The Hockey PDOcast - The Oilers, the Bruins, and a Wild Weekend of Playoff Hockey

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Ryan Lambert joins Dimitri to talk about last night's Oilers comeback and takeaways from the first four games of their series against the Kings. Then Matt Porter hops on to look at how the Bruins have managed to take control against the Panthers after a shaky start to their series.This podcast is produced by Dominic Sramaty. 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. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filipovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitri Philipovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Ryan Lambert. R.L. What's going on, man? Oh, I'm hanging in there. Tired. You know?

A lot of hockey this weekend. The King's Oilers finished didn't revitalize you, provide you with a nice little shot in the armed energy to start this week? Not that, not with that shot going in. You know? Yeah, well, it was a really fun game. A peek behind the curtain in terms of like the PDO cast process. I messaged Ryan during the first intermission last night.

And the Oilers were down three nothing. And I was like, listen, we should get together tomorrow. I feel like there's going to be something for us to talk about here. Either the Oilers are going to do something extremely cool or extremely disappointing. But either way, something extreme is going to happen. And I feel like we need to talk about it. And I wound up being in the former, right? they come back, they win 5-4 and OT to tie the series at two.

And I think it was, there was a lot of hockey this weekend. It was the perfect cap for an unbelievable weekend of playoff hockey, though. So many overtimes, so many close finishes, so much drama, game being played at a high level, regardless of all the angst and frustration with officiating, which is all deserved. It's been horrible. But the postseason keeps going on. And there's a lot of fun stuff for us to talk about here. What a series has been, right?

Three of these four games we needed an extra time. it's been high event exciting action and i feel like these two teams you know we get to see them for a second straight year now they're both i think better they've added various players uh they've been healthier but it feels like they just they mesh so well stylistically it feels like the kings were almost like constructed to give this oilers team as much sort of difficulty and hell and frustration as they can and the oilers are just fully willing participants to engage them in these chaotic games and they get the best out of each other and they belong together and I hope they keep playing against each other for many years down the road.

Yeah, it's so funny, right? Because the point I made when I was watching that first period was basically like on all three goals or at least like the circumstances leading to them, a defender on the oilers who's not particularly great, let's say, gets targeted and exploited, right? You got De Haarnay gets absolutely smoked on, I think that was the first goal, right? And then the second goal is like right after a bad Cody C.C. penalty.

And then the third goal is Darnell Nurse just like, I don't know if they broke it down like this on the Canadian broadcast, but on the American broadcast. They're like, if you watch what he does, he's like trying to turn his hand over on top of his stick to like, I don't know, like try to hold back the guy he's covering, but the guy he's covering just reaches out

and pokes the puck away from him. And so he just kind of gets caught in no man's land. And go ahead. No, no, no, finish it. Sorry. No, I was going to say, like, all three. of those. It's like, yeah, Vinnie Day Arna is not a guy I want out there against like Victor

Arvinson and Cody C.C. is not a guy I generally want out there. And Darnell Nurse, like, has stuff that he's good at, but, you know, obvious deficiencies as well. And then, you know, all that doesn't matter because you can just put dry-sitle McDavid and Vander Cain out on one line for a period. And the game is completely different at the end of it. Yeah, there's a bit of a catch-22 for them with D-R-N-A where I get the logic of what he could bring to the table because the Kings have dominated them so far in this series in front of the net, like SportsNet ran this graphic about how both teams have been creating rebounds and then getting to them and capitalizing on them and the Kings have had a huge advantage

there in this series. So theoretically, a guy with Vinodier-D-R-N-A's size would help with that and his reach and all that, but he just can't keep up from a skating perspective with this Kings team, right, from lines one through four, they just have guys who come at you with max speed. And it's a nightmare matchup for him. With darn old nurse, he's played pretty well in the aggregate. But when he messes up, it's such a like a visible, obvious mistake. And it's, it's so infuriating.

And it generally leads to a goal against. He's been on the ice for nine of LA's 13 goals so far in the series. And I can't explain it. He almost like, he has no anticipation. or awareness in his own zone at times. It's like he's surprised that a guy just appeared out of nowhere and beat him to a spot and he lost that battle. Like when Mini Dejarnay messes up, right?

When Victor Arvinson does that spinnerama at the blue line and gets past him cleanly and scores, it's like, all right, well, Finney DeHen is an inferior player who just like cannot stick with Victor Arvetson, right? I can see why Victor Arvison beat him. And with a darn old nurse, it's like he has the physical ability to get there

and still he's just losing these battles and then it's winding up in the back of the Oilers net And that almost makes it even more frustrating. Yeah, for sure. You know, again, like, if you had said, hey, what's the oilers weakness here? It's defending. And then, yeah, you just, it's not that the kings, like, don't have firepower, but they certainly don't have the firepower.

