last year's Stanley Cup final. Tomash Hurdle only plays 845 5-1-5 of this game, which was a minute and a half less than Keegan Colossar by comparison. And I know they use Hurdle on the top power play. He's out there with the net empty. So his all situations minutes wind up working their way up the leaderboard a little bit. But it's kind of been a trend for a while now, and especially in this series where he's played so little at even strength.

And I'm curious to see whether without Carlson available, they just ramp that up a little bit in game six because I think he's been fine. I mean, he was great in game one. And he's had moments, but they just haven't really leaned on him to the level that we'd expect from a player like Tomasher. and maybe that's going to be an option for them and potentially if they're going to use Marner on the top line have him centering the second line instead of Sizzins but they haven't really shown a willingness to do that so far in the series. Yeah, last game I was like surprised

just how little I saw or even noticed Hurtle and it's just because he wasn't on the ice. And I thought and like, and yeah, he'd be the guy to promote like in Carlson's injury. He'd be like the perfect guy to promote up to that second line even if you want to put a marner there like the two of them could definitely

like figure something out together like for just like a game or two you'd figure because like hurdle the thing with him this series is that his line has gotten hemmed in but when he's gotten like an offensive zone shift it's been dangerous like he's always

loose in front of the net he's loose in front of the slot that shot is still lethal stone found him for the game winner in the first game so it's like the game breaking ability that you need is still there from him And then he just, either he's injured or there's something that, like, that I miss the torts saw is like, vengeful.

Yeah, I'm not sure. It's been going on for a while now, though. Even date back to the, uh, the Ave series. Corey, let's take our break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back in and go through the rest of our game five notes for the Stanley Cup final. You're listening to the Hockey Pedyocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here in the Hockeypedeo cast, joined by Corey Schneider.

We're talking Stanley Cup final. And last night's game five, in particular, I'm going to keep working through my notes here on standout players and performances that really caught my eye. I thought Shane Gosses-Ber was awesome in this game. And, you know, he's up to six points in the series. He's been such a key member of this power play that scored another two goals with a man advantage in game five. You said they're at six for the series. I actually count them as seven because that Blake goal in game four really is.

I mean, it was 5 on 4 in terms of who was on the ice. But regardless, an explosion for them, not only compared to their previous struggles this postseason, but just for any team facing this Golden Knights, PK. And Gosses Spears has done so much fun stuff atop that umbrella. Like, very simple and smart stuff. Nothing crazy in terms of, like, making guys miss and skating around Michael McCar, or, you know, hammering shots with high velocity. But he's got a willingness to shoot.

he's getting the pucks through and that's led to a couple goals for stall in front. He's distributing it. And I think most importantly, just kind of manipulating the defensive structure with these little head fakes and stuff where there's a level of unpredictability, whether he's going to bump it over to Jarvis or whether he's going to work it to the other side like he did for Svetnikov's goal. And so I think he's opening up a lot there for them and probably the biggest reason why this power play has been so as efficient as it's been in the series.

Yeah, it's interesting. like the powerplay was so bad the first few rounds and brenda more never changed like that unit he kept goss despair up top the entire time while some people were calling for nukitian to go on that unit just for the big shot or even like miller up there just because he was doing some good work on the second powerplay unit but goss despair is just his deception how good he is it kind of reading things from up high just makes him like irreplaceable in the top power play and uh i thought and yeah i thought he had a really, it was really big on the, on the two one goal where, um, where he kind of tricked the defenders into thinking he's going back to Jarvis for the one time or, and all a sudden there's a ton of space for Spetschnikov to just kind of get open for a shot there. He didn't like completely step into it. It went along the ice and beat heart, but still like a ton of space there. And Spesnikov desperately needed that one to go in because he was having a,

he had a, he was having a tough power play up into that. He fanned on one. one of those shots and like he missed on a pass like right before that goal too. And then like it was funny because, uh, Ferraro and McDonough on ESPN were kind of just, we're kind of like commenting on that. They were like, man,

nothing is going right for him right now. And then like 10 seconds later he scores. I mean, listen, I'm not proud to admit it, but as I'm making my notes while watching these games, I did have a note. I was like,

why is Svetnikov still such a featured member of this power boy? Because of how inefficient it had been. and then all of a sudden he scores that goal and you're right. It was a huge one for him and he gets the second one in the third period. On that 4-1 goal, I'll also add Gossis Bear in the sequence leading up to it makes a really nice little kind of fake drop pass to shed Marner in the neutral zone and it is able to carry the puck in, which ultimately sets the table for that goal. And then defensively, I thought he made two monster plays in this game.

