The Hockey PDOcast - What We Saw in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Thomas Drance to break down everything they saw in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

dressing to the mean since 2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich, and joining me as my good buddy, Thomas Strands. Tom, what's going on, man? Not much, buddy. I'm excited about this one, actually. I thought that was a game that felt and looked a little bit closer to what I thought this series might.

You know, I had the Panthers coming in. I thought the Panthers might have the gas at 5-on-5 to do it somewhat. want quickly. And then, you know, after game one, I was like, oh, my goodness, at the end of the day, even if they kept the Oilers off the board, and even if I didn't think the Oilers dominated, quote unquote, the way the discourse suggested. Wait, did you see the deserve to win a meter, though? Yeah, I did. And then I... The bane of our existence. And, you know, I saw the individual game expected goals numbers, too. But, you know, at the end of that even if I didn't think the Panthers dominated the way that the conversation may be reflected,

I did think that McDavid and Bouchard, that top end of the Oilers lineup, was able to generate territorial control at a level that I didn't quite anticipate coming into the series. And then sort of game two unfolds and I think the Panthers ability to bottle the Oilers up in their own end, you know, really became the story of game two to the point. point where going into that third period one-one and i said it to you as we were watching i was just like this does not feel like a one-one game this feels like an inevitability for the florida panthers and as it turned out it was it was and i think we somewhat got our answer i don't think it's definitive by any means it's still early in the series but i think we left game one kind of posing this question of while the i think

the game in the aggregate to start the series certainly favored edmonton and was a bit surprising in that regard, that third period was kind of clinical by Florida and protecting the lead, right? They were kind of establishing that deep possession in the offensive zone and sort of cycling the puck and wearing Edmonton down and really didn't give them anything despite the fact that Edmonton was theoretically having score effects in their favor in game one. And right out of the gate in game two, we kind of got an extension or a continuation of that, right? So I think that's sort of somewhat answered our question of like whether Florida had kind of found their sea legs or maybe recalibrated to the demands that Edmonton requires you to play with.

And we saw a lot of that in game two. And that should be highly encouraging. It's tough to know ultimately, though, because we're going to get an extra off day here between games two and three, right, because of the travel back to Edmonton. Edmonton's going back home. That crowd has been electric all postseason. I imagine the role players, this is more of a talking point in basketball, right? Where we kind of like all analysis centers around how role players typically like hit

their shots and hit three pointers at a higher rate at home. because they're more comfortable with the crowd and like just the Great Williams game. The sight line and everything, right? And we don't talk about hockey as much that way, but it would make sense that a guy like Ryan McLeod or Warren Fogel or any sort of role player for Edmonton would theoretically perform better in front of that crowd with a bit extra juice to their skating stride in particular, right? So I think a lot of those guys kind of struggled in these two games, especially this game too,

where they got kind of taken advantage of by that Lundell line and we'll talk more about that. And so if those guys can kind of do a bit more of the heavy lifting or kind of holding up their end of the bargain, maybe this looks a little bit different for Edmonton. So I don't want to like definitively say that Florida kind of figured them out here. And this is how the series is going to look the rest of the way. I think we're going to get a lot of peaks and valleys here. But so far, game two in particular really sort of reinforced a lot of the sort of expectations we had heading in. Well, I would say this, though.

I think that there were parts of game one that felt like they were glossed over because of the shot totals that also looked like that, right? Especially late in the first period of game one, certainly the third period, where the Panthers were able to just exert control over where the game was played and bottle up the Oilers on the breakout to a dizzying degree, especially when their top pairs not on the ice. Right. And, you know, I do think, like, I agree with you, it's not necessarily a set dynamic where the Panthers Four check is just going to pressure and dominate and win this series at this point. You know, 2-0 is a nice advantage as the home team going into game three, but nothing's set

in stone. But I do think there's a risk that it continues, right? And I think that's sort of one that the Oilers need to be really cautious of because right now in this series, it does feel like without McDavid and Drysidal on the ice and without Bouchard Acombe on the ice, the oilers, the oilers, are really struggling to get moving. They're giving up a lot, right? I mean, they've been outshot 12 to 6 with their bottom six sediment on the ice to this

point in the series and outscored three to nothing, right? At the end of the day, at 5 on 5, like, it's been mostly a droughts, but at one goal series, the Oilers haven't scored, Panthers have won, it's been that Lundell factor. It's been at the Evan Rodriguez factor, it's been the Panthers role players that have been able to make the difference. So McLeod's going to need whatever boost he can get from the Moss pit. Like, no question. I think what the Panthers did defensively in this game is highly impressive. And we need to kind of start off with that, right? And kind of framing what happened in this game solely around that because Edmonton didn't get their first shot until