The Oilers do. And yet, they're able to go kind of toe to toe with, or the kings are able to go toe to toe to with McDavid, and Dryden. sidle just because it's like, you know, we're a little deeper up front maybe and we, we can exploit the deficiencies on the blue line. To your point about the broadcast, though, for that Sportsnet was running for this game, they have Derek Lalonde on the intermission panels for some of these games,

Red Wings coach. And, you know, his delivery, I think, can be slightly dry at times. But I think the points he's making have actually blown me away with how insightful he's been. Like he was breaking down in the first intermission of how the Oilers got in trouble because they were sort of, they got into this weird like 2-21 for check almost where

they were sending two forwards high to chase the King's defenseman. And that's how on one of those goals, Sean Ders, he's just able to cleanly pass it up the ice to whatever it was Alex Lafalo, I think, that led to Gabriel Vilardi's first goal off the rush, right? And it's like, as a coach, this would drive me crazy because these sorts of set plays are the one thing

you can kind of control over the course of a game, game. And so to have this type of failure that's like unacceptable. And he had this whole bit about that. And I was like, wow, this is one of the most informative segments that I've seen on an NHL broadcast all season. Who knew that Derek Alon would be coming through with the kids. Yeah. And on the American broadcast, they were making cat noises at each other. So everybody's doing great. Yeah. To each their own. No, but I think what's so, what was so fun about this game is it was a bit of a reminder, right? Because hockey is generally positioned as like the ultimate team sport, right? And then you get into these situations, particularly in the playoffs and in

these close series where there's just still nothing more riveting than seeing a superstar decide to take over and kind of exert their will in a game and carry their team. And in this case, for the Oilers, that's sort of exactly what happened, right? They're backed into this corner where they need to push for offense. And almost in a weird way, that's kind of when they're at their absolute best or that's where they can hit their ceiling. It's, I'm sure. like Jay Woodcroft would not love for this to be a recurring thing where you're down 3-0 early and you have to play that way. But just watching it for us, it's so fun, right?

Like they decide, all right, we're not generating anything through three games, McDavid's lines getting outscored 3-0 at 5-15. In game three, the entire team gets held off the score should at even strength. And so in this game four, when they go down, they just decide, all right, you know what, screw it. We're putting McDavid-Joy settled together full-time at 5-15. They combined to generate three goals for them after having not played it. all together in the first three games. And so it was just cool sort of seeing that type of star power take over and outshine

everything else, even though the kings have all this depth and everything. That's sort of something that they don't have any answer for. But that's why the Oilers are so intriguing for us all because no one really does, right? Like who has, Triced Idol and McDavid putting them together when they're playing at that level, that's why it's so tantalizing and also why like so encouraging that they could do something special. Yeah, no. I mean, you just, you just, it's like the, uh, the, the, like prime dynasty or a golden state warriors where it's like sometimes we put the lineup of death out there in the game. So that's it. There's nothing else you can do about it. And to your point, like,

uh, I'm sure Woodcroft is, is not sitting there going, you know what I love is having to put these two guys together constantly. But like, if your team is going to go down 3-0 because you're not super confident in either of your goaltenders at the end of the day, well, there's one duo out there that can basically, not guaranteed, but, you know, maybe a 50-50 chance to get you back into a game you're down by three. And they just, you know, hop over the boards every, you know, one out of every three shifts. and the game is completely different.

It's awesome. Yeah. Well, they played less than two minutes at 5-15 together in the first three games. And in this one, I played 17 and created three goals, including the Hyman overtime winner. Yeah,

I just got back from Seattle myself where over the weekend I got to watch Crack and Avs game three in person. And my one take is that playoff hockey in person rocks. And it sure does. It was very cool. The Cracken, you know, to their credit, presentation, the rink, everything.

It was just all first class. They're definitely doing it right. But the game itself was fun because it was 3-1-Aves, then Crack and Tide at 3, it's in the third period. And then all of a sudden, exactly what we're talking about here, Nathan McKinnon just decides, all right, well, I'm Nathan McKinnon. You guys do not have a Nathan McKinnon. I'm just going to do whatever I want.

He just creates goals, does really cool stuff, dunks on them. And it's like, oh, yeah, this is awesome. Like, this is what it's all about. It's, that's kind of what separates the two teams, regardless of whatever depth advantage of crack and feel. they have when Nathan McKinnon plays to his full potential, they just have no equivalent or answer to that. And that's sort of a similar theme in this game, especially what we saw in game four of the series. But, you know, full credit to Phil De Noa, I want to say, because

I mentioned how in the first three games, McDavid with Audre Seidel hadn't been able to create a single goal at 5-15. Forty-one-half of those minutes that he's played have been head-to-head against DeNoe. And over the past two years now, 11 games. that these teams two teams have played against each other they've shared the ice for about 85 on five minutes and the oilers have scored just two goals in that time and so filled the no definitely you know sometimes these like playoff reputations can kind of get like really blown out of proportion right like you just have one good run or whatever or you get a bit lucky and then you become known as a as a playoff shutdown guy or a playoff or former or what have you and in this case it's just sustained year over year

every time filled the nose on the ice he's living up to that reputation he has as a defensive stopper yeah If they somehow eliminate the oilers in the next three games here, um, 100% he's winning the Selke deck season because everybody's just going to be like, well, he shut down McDavid. And then, you know,

like the Selke's all reputation based anyway. So someone will just be, uh, someone will just be like, oh, that's all I needed to see. I'll remember this for nine months from now or whatever, you know. Yeah.

Wow. good luck to anyone trying to take it from Patrice Bergeron for as long as he feels like he wants to have it. It's true. But you know what? So that matchup has been sort of the central focus of the series. But what's happened is because of that assignment, it's freed up Leandro Seidel, I think, to just run absolutely wild. And he's been, to my eye, the most impressive and dominant player so far in this first week of the NHO playoffs. He's got five goals, four assists in the four games.

He's been on the ice for all 14. Oilers goals so are. Unbelievable. What a stat. They've played 170 all situations, minutes without Dressital on the ice, and they haven't scored a single goal, which is just remarkable to think about.