In the second period, there's a sequence where Marner kind of like very niftily kicking. the puck to himself coming off the wall and he's attacking the middle of the ice and if he gets by gossus bear on that play it's a two on oh with him and ikel versus bussy and gossus bear lays out and strips him cleanly and alleviates the pressure and then early in the third period i believe it was nick dowd who had kind of like an inspired rush and theodore is wide open in front of the net and gossus bear jumps in the lane and cuts it off before it gets there and so um it was a huge game for him and those were both very consequential defensive plays he made. And then I thought, speaking of Kane's defenseman,

Sean Walker was a monster in this game. And I thought he had a really strong game four as well, after some shaky moments earlier in the series for that pair. But his physicality and, you know, he winds up laying the hit and crunching William Carlson along the boards, which winds up hurting Carlson. But beyond that, in the first period,

he just detonates Howden as he's kind of, of trying to fish a puck out of his skates shortly after the one-nothing goal barbachev has a rush down the left wing and he separates him from the puck before he's able to get a shot off and i believe he kind of cut off a three on two for that Vegas top line at one point as well with a well-play stick and so i thought sean walker was awesome in this game and um was really kind of just throwing the body around and making a huge impact by doing so yeah walker is if if walker was like three inches taller, he would be making like $8 million right now just with how, with how he plays.

But he's an excellent skater, excellent puck mover, physical as hell, really could have just using his shoulders to just like knock defense in the way or knock forwards away from the puck. And he's had a lot of really good, really good plays off exits too. Like in this game, he set up, uh, he set up the sequence that led to one of the goals with like a really good exit from the middle of the ice. And he's, I would say he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, he's like, the most underappreciated member of this defense group right now.

And Gostasfarer, he's, like, he still plays that sheltered role, but when he has to defend, like, he's been, he's been lights out just when he has to make, like, a make-or-break play on the puck. And I think he probably, like, a lot of things, like, we don't really talk about are kind of making chances less dangerous. It's like you give up a scoring chance, but maybe it's, like, maybe it's a shot that has, like, three percent of going in as compared to 10 just from laying out and blocking out the passing lane. That's what Goss Despair's gotten really good at.

He's gotten really good, just laying out to deny passes like that. And you would take that, you would easily take just Nick Dow, rain into your goaltender trying to jam the puck in, as opposed to theater getting a one-timer. But those, like, smaller guys have been, they've really stepped up as the series has gone on. Like, and Walker, like, I was kind of on Walker in game four because he had that horrible shot that led to the,

that led to the Howden goal on the counter. attack. But the rest of the game, he absolutely stepped up. He was the most physical defenseman in that game. And they needed somebody to just like start getting in the face of just Howden and Marner with how much they were dancing all over the ice. He also had the pass to Aho at the end of the second period to set up the 3-1 goal. And, you know, Martinuk wins that battle down low against Theodore to retrieve the dump in and then misses the pass to Svechnikov in front, which I think is a perfect encapsulation of the Jordan Martinuk. experience in terms of effort for skill, but it winds up coming to Walker and he quickly reads