about 11 minutes in. And of course, in true hockey fashion, it wound up being a goal four-on-four Mattias-Eckone coming down. Right through Barrowski. Right through Barrowski. He should have had that one. They started the third period with seven total shots on goal through the first 40 minutes of At 5 on 5, natural statrick had them down for zero high danger attempts in about 37 minutes of play. They had them, natural statric had them for 1.07 expected goals, all situations for the game, which is about as low as you're going to see. And I had them down for seven scoring chances in the entire game. And what about 5 on 5? I think it was like 5 of them, 5 maybe.

Or 4. I counted even strength 5 and there was like the McDavid breakaway 4 on 4, the Echoam rush shot as well. So yeah, maybe there was probably like two or three probably. at 5-1-5, which is stunning. But for the game, the reason why I think that total of seven is just absolutely mind-blowing is because Edmonton had four power plays. They pulled their goalie with like six minutes left in the third period. And they're the Edmonton Oilers.

They have Connor McDavid on the Hyundai-Sidal, and they got held to single-digit's scoring chances. McDavid was contributed to five of them out of the seven, right? And so I think that sort of highlights exactly what we're talking about, where I wouldn't even include based on, and we're going to talk about Dry Seidel, I'm sure and the hit he he delivered on Barkov and kind of how he's played in these two games. But I wouldn't include it as like the Oilers have looked different when those guys are out on the ice. I'd say they've looked different when McDavid's been on the ice and then everyone else

because Drys-Sidal hasn't really shown up to this series yet either. The one of the biggest concerns for the Oilers should be how good McDavid has looked versus their inability to get results of any kind. I mean, they have one goal in the series. Yeah. And, you know, game two again, you have that powerplay sequence. Like, the Oilers PowerPlay is probably the thing that has hurt them in this series that we should be least worried about. I mean, how many times have they tended to post?

I mean, how many, you know, sitters have they missed? Like, the route for the Oilers to get back in the series is for the powerplay to go nuke a little in a way that we all know it's capable of, right? But the inability to get moving five-on-five, the inability for, honestly, like, just to generate quality looks, is this the Oilers, at least partially falling off a cliff offensively, I think is at least something worth asking? I don't think we can say definitively that we're there yet, but I do think that the Panthers defensive edge,

which we knew was going to be there coming into the series, even though the Oilers defense had been so marvelous throughout this postseason. You know, I do think that that's played. maybe not through all six periods, but for like five of the six periods that we've seen so far. No, it has certainly. And listen, I said the Oilers had seven scoring chances for the game. Evan Rodriguez contributed to six all on his own and nearly matched Edmonton's output entirely. And I think that's a good segue here for us.

I feels like we've sort of started these first seven minutes talking about the stuff. Edmonton didn't do. Maybe we should focus more a bit on what Florida did do in this game. and Evan Rodriguez scores the two goals, finally scores a power play goal against the Edmonton Oilers, vaunted PK as well. And he really had a terrific,

but it is, right? Like, what, they killed off 34 straight? And you and I were talking during this game because you were like, what are they doing to be so good? And I'm like, I mean, they're pressuring, right? And as you noted, like on the entries in particular, they're really not letting you like,

they're not, like, Florida's not really establishing ozone time at all, right? It's like, it seems like the puck goes in, the puck goes out, and you do it all over again. And so that's part of it. I think it's just pressure taking away time and space. It's very sort of like simple PK concepts. And I think, I mean, kudos to them because they've done a number on what, ever since the Canucks series, I think game three was the last time they gave up a power play goal against.

Well, and that Canucks game six performance where they had the double minor and it was like deflating, right? Like it took the whole building out of that game seven, the Oilers PK did. So the, yeah, well, and the. They didn't even get set up on the Rodriguez goal. They just scored her away. It was off the rush, yeah. No, I mean, it's funny because the special teams factor, like, it did feel when they, when Fogel got the major for kneeing Lusterinen, who thankfully was able to return, really bad hit, obviously. The way that the Oilers P.K. almost gave Edmonton like a relief.

Like, it was like a sigh of relief, given how that game. had been, that period had been unfolding for the Panthers five on five, you know, you felt like getting the man advantage was a disadvantage for the Panthers in that moment. And that's exactly how it turned out, you know, they give up a goal and they take a penalty. Well, so they didn't give up the shorty. They gave the goal four on four, right? Yes. Yeah.