And yeah, the primary matchup's been him versus Kopitar. They're up five, nothing in those minutes of five-on-five, out-shooting them, out-chancing them, everything. And that's also, you know, the series is still tied to, too, so technically it's in the same position it was in last year when the series wound up going seven. But the big difference for me watching these games

and why it feels like the Oilers are better positioned to win this series and they're playing better than I think they did last year at this time is just like Dreised out of how healthy he looks, how dominant he's been. He obviously was not at that level last year because he was hurt and just watching him sort of coast around the offensive zone, keeping a defender in his hip pocket, throwing passes off the backhand, just cycling it around, coming up the neutral zone against that one-three-one Kings four check and just beating it himself and weaving in and out of traffic. like it's been really fun to watch he's been the first week of the postseason like that's been

the big takeaway for me it's like man leondre siddle what a what a what a freaking player yeah i don't really have a lot to add to that he rocks you're right yes yeah bingo well here's okay here's what i'm curious to see them so there's a scheduling work with this series where they're playing game five in edmonton on tuesday night they play game six in l a on saturday night So they have three full days off between the two games. We would very rarely see that in the NHL postseason. And it feels like that would, in theory, benefit the Oilers, right? Like if you're going to lean on Dresnella McDavid and say,

all right, you guys should play somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes tonight, depending on how the game's going, it feels like it's more doable because you do have the rest time before game six as opposed to just completely emptying the tank and then having nothing left two days later. like it feels like that should that should theoretically benefit the Oilers in the series, right? Yeah, again, they were saying this on the American broadcast

when they were talking about, you know, it's a building availability thing for crypto.com arena where they were like, would you be shocked at all given that they have three days off between these games to see McDavid Dryside Leach go 30 minutes? Not me, you know? And that's just such a crazy, luxury that the that the oilers have that the kings don't like they have really good players but

there's nobody you're like well like it would be really helpful if we could get x to play 30 minutes for us you know and obviously with mac david and dry sidel being on the on the younger side the recovery is that is that much stronger and that kind of stuff so obviously yeah that that kind of all you know shifts at least my perception of game five in the oilers favor for sure Yeah. Is there anything else on the series that you think is interesting or has caught your eye, whether it's, I don't know, the goaltending, the debt. Yeah. Something on the Kings. Like seeing Fiala come back, I think, you know, watching Hayamaya Follow and Valardi together, they created a ton of chances. And that obviously is a big difference maker for the Kings and try to match some of this offensive star power that the Oilers have, right? Because Fiala, as you saw a couple times last night, like, he's capable of just taking the puck and creating something out of thin air with it. And so that certainly gives them a nice little shot in the arm there.

But I don't know. What will call your eye. Yeah, that definitely like getting Fiala back was so huge. Like obviously, but, you know, again, just like you said, seeing him and being able to say like, oh, right. Like you kind of forget what Kevin Fiala brings to the table a little bit. And then seeing him, you're like, right, he's awesome. That's true. I kind of forgot about that.

But yeah, I think we would be remiss to not mention the potential goaltending controversies brewing in Edmonton here. Right. Because, like, I didn't think Jack Campbell looked particularly good in that game. And yet, you can't argue with the results, you know? Like, he stopped all the shots and obviously Stuart Skinner didn't. And you wonder if, if, you know, if. the if you know there there's enough uh belief by woodcroft to to stick with the to stick

with the rookie that kind of got him this far because again campbell was like horrible this season you know yeah from well from a results perspective like he gives up the one goal only in in in whatever the two plus periods that he plays and he made a couple big saves there i believe like pretty much entirely on victor arvinson right a couple like where he was in alone and including a save the game in the third period. So he did all that. And on the broadcast, Elliot Freeman was making this point about how like,

it is, it's a tough spot because not only has Campbell not really had any game time in a while, but also in this game, it's like you take a couple shots at warm up or whatever, and then you're just sitting on the bench and then you come back out for the second period. And it's like, all right, we're putting you in there.

And then all of a sudden, the first shot he faces is like a rush opportunity for Marbittson. So it makes sense that he wouldn't be like saving the puck as cleanly, but with the backdrop of how much he struggled this year and then seeing like the rebounds that were in front of them after a lot of these shots and how it was just mad scrambles and they didn't wind up going in the Oilers net, but it's obviously not a spot you want to be in repeatedly. That would concern me about being like, all right, well, he saved this game for them.

Let's just go back to him in game five. I would still personally be leaning towards giving Stewart Skinner another shot. I tend to agree with that, but, you know, this is the NHL. Does that kind of decision get made every time? Not so much. but yeah obviously i don't have a lot of belief in what jack campbell's bringing to the table here so we'll see all right arl well that's all we got on this series uh i'm gonna let you go here because you're a busy man when we come back from break i'm gonna have matt porter join me to

talk about ruins panthers and the fun game four that they had in their own series last night um quickly let the listeners know where they can check you out and plug whatever you want uh yeah E.Rinkside.com. Got a lot of articles over there. I just wrote one this morning about, like, Dimitri said off the top, the officiating has not been good at all in these playoffs. And yet, I don't think there's a solution for it, right?

Like, I see people go, oh, call the rulebook or whatever. And it's like, oh, do you want like 15 power plays in a game? Because that's the only solution. And it makes the product stink and the game's three hours long. So that's also bad. And then the Puck Soup podcast. where I'll just say all the stuff I just said about officiating on Wednesday. Well, thank you for painting that bleak picture about the current state of officiating in the NHLP-up

season. RL, this is a blast. We'll have you on again soon. Good to catch up. Let's take our break here. You're listening to the Hockey-Pedio cast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. Your number one spot for Flames coverage can be found on Flames Talk with me, Pat Steinberg. Exclusive interviews, trusted insiders, and the latest news.