Aho coming off the bench and sends him a nice pass as opposed to forcing a lower percentage shot from distance. And I thought that really unlocked that play as well. Do you want to talk about the goalies a little bit? Because we've only mentioned Brennan Bussie in passing. But I thought he was excellent in this game. You know, it gives up the early goal to Dorofiev, which you certainly can't blame him for, given the degree of difficulty on it. And he made a pretty, good effort to at least try and come across on it. He's up to 59 of 65 for the series and a 908% in this series is the equivalent of prime Dominic Hachek at this point. I thought he had some really important sequences after that 1-0 goal. Vegas stacked together some chances when Carolina really

had nothing going at the other end and he kept it at 1-0. That power play Vegas had at the start of the second period. He made a number of big stops. And then the first couple minutes of the third period, there were a couple tricky ones in front that he was able to absorb from Howden and Sizzins. And I think you can kind of see the perks of why he's probably the most interesting option they had in it for this series

stylistically because of that size, like how he's able to sort of just absorb some of those tricky tips and redirections in front, but just in general against some of Vegas' best shooters, taken away so much of the net. Like Eichl had a chance down low on the power play in the second period, and there was just nothing to shoot at because he's such a massive human being, but he just took away the net,

and it just kind of got shot directly into the logo. And so the numbers aren't necessarily amazing at the end of the day, and there were some shaky rebounds as they were closing out the game, but ultimately I thought it was a huge performance and clearly a much-needed one, and it's becoming quite a story now since he's coming into the series. Yeah, what they needed, he's given them what they needed,

which is like when the defense messes up, they need somebody to bail them out and he's doing that. And Bussie, he's oddly good at these like saves that looks like he has no business making, but he makes them look pretty routine. Like,

and the deflection plays, those were the two, those were the two ones I thought were like the biggest saves. Like, because if the, if Vegas gets like a couple early, we've seen how this series goes. And that one where Sisson's kind of tipped it up in the air.

And Busty kind of had to like turn his hand around to make the save and like get himself more, let's give himself more room to just corral the puck. That one I thought was super underrated. Howden was in a loan on another one. And being able to like stop it and cover it there is also huge because that's where Anderson I thought was really struggling. Because Anderson made a lot of initial saves, but he would do weird things like blocker the puck right to the defenseman in front, not cover it.

And then there's a loose puck. a goal. And this, I thought Bussie's done a better job just killing the play dead when, when he's had the chance to. And like, he's not, I mean, he's not like perfect. Like, there are some goals that get by him that kind of leave me shaking my head sometimes. But like, he's been what the team has needed so far. And also like Anderson, like this is, I know the thing with Anderson, a lot of people like him, but like this is the most he has played, like, consecutively in a really, really long time. Because like between the blood clot issues a couple of years ago,

last year he wasn't really the full-time starter because Coachukoff was there. And this year, he has kind of been splitting the net with Bussie and it's kind of been going back and forth. This is the most he has played and he's got to be exhausted. I mean, the standards for goaltending in this series, the bar is on the floor. In my opinion, like at the other end, Carter Hart's given up four goals again. in every game in this series and Tortoril

after the game gets asked about whether he consider Aiden Hill in Game 6 and he was just incredulous at the notion of that which I find bizarre at this point despite the fact that Hill was really, really bad. This season or tough look for Aiden Hill

I imagine hearing that that clip as well where it's like the most egregious thing you've ever heard suggesting that Hill might play in this series but I guess Hill going to be fine, ultimately, considering he made $8.4 million this year and his owed $8 million next year and set up for life. So it's not the end of the world for Aden Hill, but still, a bitter pill to swallow, I think, watching that at post conference.

Like, I'm surprised we haven't seen him at all, like all playoffs, like in the Utah series. I thought he might get a game there. It's, I've never seen like a cup winning goal league just like this, like flat out disrespect and just hung out to dry. It's like, this dude won a cup three years ago, right? With like a. 930 plus say a percentage now behind an amazing defensive team but yeah he was really bad this season so I get it

from that perspective but I think Hart's been really bad in this series like a lot of the goals the hurricanes have scored have certainly been chances and you know some backdoor stuff in this game but I really want to get into this even further with you because it's probably the biggest point

of contention for me in this series and I cannot believe how little discourse I've seen about it like he makes 20 saves in this game going through the play-by-play data seven of them were just outright dumpins from outside the zone that were not even shot attempts by the hurricanes and that is now 25 of the 119 saves he's been credited with in this series that have been dumpins and that's over 20% of his total and if you remove that and just count actual shots the hurricanes are trying to score on they're scoring on like 18% of their opportunities,

which is crazy. And it's a testament to some of the strides, the hurricanes have made offensively, but I think the goaltending is just hop and good. Yeah, I'm surprised that the hurricanes arena is trying to juice the opposing goal. You say percentage like that, usually is the other way around.