So in any event, they take the penalty and give up a goal before that major penalties expired. And so in some ways, like for most of the night, special, teams had spotted the Oilers, a lead they probably didn't deserve on form. And then as the game got late, special teams dusted the Oilers, like put them out of it, put them to a point where the Panthers still had to defend, but didn't have to defend with that same level of urgency, right, where they weren't just one shot away from losing the game. So, you know, this is where, again, I do think, I do think the Panthers are mostly going to be

holding on in games three and four. They definitely have an opportunity to really put the Oilers on the ropes here. But, you know, that Oilers power play is coming. It's still the best unit in this series. Well, it is. And we should, like, you know, if you have a short memory, I think it was the first four games of the Western Final where they didn't score. And there was really nothing happening at Special Teams.

The only special teams goal was that, I believe, Mattias Yanark, short-handed goal in game four. And then they scored four goals in games five and six. And that ultimately wind up being the difference in that series. Now Florida, to their credit for all the talk about how Edmonton's been on this 34 straight power plays killed or whatever streak, I think Florida is at like 39 of 41 killed now, and that's against Edmonton in these two games, New York and sixth game, which was another top three unit, and then Boston, which wasn't as elite, but still in the top half of the league.

And so they're doing some wonderful stuff there as well. But I think your point is very astute there, and you watch that game too in particular. We were talking on the couch, like every single second. second at 5-on-5 felt like Florida was just in complete control, like, territorially, they were executing everything they wanted. And then it turned into a bit of a ref show. You know, some of the stuff was certainly warranted. Other stuff, I was like, I don't know.

I feel like that's kind of a bit tiki-tack and inconsistent with what you're letting go otherwise. And also kind of acts as a good rebuttal to people just wanting officials to call everything in the playoffs the way they might in the regular season. I'm all for like stuff that prevents a scoring chance or a potential opportunity. You have to, you have to, you know, stop that because it negated something potentially promising. I actually think they've been good about that for most of the playoffs. And then in this series.

In game two, some of the tiki-tack stuff, like, like little hooks or slashes here and there. And I was like, I don't know, I could do without that because you're completely, I mean, not only, it's just disrupting the rhythm of the game. Right? And I think that's what you see where it's like constant stops and starts, never really establishing flow. If it's not to the, like, if it's not dangerous, I did think, I did think the balance wasn't quite right. And then in game one, we saw some of those infractions that actually interfered with scoring chances almost like go uncalled because there have been previous penalties. That's sort of one of my biggest annoyances here. The, you know, people say the call the rule book thing.

But like, really one of the problems is it's like one team's been penalized twice. So then their infraction that negates a scoring chance goes. Yes. You know what I mean? Goes uncalled. It does feel like there's just some flow stuff. Game one was fine, but there was some flow stuff in game two that felt like the officiating got in the way. I mean, there's also roughly like 5,000 minor interference like pick plays that are happening for these games, right?

And so it's like, I don't know. Well, I just soapbox time for a second. This moment we're in for the league, right? Where the teams that have got here, the teams that got, frankly, to the conference final, the quality. of hockey is right now rewarding teams that play on the front foot. Like this is an offense first league suddenly. It's not a goalie league. It's not a fixed percentages league. It is a league where teams can sustain, you know, elevated shooting percentages and the stars seem to be making the biggest difference. You know, you're coming into game sevens throughout this

playoffs and it's and it's not like, well, is Ruslan Fedotenko going to, you know, like that sense that we've had before that it was like, which random third. lineer is going to score the deflection goal that wins it. Right. Instead, like, there's real skill. Like, the high-end skill is being decisive in these games. And I do think the league should be extraordinarily protective of that going forward because it's like the games evolving into a really interesting direction.

And I think when the game evolves in that direction and perhaps the flat cap ends at the same time, it's like I'm almost getting excited about what talking about hockey could be like for the next five years if the league is able to just nudge these things in the right directions, and at least as the cap is concerned, if we avoid, you know, the pestilence and currency fluctuations in the real world problems that tend to end periods of cap growth, I do worry that, like, pick plays interference. I do think that's, like, the biggest threat if it creeps in. And I hope the league takes a long, hard look at it.

Yeah, I just don't know how you really police it, especially in the postseason, because it's just, it's going on what I'm saying, where you'd like to think that if you, like, nip it in the butt early, like, players will adjust because they don't want to penalize their team. But then it goes down and then players adjusts. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to find ways around and work around. I still think making sure to call interference as much as possible.