Listen live weekday afternoons at 4 or stream the Flames Talk podcast on. On demand. All right, we're back here on the Hockey PioCast, joined by my pal Matt Porter now to talk about Panthers Bruins. After a heated game four towards the end of which Linus Allmark finally had enough of Matthew Kichuk's post-puzzle shenanigans and tried to add a fighting major to his resume this season, Matt. It feels like this has been one of the big subplots of the series so far.

This Panthers Bruins series has become incredibly chippy and watching the Bruins kind of rise above it, you know, guys like Brad Marchand saying like, we don't get caught up in that stuff, you know, when it comes to Matthew could chuck and all of his antics. So it's, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, there's no better time of the year. Well, two of my keys heading into this series when I did my preview were, one, I was very curious to see how the Bruins would handle the aggression that the

panthers typically play with, right? Both in terms of the forecheck, how aggressively they get after it, how all the post-whistle shenanigans, they were clearly going to try to push the tempo and make it as chaotic as possible because in just a regularly played hockey game where the Bruins are in control and playing at their own preferred tempo, the Panthers clearly were going to be outmatched. So they had to try to kind of force them into this. And I was curious to see how the Bruins would handle that sort of game from like a keeping their composure perspective.

Right. And I think we saw them teeter a little bit when things went wrong towards the end of game too. That game was obviously already decided by that point. And they let out their frustrations a little bit. so it didn't necessarily affect the outcome of that game since it was already decided. And they kind of like compartmentalize it, right? It was like, that was that.

And then heading to Florida for games three and four, it wasn't really revisited. It was kind of like done and put in the past. And so I think they handled that test very well. But I was really curious to see how that would happen. And I think it's played out how the way I thought it would from that perspective. And as you mentioned, it's remarkable that for all to talk about Kachuk versus Marchand, like, what's going to happen in this series? after the whistles and all that, somehow through four games,

we're looking at a series where Brad Mershahn has taken zero penalties so far. Truly remarkable. Yeah, it's wild. And he's saying all the right things too. And this is a series where the Bruins are up three to one without Patrice Bergeron. He hasn't played a minute in this series. David Cretche, he's been out for this game, been the last game. And you have Brad Marshan kind of acting and sounding like the captain here.

I think the Bruins really took control of this series when they had that second period in game in game three where they allowed four shots and it was just there that was them finally getting to their game their defensive game you know from there it's really been them in control even though florida has really played well at five on five like florida's been out shooting them outchancing them at five on five um you know you saw an example of them kind of losing their their grip a little bit when pavosaka takes that penalty here in game four he takes three cross checks from ryan Longberg and gives him one back and it happens to be one to the face. Don't think there's anything supplemental coming from that.

Obviously, Panthers fans were apoplectic at seeing it. But the Panthers, you know, didn't score on the power play and life went on. And that's just basically been the way it's gone. I mean, the Panthers have had a lot of opportunities that they haven't been able to cash in on. And the Bruins have been, as usual, incredible on the penalty to kill. you know, even without Patrice Burstrand, it's been really remarkable. Their depth is showing, their composure is showing, and I had Bruins in five here, and it looks like I might be right.

Well, the other thing beyond the sort of like the post-level shenanigans and the composure perspective was I was very curious to see how this Bruins defense would handle Florida's forecheck, which was amongst the league leaders in terms of creating pressure during the regular season in terms of creating shots from that pressure. And I thought in particular in the first two games, it was worrisome to see how they were responding to that pressure for large stretches, right? Like there was, especially in game two, there were a couple notable examples where there were key turnovers that sort of left Linus Almark out to dry. And he gave up whatever, five or six goals in that game. And it was very uncharacteristic to see that type of total from him just because it like hadn't happened all regular season.

right we almost became spoiled by what type of ridiculous numbers he was posting and so if you hadn't watched that game and you just saw the box score then you'd be like whoa like where did this come from the laner song mark must not have played well and it certainly wasn't one of his best performances but also if you look at where those goals were coming from it was a lot of like all right the defenseman in front of them just created a gave up a turnover and now it was a two on one or a panther's forward was in alone like sam bennett and and they made a nice move and they scored and you can't really blame the goalie for that. They tightened that up quite a bit in games three and four.

I'm kind of curious if you've spoken to them about that and kind of what the thought process has been, whether there's been some sort of adjustment in terms of the breakout scheme or whether it's just been kind of like simplifying it or not trying to do too much. Because especially in a few of those occasions, I can remember whether it was an Orlov turnover or a Carlo one, it was kind of like trying to do a bit too much, throwing the puck up the middle of the ice. And that's where you can get yourself into trouble with the pressure the Panthers create. there hasn't been nearly as much of that in games three and four.

I think that's why the results have flipped and also this series has gone in the Bruins favor. Yeah, I mean, like uncharacteristic turnovers from guys that are normally pretty safe with the puck. Like Brandon Carlo just whiffs, like the Bennett goal you talked about, Brandon Carlo just whiffs on the breakout and just gave it right away. And Bennett makes a nice move and then Olmark makes the first save and then just kind of crashes in and scores the very Sam Bennett like goal.