But anything, my read on this is like anything that's remotely dangerous from Carolina is a goal. And that's like pretty much that pretty much has never happened with this team. But like anything that they get that's like remotely resembles a scoring chance is going in. And like Hart has just been, he's been rotten in this series. And this is like the main reason Caroline's got the advantage because like they, they make the goalie switch.

Bussie is keeping Bussie has a big game to like keep them getting out of hand early and keeping him in the game. Meanwhile, Hart, a deflection just beats him. A shot along the ice beats him with a minor screen in front gets by him. And it's just like, they can't, they, he can't like, bail this team out at all right now.

There is, I think only, really only in game one towards the end is where I thought Hart like was, like was not the problem. But like the rest of the way he's just been like, like I said, it's not like he's giving up a, I mean, he is giving up a ton of goals. Like he's given up four plus in each game. but the hurricanes are getting a lot of shots either. It's just anything that's a scoring chance is finding the back of the net against him.

And it's like, and I understand, like, I get towards not wanting to, like, you didn't pull your goalie and somebody asks you, hey, why did you keep your goaling? You're going to say, yeah, he's stunk. Like, I, like, I understood not playing his hand or whatever, but at the same time, it's like we're all watching the same game here. I thought the special goal was bad. Like, I get that there's a screen and there's an element of support. prize. It didn't leave the ice. But it looked like every goal on like any 80s highlight pack

you watch, like every single Wayne Gretzky highlight where the puck is just along the ice. And it's just going right under a goalie who's standing up. That was essentially what this goal was. And we just don't see those scored in the NHL in 2026. And I thought that was a really bad one. And obviously a huge one in the context of this game, because I know that it technically is. isn't the game winning goal because the Golden Knights score a second goal in the third period, but really did feel like the point of no return in this one. And, you know, for the hurricane's purposes, it was a massive goal because it gets Fetchnikov going a little bit. He scores after as well.

Aho scores the goal at the end of the second period. And, you know, that gives them three goals combined in this game alone after having one in just the first four games to show for their work. And so I imagine that'll help their cause heading into game six. So that was a massive one. And I think for the hurricanes, getting those guys going a little bit because that had been such a developing storyline. And I know a lot of it still comes on the power play. So it doesn't answer the five on five question, but is still a huge building block, I think, for game six.

Yeah, like this game was all about just things happening, things going right at the right time for them too. Because even on that, even on the Aho goal, that was a broken line because it was a defensive zone. It was a defensive zone shift. Stahl was out there with Martin Nuk and Speschnikov and Marner and Hounder on the other side. They're kind of creating a little give and go off like a rush that turned into a cycle. Speshenikov makes a really good back check on Marner

and makes the shot a little more difficult. It gets broken up, out of the zone it goes. And they dump the puck in, but Stahl goes off and Ajo comes off the bench on March, and that's how the goal happens. So, like, things are just kind of falling into place for them at the right time and the team is just taking the team's best players are like taking advantage of these moments. I thought the Aho goal was excellent execution by everyone involved, like especially

Ajo kind of jumping on the ice and crashing towards the net and Walker finding him and then the skill level to essentially in one motion with no waste of time go skate to stick and then lift it the way he did. But even that one, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as like bar down with him roofing it like he just elevated it somewhat which ultimately was was enough but it wasn't like he picked a corner either and I do think the hurricanes have had a lot of success in this series anytime there's any sort of lateral movement and it's been a huge part of the equation like I think hearts looked very clunky getting across on a lot of these shots and that's why I find it especially baffling I'm not sure if the ESPN broadcast has been doing this but the sports net call um there were a couple

sequences early in this game, right, where there was a two-on-one for Hall and Keandre Miller that kind of gets fumbled and doesn't lead to a shot from Miller. There was a sequence in the second period where Stahl brings it out front and he kind of tries to force a pass to Yelers and it winds up being broken up instead of getting it on net and the broadcast is calling it out as that's just one too many passes. You need to kind of put it towards the net and see what happens. And not only is that a fundamental misunderstanding of how hockey's played in 2026, but also just for this series specifically, the hurricanes have had all their success anytime that pass is completed.