And, you know, there's like pick plays in the offensive zone have been around for as long as. Yeah, especially high in the zone, like getting, getting guys open there. And I don't have a huge problem with those. The ones that I don't like are the ones like that there was an icing early in the first period where the Panthers defender didn't even try to skate back for the puck. Yeah, it was Montour, I believe. Yeah. Yeah, they just got right in the way of the Oilers forward. It's like, A, that shouldn't be an icing, and B, I don't want to see that.

Right. I want to see not like a race to the hash marks, but like I want to see defensemen under duress from four checkers. I don't want to see teams be able to block like they're like a defender going back for to key the breakout. That should be an exciting play. I want the player to be protected, you know, vis-a-vis all sorts of things. but I don't want them to be like going back and it's like an offensive line setting up to block a screen pass.

Yes. You know what I mean? Like that, that sucks. Well, the whole point of the new and improved icing calls is to protect the defensemen who's skating as hard as they can to beat the forward to the puck to prevent that sort of collision along the boards.

And if the defenseman's not even actually racing towards the puck but they're racing towards cutting off the forward, then it's like, I mean, that's just not an icing. No. That's a play on at the very least. Mentioned Evan Rodriguez there and the six scoring chances he contributed for in this game, which nearly matched. Sorry about my pick play.

Yeah, no, that was a wild digression. But that's good. That's what we do here. Nearly matched Edmonton in scoring chances, outscored them single-handedly two to one in this game. I just think his path is so cool, right? Because he has been, I think, sort of this, like, analytical darling for a while, right? Because he would just constantly post through the roof, 5-1-5 shares.

and I think anyone that sort of like watched him and then appreciated that even if the puck wasn't going in and that would sometimes frustrate either media members covering the team or the teams themselves. He was doing a lot of sort of like good connective tissue stuff and stuff like underneath the hood, right? His contracts the past couple years. So at first he gets traded twice. Then he doesn't get a qualifying offer. He goes back to Pittsburgh. One year, 700K. One year, one million.

One year, two million. And then finally this offseason gets the last. long-term deal from Florida and has been awesome for them and very like valuable in terms of basically being able to play anywhere in the top three lines and not really looking out of place either right sometimes we say like utility players who are actually third liners sometimes they play in a pinch on the second or first line you're like oh man this guy's so versatile he can play anywhere but he looks so out of place on the first line in this case it's like Evan Rodriguez is a complimentary player can play with barcov in the top line or he can play with lundel in the third line and look exactly

the same. Yeah. They can like go up and compliment skill players territorially or it looks fine, but then you look down and you're like, they've spent 30 games there and have six points. Yes. You know, like Rodriguez is at a different level than that. I felt like you were just shouting out Sam Lafferty there. I was shouting out Pew Souter. Oh, okay. Nice. To be totally honest. Yeah. Who's who's like, you know, a higher level. Yes. The. Yeah. Sam Lafferty is listening to like, man, come on. I'm trying hard.

He definitely is. So Rodriguez also was college teammates of Jack Eichler, right? And then, you know, the sabres sign them and unite the two. Yes. And then, of course, lose the two. And then in back-to-back years, just because God hates the sabres, they go off in the Stanley Cup final. Just in starring roles. We have to just take a second and, like, dig the knife.

I mean, the sabers are cool, but, like, that's the most sabers fact. of 2024. Well, I mean, Sam Reinhardt, Brandon Montour, like this Panthers team is essentially a Buffalo Sabres fan's nightmare watching them succeed. Oh, God. Painful. As I transition here from that,

Nicomikola scores that goal, right? And the sequence was absolutely hilarious because he nearly scores on Bobrovsky with like, well, would have been an unbelievable goal. It was like a spinnerama that he just fired on from the circle. And then comes back and scores the rush goal ESPN and shows the stat. where I think Panthers defensemen have four rush goals this postseason, which seems like a lot, and I think does lead the league. And it's like kind of a testament to how they allow their defensemen to get engaged in the rush

and how aggressive they are. I was making the joke to you where if you just took Nico Mikola and dropped him into the 80s, maybe even the 90s, but let's say the 80s just to be safe, I feel like everyone would just look at him as if he was like this like cyborg that was just dropped in from another planet, like this like six five defender who moves as well as he does. Like earlier in this game, he got a pass in the neutral zone and like did a Carol Caprizov 10 to 2 and like made someone to miss and then got it into the zone. And I was like, what is happening?