And that kind of stuff happened in that game. And, you know, you can tell who didn't watch the game if they're blaming Lena's Hallmark, right? Because that's, that was not his fault, those six goals. There were five goals against. But, you know, in this game, like the game I just watched in game four, like, I just kept making mental notes to myself. Like, Hamas Linholm, there it is. Looks good. One-man breakout again.

You know, just taking the puck, beating the first four checker, just not at any risk to lose the puck or turn it over whatsoever. However, same thing with McAvoy. I think McAvoy really got into this series when he started playing more physical. That really seemed to kind of get him going. He was an absolute monster in game three, just hitting everything that moved. And I think the Bruins are, they're picking their spots with their physicality well. Like, they're taking the advantage to kind of, like I think tonight, I mean, the Stahl brothers were dumped each of them a couple times. You know, Brad Marchantor's reverse hit on Mark Stahl.

Eric Stahl gets upended a hit check. I forget who that was. Maybe it was Lynn or Macadoy. You hate to see it. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it's just, you know, the jokes write themselves, right, as we're here down here in Florida. But, you know, it's just if you talk to them, like, you know, they're not going to say, like, you know, hey, we made this adjustment or that adjustment. I mean, really, they just talk in the standard playoff generalities about getting back to our game.

playing to our identity and, you know, upping our intensity level and things like that. But there is some truth to it because you can see, you know, they were more engaged in game three. You know, they were more engaged, certainly in game four, while still remaining above the fray. I mean, Linus Allmark, I say above the fray, but of course, you know, we just watched Linus Allmark with his glove and blocker off,

ready to go with Matthew Kuchuk, taking a misconduct penalty, and being pulled, you know, not because he was kicked out, but being pulled because they didn't want, you know, him to be at risk for anything else that that was going to happen in that game and getting Jeremy Swam and, you know, a couple saves added to his record. So just, you know, I just see a team that just walked into this series knowing it was better than the Panthers and kind of seeing what the Panthers had, you know, they certainly saw their best.

in game two and now kind of realizing that they are better and they are playing their capability and like I said I mean I wouldn't expect anything but a win in game five I don't think they're going to make this a long series yeah and well and I think whatever they've unlocked here in terms of handling that pressure better and making fewer mistakes on the breakout and playing a cleaner game and getting back to the way they want to play is going to regardless of whether they play Toronto or Tampa Bay in round two right they both those teams similarly create a lot off of forecheck, generate pressure. And so that's going to be a key there as well. So, right? So it's not an isolated thing to just this one series, even though that was a particular strength for Florida

heading in, but it's something that's going to keep being tested. And I think they, they clearly have the personnel, especially now when you're looking at it, it's like, all right, at literally at all times, we're going to have at least one of McAvoy, Linholm or Orlob on the ice. You're going to have someone who can be a primary breakout guy. But obviously, any of those guys can still occasionally make a turnover, right, as we've seen from Orlob, as we've seen from Orlob, mentioned so but let's talk about orlov like not to criticize them because i think that that place stuck out in my mind is like an encapsulation of why things went so wrong for them when they did in this series and and and it sticks out from pretty much the rest of the season for them just because

those instances were so so few and far between because of how dominant they were throughout so i think that's why i keep coming back to it but as the series has gone along you've seen what orlov can do with the puck and what a prolific playmaker he is. And you and I did a full show on him and what he would bring to the table after the Bruins acquired him at the deadline. And even for my expectations, just seeing him in this system

and seeing him play with the players around him and how he's flourished offensively, it's been really cool to watch, right? He's got the five assists so far, three of them primary. Could easily have at least a couple more, just a countless number of just beautiful breakout passes

up the middle of the ice that sprung transition opportunities for the Bruins even if they didn't result in actual assist for him on the score sheet. And so it's just, it's, it's everything I wanted to see from him and then some and just the skill, the vision, the execution, the playmaking, all of it put together. What a player he is. Yeah, he's fantastic. And, you know, it's overall, it looks like, for the Bruins, it looks like it did in the regular season. Kind of, that's the impression that I'm, that I'm left with. I mean, they're back to their puck moving where they, they just find the open man. They just have that just extra half second

where they just look and they find a guy, whether it's in front of the net or up the ice. And, you know, Orloff, like the composure on that first goal in game three where, you know, there kind of things are getting sorted out. The Panthers kind of cleared the zone a little bit. You know, they're starting to go off for a change. And Orloff just, he's, you know, in the faceoff dot, at the faceoff dot in his own zone, it just looks up.

and just sees Hall kind of getting open. I don't know. I haven't seen, you know, whether Hall kind of like raises a stick or whatever or kind of what he saw in his path, but just fires a beautiful outlet pass, you know, past Mark Stall, you know, past Nick Felino. And Hall goes in and scores. And Hall as well, I mean, I know we're talking about Orloff, but, I mean, to see Hall kind of raise his game and play, you know,

better than he has in really quite some time, I mean, because he's at some droughts where he's not been able to finish. see him, you know, pull the puck close into his skates, use Montor's legs as a screen almost, and just fire it past Alex Lion's glove. You know, they learned that Lion, he's got a pretty leaky glove. And, you know, they wanted to test him in that game. And I think that's, you know, why we saw Sergey Brovsky tonight in game four. But see Hoggett going, is huge.

But Orloff with another really pretty pass to Jake Debrus just for a tap-in. I mean, Debrusk was saying after the game that, You know, he didn't see coming. He just wanted to get to the net and just had a stick down. And then all of a sudden there's the puck. And that's just kind of, you know, something that develops that quickly. I mean, not everybody can make that play or Lof obviously can. Haven't seen, like, the physicality maybe that I've seen from him in the past in Washington.