And it's such a positive EV play for them. And at this point, I feel like broadcasters or anyone talking about hockey needs a shock caller. And any time they think about saying that's won too many passes, it just needs to zap them because there's no such thing in my opinion. Yeah. Like to me, just look at the Howden goal from game four because like Walker takes a walker just shoots it for the sake of it. It misses the net. Puck doesn't get caught in boom. It goes the other way. Whereas like in the first period in game one like, uh, Ferraro was a little critical,

especially of special coffee. He had a chance to shoot the puck. He pulled up instead. And there was another one. There was a Jarvis one where he forced it to middle. Yeah, he went to Chathfield. That was a good chance. Like his chatfield wired that. And, um, and, uh, somebody, it was Hall. He tried to get it to Miller who would have had a tap and if he made that pass. So, like they're going for these high danger, high percentage plays, but like they're very difficult to make. And like it's not, like, it hasn't like

ultimately like cost them or done them in this series. In fact, like, it, when they've completed the past, it's made off. It's, uh, it's definitely paid off in the end. But it's been interesting to watch this as like, as like historically following the hurricanes. They're not a team that does this a lot.

Like they usually just, they're always, they're always getting the puck to the net game to the net quickly. And that's only been like, would say about 20% of their game this series. Like there's like a couple of moments where they were doing that in game one. But that's also why the shot total has been so low, like by comparison, why they're going like these very prolonged stretches without scoring chances, which like is a little alarming.

But like you kind of watch how the game plays out a little bit. And it's like, okay, it's not that big of a deal. Like you like to see them execute a little better. And their Vegas is making them look silly, made them look silly a couple of times. But still, you can kind of see like what the process is behind it at least at least what they're trying to do like even in this game like during they had a rough first 15 minutes or so and they finished the game the end of the game is a bit of a scramble but like during the middle section they didn't create they didn't really create any scoring chances they didn't allow much either so like they kind of brought the game to like a calmish pace core you're telling me that both teams are passing up low percentage shots to try to create higher percentage ones and their average average. averaging four goals per game in the process.

I can't believe that. Yeah, it's weird. Yeah, there are the couple big swings in this game, in my opinion. You mentioned kind of where things were at around the midway point, and you get that sequence with the back-to-back penalties drawn by Stankov and Blake, where both guys just essentially keep moving their feet and are so incredibly annoying to play against that bigger defenders just rough them up a little bit and get called for penalties. and ultimately the hurricanes convert on the second one.

But I think at that point, they were stuck at three scoring chances in the first 30 minutes of this game the hurricanes were. And then the power play got going after those two opportunities. So I thought that was a big swing. And then the second period, the hurricanes finally bucking the trend from the first four games that we talked about a lot where goals were 9-1 Vegas

in the first four second periods. And it was 2-0 in this game. And I thought that was obviously very huge. And then the final numbers are skewed a little bit, I think, by that late game surge and score effects from the Golden Knights, because the chances were pretty even by my count up until the 4-1 goal. And then from that point, it was all Golden Knights. And they score the second goal. They get some really good looks, I thought, to draw it to within a one-goal game, particularly that hurdle sequence in front on the power play where he tips a theater shot and then gets the rebound and bus he's able to stop it. but the damage was limited there,

but that kind of leads to some pretty skewed final numbers in the Golden Knights favor, where I think if you watch this game for the first, you know, two thirds of it, it was pretty low event generally and relatively evenly played. Maybe the Golden Knights had the edge of 515, but the Hurricanes power play opportunities kind of evened it out.