Like obviously that's not necessarily part of his repertoire or what he does or why the Panthers have him and use him. But just the fact that I think it's a reminder of how good pretty much every single player in the NHL is that like even guys who's like a defensive defenseman who doesn't really score. essentially dropped to one knee and ripped like a goal scorer's goal past Stuart Skinner just like between the pad and the glove. It's like, man, these guys are so good. Well, Mekla has like built his career on being like safe, reliable, glass and out guy.

Right. And then it's like he's got that in his bag. Not to mention the pirouetting backhand that almost spotted Edmonton a two-nothing lead. Yeah, pretty rare to see a player go from looking like Chris Phillips to looking like Chris Pronger in that short a period of time. And also I think that does emphasize, and I think it's worth dwelling on, right? Because this is a two nothing series.

But the Panthers have outscored the Oilers for nothing at five on five, and that feels completely out of line with what we've actually seen. As much as I'm fading the idea that the Panthers were dominated in game one, and I'm definitely on my soapbox insisting that they dominated speedbagged them in game two. This is not a plus four Panthers series through two games. I think this could easily be a one-one series going back to Edmonton. And while you get no rewards for that, I do think the way that the Oilers at the top end have at least been able to,

on balance, on aggregate. do some interesting stuff. They still need to generate better chances, but they've at least been able to break out pretty reliably so long as Drysidle and McDavid are on the ice, and at least have something of a territorial edge, whereas really as much as Lundell Lusterayne and have frustrated the Oilers on the breakout,

as much as Barkov has been brilliant. And exceptional, especially on the PK, we'll see what his status is and get more into that in the second segment. It does feel like the Kachuk line is the most threatening consistently for Edmonton. And it does feel like at least the Oilers at the top end should be able to manufacture more as this series moves to home ice. I do, I did think that the Panthers would have this narrow edge that mattered to allow them to make relatively quick work of the Oilers. But I do think the Oilers have played better, a lot better, than the results look. through two games.

Well, they did in game one. I thought game two, they generated absolutely nothing. Yeah, they should have gotten negative one goals, I think, in game two. But no, I'm with you. I think it's in the aggregate for sure. They generated nothing. They did still have, like, that Lindholm opportunity, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, David.

Those were four on four, though, right? Like, if I, five on five, it was really tough sledding. Like, McDavid had that one rush. And a lot of the plays here are just to the point of, like, McDavid doing all of the heavy lifting. have been like him getting the puck pretty much behind his own goal line. Yeah. And then skating through everyone.

Yep. And on the power play, it's been really fun to watch it because Ray 4-Roh has just been on this the entire time on the ESPN broadcast, like noting how the differences between these two power plays, Florida keeps trying to enter, Edmonton pushes them out, and then they just keep having to like retrieve and get stop and start. Whereas Edmonton, even when the puck gets cleared and the Panthers, PKK gets it out, McDavid just retrieves it. and within five seconds, they're back in and they're set up,

and Bouchard has it at the top of the umbrella. And it's just like a one-man entry to the, two. There's no equivalent to it. There's like, there's powerful skaters like Nathan McKinnon. You go on down the line of guys who are just like beautiful movers through the neutral zone. None of them as effortlessly and as effectively enter the zone as McDavid does here. And Ray Farrow is like, oh boy. Like he's doing the Alex Petrangelo preemptively as he rewinds and reloads in the neutral zone.

and I've really enjoyed just watching that sort of, that cat and mouse game between Ray Ferraro and Connor McDavid in these two games. It's good. And it's especially good because Ferraro's not just pointing it out, which I do think if you're like a casual fan. Right, if you're just tuning up to the standing a final. So it's not just that he's helping, I think people understand the game, but he's expressing real joy.

He's like, oh, let's go. You know, like he like builds it up as something to look forward to that's exciting and really impressive. And it is super fun. We're going to go to break here, but I just, we were mentioning Minico Mikulah there, and something just gets me

thinking about him playing in a different era and how everyone would just think he's like Lisa and Al-Gaiib, they'd just be like, this guy is just like brought to, like, to change the sport of hockey, and he really has. It's like a reflection of the fact that this guy is capable of doing some of this stuff.

I don't know, I don't know, man. All right, let's go to break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump back into it. We'll keep talking about our game two observations at the Stanley Cup final. You're listening to the Hockeyo guest streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.

Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. All right, we're back here in the HockeyPedio cast. We are doing our game two observations. Tom, so we've talked a lot about what happened in the game so far, the special teams, what Florida did five-on-five. I think we should talk a little bit here about,

Edmonton's adjustments in this game, right? Because I thought that heading into it, they did what we wanted to see from them, right? They scratched Cody Cici, they brought Vinnie Hardi in, though I still think, like, his foot speed and ability to navigate with the puck under pressure is just not ideal. But I think based on Cici's mistakes,

and in particular, just almost preventing Chris Knoblock from having the option of playing Cici and Nurse together. I think that was a net positive. They took out Corey Perry as well, who really looked out of place in this series, just with his ability, the ability to keep up with a pace in game one. They brought Fogel back in,

although, I mean, I guess they brought in Kierke, Fogel played, and it's very short-lived. I want to talk about the defense pairs, right? Because Nurse Scott heard in this game, and he only played, I believe, three shifts between the final two periods, and that sort of, I guess, exacerbated the issue. But Evan Bouchard's usage in these two games

has been off the charts. He played, I believe, 27, 17 or so in game one. He played 30 minutes and 40 seconds in this game. Now part of it was because he essentially played the final like six or seven minutes just because they were pushing with the MTNED and the power play looking for a goal late. But after a great game one that we spoke very highly of in our game one recap, he really struggled in this one, right? He took two penalties.

As Ferraro was noting, he looked very frustrated. Matthew Kuch in particular seemed to be getting to him and he had one of those retaliation penalties against him. He was making mistakes with a puck, most notably turning it over to Evan Rodriguez on the two one goal. He got beat along the boards by Anton Lundon. leading to the power play goal by Rodriguez. He had a few other turnovers. I mean, he was lucky not...

He tapped out on Matthew Kachuket. He, oh, Aaron Eckblatt. Sorry, I had him in a chokehold there. That was wild. That was wild. It was very wild. And then in particular, there was another play earlier on where he didn't wind up getting burned for it, but it was at the end of a power play.

And I think this is where you see the issue of using these guys for the full two minutes, where a puck got played back and he was just out of gas. And Kevin Stenland beat him to the puck, made a nice play out front. Sam Bennett, which really should have been a goal, and he might not have missing the net on it, but there was a handful of these instances that really made for a rough game for him. And in particular with how much he played, I'm sure part of it was just fatigue at this point and sort of uncharacteristic mistakes because we know that that's not the player he's been this postseason. But that was a really tough one, in particular in contrast to game one where he really stood out

as a top player for them. Yeah, it was a, and, you know, I think that's the next level to get to when you get to the point where we're talking about you as a top 10 or 15 defensemen, which I, by the way, still completely believe, the next level to get to is can you do it every night? Can you sustain that level of form, right? Like the Bouchard's now at the level where he can look like one of the best defensemen on the planet and even sustain it for a strong stretch.

But, you know, it's really becomes an almost every night thing. And so it'll be interesting to see how he bounces back here, especially because there's going to be a lot of eyes on him. He's played 10 minutes more in this series than Aaron Eckblad. Or sorry, than Gustav Gustov Forsling, who leads the Panthers in minutes. Connor McDavid has also played more minutes than Forzling and Eckblatt in this series. Like, there is, you mentioned some fatigue for Bouchard. Like, that's one piece of diminishing returns that I think we've been watching for the Oilers to incur.

Like, even in the second round, there were nights where I thought McDavid looked like he didn't quite have his fastball. maybe he'd played too much, blah, blah, blah. Well, now we're an extra month of physical hard hockey into the season. I mean, that's definitely something that is advantage Florida as this goes along, you'd think. Well, what I'm curious about is the next step is to see whether Chris Nablock is really willing to, I think, see this thing through to the logical progression, which I think would be the best case scenario for Edmonton. And he's gotten a lot of credit as a coach, as a first time coach in the NHL, this postseason of sort of pulling the right strings, to have enough feel for his team.

I think sometimes a bit annoyingly so because he's doing like very obvious stuff, which he probably should have been doing anyways to begin with. And it's like, oh, he made the right adjustment. It's like, this player just should have been playing the entire time. Well, especially going back to Nurse Cici for the start of every series and then getting credit as the series goes along for pushing the right buttons. At some point, that feels like an industry plant. Yes.

You know, like it's like your base rate is to go back to something we know doesn't work. And then you get credit. Like, you only get credit for moving away from something that doesn't work once, right? Yes. Not four times. We're not going to let this happen. Especially if it's the same mistake. Yeah.