Like, you know, he's – and probably a good thing because he's gotten on the wrong side of it. You know, I think of the hit on Kevin Miller, you know, that basically ended in Kevin Miller's career, you know, really high hit. You know, he's not a killer. you know, probably just because, you know, McAvoy's been that guy, you know, and, you know, you're seeing Derek Forward finish a few guys along the board as well. But, you know, McAvoy's really been the physical guy in the back end for them. He's in total playoff mode talking to McAvoy right now. Like, he's just like one word answer is one sentence answers,

kind of saying everything is just playoff hockey. He doesn't want to get into any of the drama, you know, that we're asking about. You know, you know he and Kach have almost gone out at it a bunch of times, but, you know, he's not going to tell us about it. So, you know, but Orloff, I mean, the vision is spectacular. He's fun to watch as well because, you know, you don't know if he's going to cough the puck up. You don't know if he's going to throw a big hit. He's just kind of got all of those things.

I've been waiting to see him at least the big slapper, you know, and at one time he's gotten a few power play opportunities as well. So just a really super fun player to watch. Certainly. Well, it's funny. So far in this conversation, we talked about Orlob now. You brought up McAvoy. We talked about him.

And in very fitting fashion, the one Bruins defenseman that we haven't really spent any time on talking yet to just kind of flying under the radar yet again is Hampus Linholm, right? And not necessarily filling up the statute by any means, but you look at the job he's done against Sacha Barcov's line in this series. And I think that's a big reason why this series has gone in the direction it has, where Barkov has played 55 on five minutes so far in four games. zero points, three shots on goal total. He's been outscored 3-0 when his line has been on the ice and outshot 3,320.

And the primary matchup so far has been against Lynn Holmes pair. And when both of them are out there going head to head, the Bruins are out shooting the Panthers 19 to 5 at 5-1-5, which is just comical domination. And so I think that's been a huge story for me here. I think heading in, right, when I did my series preview, I didn't really have any inclination yet that Patrice Bergeron wasn't going to be playing in these games. And so we were sort of billing it as, oh, I'm really fascinated to see Barcoff's line versus Bergeron's line. It's two of the best two-way defensive centers in the league who's going to win that head to head. It's a great way.

It's kind of like a litmus test for Barka to see how he does in that. And Bergeron has not played in any of these games yet. And despite that, his line has been absolutely caved in. and, you know, Brahege and Kachuk have been holding up there in the bargain. But I think the fact that Barakov's been so ineffective, despite what you'd think would be a situation for him to really thrive, is a big reason why the Panthers are down 3-1 here and facing elimination. 100%.

I mean, they will, if you told me that Boston's top two centers were out, and it was going to be the combination of Charlie Coil and Pavlzaka, you know, trying to defend Sasha Barkoff, who's an all-world player. a massive dude like I stood next to him in the locker room the other day and I just you know I just looked at him I'm just like this dude is huge like I forgot how big he was

because I don't cover the Panthers day to day he's a very large man and obviously so was coiled so was Zaka but I mean to see them step up has been gigantic for the Bruins Zaka did a great job on Barkoff today it was a you know shot attempts at 5 on 5

or 7 to 2 with Barkov on the ice against Zaka, but actual shots on goal are one to one. This is basically, I don't know, I'd have to go back and look to see what got blocked and whatever, but yeah, you'll take that if you're going, certainly. Absolutely. If you can play him to, like if he gets a few chances,

I mean, to say, like, the fact that they're playing him to a draw or less is, I mean, it's kind of just game over, right? And it kind of makes you think, though, like as smart as Bergeron is with his positioning and his anticipation, obviously, his stick. I mean, just all of the, you know, the smart kind of remove the physicality from it. You know, Bergeron is obviously their best defensive center and, you know, is anyway. But Coil brings that element of physicality, I think back to his goal where he's just at the front of the net, out muscling, outworking Sasha Barkoff and gets that beautiful tip on there. It's just like that's the kind of stuff that he can bring to the table, showing that going forward, and they're going to need top six centers. And if you said, is Charlie Coil going to be the number one center for the Boston ruins going forward, you know, after Bergeron and Creachie leave, you know, I would say I don't know that they like that.

But, hey, if you have them playing the absolute height of their capability, him and Pavelsaka, you know, you have guys like David Posternock, Brad Marchand, I don't know if they're going to be able to resign Tyler Bertuzi or not. they want to certainly you know Jake de brusk etc then maybe you can still be an effective forward you know with those guys in the middle as long as they're playing those rugged 200 foot games with high intelligence and compete levels and all that yeah i mean you mentioned barkov's size and the combination of of skill with that frame and there's just especially with bergeron out there even though the bruin do have other guys they can throw on him there's really no excuse for him to have been pushed to the outside as much as he has in this series, right? Like he's gotten some opportunities, you know, mostly as a playmaker, but on the powerplay

now the Panthers power play has been an issue in the series, certainly from a conversion perspective, but they've gotten the looks, right? What worries me, like, it's one thing when you're, the puck's not going in, but you're, you're just buzzing around, you're creating chances, you're making things happen and it's just not going your way. What's much more worrisome is what's happened to Barkov in this series where he's coming in the offensive zone. It's all on the perimeter. It's kind of skating around one and done's, not like what we're used to seeing from him. And especially considering the matchup, I think,

it's been alarming. And I say that as someone who has been a massive fan of his game and has posted probably more clips of him doing cool stuff over the past couple years than anyone. Love his too. Yeah, it's, it's certainly not ideal to see, right? I don't know. He's their worst, Barkoff is by, you know, shots for and against. I mean, he's been out shot 33 to 20. That's the worst of any panther. I mean, that's, it's surprising. Very surprising. No, especially.