Yeah, like to me, it's been a game where it's like each team's kind of traded five, 10 minute sequences where they control things, which has been really interesting to, watch, but it's like I said in the last podcast. This is a true best on best. Like each team is going to trade, like they're not going to go back and forth and trade chances, but they're going to just exchange sequences where they both have

control. And it's really about who survives it last. And Carolina did well to generate the three goal cushion and kind of coast the rest of the way. Even then that's not safe to do in this series as we saw in every other game. Because like I don't know about you. I was like fully expecting this one to go. overtime after Turafia scored.

I did think it was big. You know, on the theme of, we talked about Svetriqab and Ajo, getting going offensively and finally having some goals to show for their work, D'Refi scores both of the Golden Knights goals in this game, and he had a lot of opportunity in the first four, but just hadn't converted. And I believe his last goal had been game one of the West Final against the abs.

So I think finally scoring a couple is going to be huge, and particularly if they're going to be, loading up the top line like they're going to need drivers on some of the other middle six options. And he's been playing really well. And it's nice to see him get a couple goals here. So that could be huge if he builds off of that. And we've certainly seen him get really hot for stretches in this postseason where he stacks together two or three games at a time where he just scores multiple goals in each one. And I think they're going to need that.

But I'm curious if you got any kind of parting shots here on the way out, either whether it relates to this game or just kind of looking ahead to to what you're watching for in game six. Yeah, for game six, it's like, as like a Hurricanes fan, like, you're very encouraged and you're also concerned because like there's enough like, well, the way they pulled out this game was incredible. Like there's enough things that happened against them when you're like, okay, this could easily go sideways. Like if the first like 10 minutes, if the first 10 minutes of game 6 like go off script in any way,

shape or form like this could easily go like sideways. I felt that way after game fought or after game four because like especially with the defenseman like I thought like I wasn't sure how healthy any of the team's defensemen were after that game because they all looked slow sluggish at times couldn't change direction but then they settled in rewatching the game they definitely settled in and they definitely settled in they played a lot better than like I gave him credit for watching it live and in this game like there's still a lot of concerns in Vegas just. could not, Vegas just couldn't capitalize in a few other, and like if a few breaks went their way, this could be totally different game. So I'm interested to see just like how like the first 10 minutes go next game and how this team kind of handles this sort of moment because like this is the biggest, this is the biggest game any of these guys ever played in. Well, I'm interested to see the first 10 minutes and then the next 10 minutes and the one 10 minutes after that. And I feel like the the swings we've seen in this series are ultimately like the first 10 minutes are going to be important.

No doubt. But it's also a series that inspires a lot of confidence that regardless of how that goes for either team. There's probably going to be something else coming that's going to change the flow of the game. And that's what's made it so fun to watch. It's been so fun to have you on for these shows as well and turn this into a weekly tradition throughout this Stanley Cup final. I'll let you promote some stuff on the way out for the listeners to check out. Yeah, I'm going to have my recap and my review of this game. going to be posted on my substack tomorrow morning, most likely. And you can follow that at all three zones. That's substack.com.

You can follow me at shutdownline on Twitter. That's kind of my hub for everything. And there's a link to my website, all three zones there, if you want access to my microstat tracking project where you can get the stats from this game and every other game in the final, all sorts of fun information to dive into their stats

from the last seven seasons. But yeah, But yeah, I'm busy at work right now. It's been crazy time, but it's the best time of the year. It certainly has. Enjoy Game 6 on Sunday night. And it was a blast catching up with you and breaking this game down. And I recommend everyone checks out your work.

And along those lines as well, I put out a Patreon newsletter after Game 4 that I think still applies and is relevant to the series. So you could check that out by subscribing to the PDOCast Patreon. And it's a good time to do so because even after this series is done, we're going to have a lot of additional content coming i'm already in the lab preparing for the start of the off season and we're going to run a fun kind of team deep dive series uh laying out the blueprint for each of them in preparation for that so join us there and get access to all that extra content give us a five star review wherever you listen as well um it's always appreciated but i think especially so as we're trending towards the end of another season and that is all from us for today we'll be back here on monday

to talk about that game six thank you for listening to Hockey PEOCast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.