We're not going to let this happen four times. Yes. What I want to see from them. And it might be a bridge too far for any coach, really. But I think we've seen enough in small samples where I'm at least intrigued by it. And it's putting Philip Broberg, who I think has really stood out in these two games because he just has juice. Like you can just see it.

Like he can move the puck. He's skating four on four, right? He sort of set up that McDavid breakway by 10. half in the puck ahead. There was another four-on-four instance earlier where he read the play really well and jumped into the inner slot and got a shot opportunity off. He just has both skills and offensive instincts that a lot of Oilers defensemen unfortunately don't. And so if they were playing him with Bouchard on the top pair and then splitting them up and putting Eckholm with Kulak on the second pair, I'm not sure if they'd be willing to do that. I've heard that

Kulak apparently just doesn't want to play on his offside and that's two lefties on the second pair. And so that's kind of complicating. But I mean, Broberg's been playing on his offside in this in this in this postseason and he's like a young inexperienced defenseman and hasn't really looked out of place necessarily and so I just want to see it because you saw in this game, Nobock was using them occasionally for a few offensive zone shifts and it you know they sustained pressure it looked much more dangerous and as good as at Coleman's Bouchard have been I think that would potentially not only give that top pair a bit more offense but also potentially give you a reliable second pair which has been just such a sort of black hole

for them this entire postseason. Well, one, I mean, necessity might be the mother of invention here, right? Because with Darnel Nurse getting hurt and playing so sparingly in game three, I do think we should go into, you know, the Thursday game and sort of wonder, as it were, whether or not we're necessarily going to see

the Oilers run out six familiar bodies, right? Whether or not we're going to see Darnel Nurse in the lineup. And in the event that we don't see Darnel Nurse in the lineup, Well, I don't think your idea is nearly as, you know, a pie in the sky or as much of a stretch for a head coach as it would be if you didn't have to make the adjustment, right? Like if you if C C's drawing in for nurse, then splitting that top pair, at least like in line rushes and to start the game, you're still going to see them as the game goes along. You're still going to see them get spotted some offensive zone starts or maybe some defensive zone starts just to calm everything down. you're still going to find ways to get your five best players on the ice with McDavid because that's what Nobloc does.

That's what the Oilers need. So I don't think going to that even like necessarily takes the at home Bouchard pair out of your bag. No, it doesn't. I just think it gives them the best shot of getting out of their own cleanly. Yeah, which they need. Giving Bouchard a bit more help in terms of just like a pure puck mover, not that at home is a liability there.

But some offensive instincts for some of these sequences, right? can we talk about that sort of nuclear five-man option that they load up when they're looking for offense well i feel like broberg is a perfect fit for that because of what we've seen with his movement and his ability to sort of read those plays and then most importantly i think just having at colem out there in the minutes bushard isn't gives you a chance to survive those because as we've noted that's been a big issue for them in this series right regardless of the pair or the bottom six forwards florida has a massive leg up in this series on that and i think having at home in more those situations gives you a better fighting chance.

And so maybe it might be a two birds, one stone situation. And maybe potentially, you know, you're down two nothing in the series. You're heading home. I think after how bleak you looked 5-1-5 in this game in particular, maybe like desperate times do call for desperate measures. And so maybe that incentivizes them a little bit more to at least give it a shot early in game three. Yeah, I think there's no question that the Edmonton Oilers either consistently find a way to break the Panthers forecheck or they're dead in the water in the same.

series. And that's always been the challenge for every team the Panthers have come along up against in this playoffs. But I think in particular, and we talked about it a lot going into the series, we talked about it a lot in the context of what we saw from Edmonton in round two against a high pressure team down ice. The defense either gets the puck moving vertically. Or they just look like completely stuck in them. Yeah. Or their offense risks getting cut off at the stem the way it was in game two. And I think that's exactly what we saw. The other thing that might help beyond the home crowd and potentially making a few of these adjustments is just, I think it's going to give Knoblock and Oilers a better chance of getting McDavid some of those softer matchups where they actually can not only sustain more pressure and potentially create a bit of a snowball effect for themselves as a team, but also actually start scoring some goals. Because we've seen in these two games, McDavid's played 32 minutes five-on-five.