And, you know, for everything, you're watching today's broadcast. It was the TNT one doing it today. And they're talking about Matthew Kuchuk, and I believe it was after the suite through the leg's goal he scored, right? And they're like, Matthew Kachuk is known for his skill around the net amongst many other things. And I was like, what are those other things? His game is doing for. But he has certainly delivered, right?

Like when you watch what the Panthers have been able to do with him on the ice and him creating both goals, but also just dominating from a territorial perspective, the Panthers haven't had any issues there. If the other top six line for them was holding up there in the bargain, maybe this would be not certainly a more competitive series, but also potentially two, two, or even more so in the Panthers favor and the past two games in particular wouldn't have gone the way that they did. Do you want to talk quickly about Taylor Hall here? because I had a great weekend in Seattle, as I said, got to go see a Mariners game on Friday, got to go see the Crack and Avalanche game on Saturday. It was a phenomenal time. I had a blast. And for as good as my weekend was, I think Taylor Hall probably had an even better weekend

himself because you look at the two performances he just had stepping up for the Bruins when they needed it, particularly in game four, where it felt like every time he was on the ice, he was attacking downhill, creating some sort of a dangerous opportunity either for himself or a teammate off the rush. And it's not just the, you know, sometimes you see him still attacking off the rush, but it's a lot of, he kind of tries to go take the outside angle on the defender and then maybe takes a low percentage shot off the rush. That's not what's been happening here. He's specifically making a point of attacking the middle of the ice and that's created so many more passing lanes for him. I think that was a big reason why they were able to create that beautiful tic-tac toe passing play

for the DeBrus goal, as we mentioned. And so seeing him, produced this way and also just create on the move has been a big reason why the Bruins are up 3-1 and it's kind of cool to see him have this type of a postseason success yeah i mean his lateral mobility is something that when he has that he's got a little bit of wiggle to his game then he's so much more effective you saw it on the empty net goal like he uh i forget who was the last man back but one of the defenders i might have been goodus but he just kind of you know not the Ratko Gudis is a hard guy to step around, but it gets around, you know, beats, uh, beats, uh, foursling to the puck and, you know, just goes left right or right left on Bobrovsky and tucks

it home. I mean, that's, that's the put-away goal. You know, he just, he made that. That was a confident move. Poking the puck to get himself on the break, as you mentioned, and then the actual move he put on Bobrovsky, like, that's not. Sometimes you see Hall go, go on a breakway, and it's got to just like, he just, he just shoots it. And it's like, uh, I I feel like you're a more, you're a more skilled player than that. I feel like you could have done a bit more to threaten the goalie. And this is just like a world-class finish that he had on that one. Absolutely.

It goes to the, you know, or goes to the back end. And it just like goes, you know, it slubs off the end of a stick. I mean, you've seen that at a ton, saw that it's so much in Buffalo. You know, the meaningless, like he got going, you know, end of game two. You know, it looks like a meaningless goal. It's at the end, you know, it's a minute and 10 left. It makes it six three. But the pass.

You know, it's just like it goes in. It's kind of a nothing play, really. But I think for him to just see the puck go in, I mean, he just really hadn't scored in a while, hadn't really been a factor for a long time. And it comes out scores the first game, first goal of game three. You know, like we've said, a great shot, you know, just kind of caught lion by surprise,

showed the Bruins again that, you know, the lion can be beat and, you know, they're off and running. You know, today, two goals, two really nice secondary assists, you know, where like, you know, not the not these set up, but certainly put the setup in position. You know, I liked his,

uh, I liked his, his past to Nick Felino, you know, in, in the last game. I mean, he's just,

he goes wide, takes a defender wide and just uses his reach. Um, great and finished by Felino, obviously too. I mean, Felino, by the way,

has really stood out, you know, after after, after missing seven weeks with, uh, with his knee problem. Um, you know,

he's been quick. He's had some burst. He's good for two or three, like pretty good bursts, you know, up the ice per game. And he's got real quick hands. It's really great at like one quick move to spin off a defender, you know, catch a guy going the wrong way. And he showed his quick hands in that goal as well, finishing on Bobrovsky, what McBrovsky got in late in that game. So, I mean, these are these are critical plays, you know, back to Hall. I mean, these are critical plays by Hall. He should be making them based on his talent level. And you just kind of, it's been puzzling for a while now, and I know I'm not the only reporter covering an NHL team that has said this, you know, where you're like, where's Taylor Hall?

You know, why isn't he factor in the series or this, you know, stretch of games down the stretch when they're trying to get into the playoffs, et cetera, and so on. You know, he's been a huge factor in the last couple of games. And it's allowing Jim Montgomery to just kind of throw out whoever on the ice, really. I mean, because he's had to do that without burst around, without create sheet, try to find the right matchups. the road here. And, you know, he's got guys like Hall,

Coil, Zaka, De Brusk, go on down the line, not dominating their matchups, but certainly just making plays, making smart plays in the D-Zone and making plays up the ice. And it's making his job a lot easier. Yeah, certainly.

Okay, one final thing before we head out here. I do have to ask you about where our confidence level should be regarding Patrice Bergeron's health and what we should expect from him and when we should expect that. because I'm certainly not looking past the rest of this series like you seem to be, apparently. I know they're heading back to Boston. They should have the advantage.

They should close it out. This Panthers team we know is going to throw the kitchen sink at them and see what sticks. And I certainly think it'll be competitive at the very least. But acknowledging they're up 3-1, certainly the favorites to close this out for them to sort of realize their potential and extend that for a longer run beyond this, though, as good of a story as this has been putting up the numbers they have, scoring the goals they have without their top two centers in these most two recent games, certainly whether it's against the Leafs or Lightning around two,

they are going to need Patrice Bergeron and not only just play being on the ice, but playing at the level that he did this past season and has for so long, what should we expect from that? And kind of like, what are you hearing in terms of his availability and how the Bruins internally are feeling about it beyond the sort of, yeah, we're confident in our group

and we're taking it one day at a time. I actually want to let's peel back O'Ayer here and actually like they get to the heart of it. Sure. I thought the last comment, the last question was going to be about Martian's Mike Dubb comments. I don't know if you caught wind of those. No, I didn't. I didn't. What did he say? Oh, geez.

So he went on this thing after the game. So did you catch the hot mic that Cichuk, the stuff Cichick said about Thomas Nosec? Right, after that end of the game too, right? Yeah. Yeah. So obviously, you know, we can't say what he said on the air here, nor can we print them in the Boston Globe. But Marchand was asked about that tonight, you know, did Chuck cross the line? And Marchand spun it right back at my colleague, Kevin Paul DuPont, who was asking the question, saying that, you know, the NHL and the media outlets, the broadcast partners have crossed the line by allowing those microphones.

He called it very disrespectful to the NHL's broadcast agreement, like disrespect. to the players that that stuff gets out there, which is just, it's an interesting comment. I mean, this is Mr. TNT we're talking about, you know, the one of the best, always voted the best trash talker in the games, saying that there shouldn't be any mics at all, and that that stuff should be for the players' years only, which I don't know, man. I mean, that's a, that's a genie that you can't put back in the bottle, but I disagree strongly with that. And we just got an example of the entertainment value of it.

And it was during game three of the Leafs Lightning series, and I don't know if you've seen this one. But it was Luke Shen kind of the players are by the benches. And Luke Shen's talking and Brandon Hagel standing beside him. And I'm not sure if his comment was directed towards Patrick Maroon, who was behind Hagel or Tanner, you know, but he says like one of them is irrelevant. And then Brandon Higgles' reaction to that where it was like,

he just like, it was so like stunned and in disbelief. And it was a hilarious. moment of unintentional comedy. And I was like, yes, I love that. I want to see more of this. So I completely disagree with Bramarshan on this one. Leave it to the players to not know what's good for the game and what drive engagement, et cetera. But anyway, back to Bergeron.

You know, I'm not looking past the Panthers in the sense they won't be competitive. I just think the Bruins are better and they're going home and they're not going to let this opportunity slip. But that's just me make a prediction. but I would say Bergeron, you know, if he's, what Montgomery told us after the game, what he's saying publicly is that if Bergeron is healthy, he'll play and Creachie as well. And he thinks that Bergeron is ahead of Creachy and he's closer. He called him likely for game five. So if that is a chance for Bergeron to get his legs under him, you know, Bergeron wants to play.

I think that's pretty clear. You know, that was apparent in the last week of the season. he took four games off of their last eight before those last two. And then he played against Washington and Montreal in the last game of the season. Obviously Montreal, a very important game for him. He had family there, et cetera. He's near his career, you know, all of that stuff. You know, so he wants to get in there.

I just think they're trying to take as long a view of this as they can. They would love to rest him as possible. But maybe you were feeling a little bit of pressure from Bergeron to get in there. He wants to play. This is the playoffs. He wants to be there for his team. Beyond just texting assistant coach and former teammate Chris Kelly, X's and O stuff during the game like he's been doing from his couch in the Boston area.

I think that, you know, he probably is going to play. Certainly I would think, let's put it this way, I think he will definitely play the series if it goes beyond five games. I don't see why they would rest him. You know, he's, you know, arguably their best, they're maybe third best forward and their best center. But it's a tough spot to be in because I think the ideal scenario for them, whether Bergeron plays in Game 5 or not,

is just close it out and get that rest, right? And they want to watch Tampa and Toronto beat the hell out of each other for seven games and then, you know, walk into that series, fresh as humanly possible. You know, it is tough to get information. about what's ailing Bergeron. I'm not going to lie. It's like that that is very difficult,

but you know, you can kind of put two and two together. He's dealt with several upper body and lower body injuries. I'm thinking this is something. I'm not reporting this, but just reading the T leaves. It's kind of a groin situation, I would guess. He's dealt with that in the past.

He's had groin surgery. It was said by Montgomery to be something that he's dealt with in the past. It's the type of thing that, you know, rest. I don't know how much that's going to help him. But I think once he's on the ice, basically, you only have so many bullets, you know, with that kind of injury. So I think they're just trying to save him as much as they possibly can. But he wants to be there. They want him to be there.

They're just hoping that they don't have to use him. Okay. Well, hopefully he's back on the ice soon. And we'll certainly have you back on the show as opposed to season continues. That's all the time we have for today's show. We'll be back tomorrow with plenty more of the hockey. Ocadiocast, as always, streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.