Paul Maris has had Forsling and Eckblatt out there for about 24 of those minutes. which is like in the 70s as a percentage of his share. And that's about as hard of a matchup or line matching as you're going to see within the context of this, right, where there's so much happening on the fly and just the inability to always have guys out there you want, even with last change. They've been so diligent about sort of preparing themselves for whenever McDavid gets out, almost to a comical degree because you've seen at times where Florida ice is the puck or something with like their fourth line out there or even the third line or sorry,

a second line and all of a sudden noblock just sends out mac david oftentimes with hymen and dry sidle and they just like sustain a full minute shift in the offensive zone yeah look like the dangerous team we've come to expect and it just looks night and day compared to all the other sequences where they're fighting uphill against this defensive shell that that florida's putting together and i think that'll be easier to accomplish at home and i think they need to even sort of double down even more on like very predatorially trying to create these situations where florida just has bad combinations of players out there, and then they're just trying to punish those guys every chance they get, right?

Because it seems like that's their best chance of actually sustaining meaningful 5-1-5 offense this series. It isn't playing into these hands of strength versus strength and then trying to just cobble it together. Like, they don't have enough on the back end with their bottom six scoring to take advantage of any other matchups. So, like, they need to free him up a little bit. The, yeah, so 23 of McDavid's 32 minutes in the series?

Yeah. Is Forzling shadowing? Yes. I mean, that's going to be, that's like a level of rigidity to that matchup. I mean, forget a hard match. That's like a, you know, that's like a rock match that the, that the Panthers were able to use in terms of getting their fastest shutdown defense men out against 97. The, yeah, that's going to be impossible.

You're not going to be able to get to 66 plus percent of your ice time head to head against your preferred pair on the road. Yep. So that's changing. And I'm sure that will make a difference. I think the other part of this is the Oilers have to. Like, I thought you were kidding when you were talking about the Oilers shooting at Brovowski's head, but they've literally shot one off his mask in both games.

Yes. And at some point you've got to shoot high, but not where his mask is. Yeah, for sure. Especially when you're in alone against him, I feel like so much stuff down low. Yeah, no, I think a lot of that stuff is real. And, you know, credit to Heckblatt as well. Like he's been sort of a bit of a whipping. boy for me this postseason because I do think like a lot of his mistakes a lot of his mistakes have

been lost over and listen like the goal Edmonton did score was about as ill-advised of a of a pinch four-on-four as you're going to get where like there's a forward already on him I believe it was reinhart and egg blad's like I'm going to go join him down there and then all of a sudden McDavid just makes a simple pass and it's a two-on-one and you're like I wish he kind of didn't do that because he doesn't have the foot speed to recover but otherwise he had awesome reads he was clearing the zone on the PK and when he'd get a deep in his zone much better than he did in game one So I think there was a lot to like there. Do you want to talk a little bit about Lundel?

Because we've sort of mentioned him in passing here. But I think in particular, when Barkov got hurt in this game, he stepped in. There was a crucial four-on-four right after where they sent him out with Reinhardt as essentially a placeholder for what Barkov would have been. I think if Barkov has to miss game three or even beyond, I imagine we'll just see them slot Lundel in there on the top line and keep Bennett and Kach together as the second line and so that will have a trickle-down effect on some of this bottom six matchups that we've discussed that they had a favor in so far but londell those matchups have

been so key for edmonton or sorry for florida five-on-five like if if barcoff's missing time if that happens and i hope i hope man that hit that hit sucked and and it was brutal and i really hope like it seemed i don't know at this point at what we're recording whether he's in concussion protocol it looked like he might have broken his jaw which would almost be a better case scenario because we know hockey players are absolutely deranged, then he'd probably just come back with a full cage. I know we've seen him play with one of those before. But yeah, it's obviously not ideal.

I mean, you never want to see anyone get hurt, but especially, like, he was playing so well. And we talked about a lot after game one in this game as well, like, just a complete eraser, just covering so much ground. I think it was like the first shift of this game. And I think it really, I know it's kind of cliche to be like, oh, they set the tone. No, it does. But like, I believe in that.

he creates a turnover in the defensive zone, the 15 seconds in, carries it into the offensive zone. Yeah. And then just keeps McDavid pinned up against the boards for like 40 seconds. And they get a couple point shots, nothing really dangerous or threatening. But then McDavid just has to go off the ice because he's like completely gassed and empty the tank. Don't set. Man, like this is what it's all about. Like not only the momentum, but just like that is exactly how they need to play to be successful in the series.

And he's so uniquely equipped to accomplish exactly that. And so for all those reasons. killing stuff. Oh, of course. I mean, there's like five sequences a game or there was one where McDavid attempted like a seam pass and the penalty kill had already been out there for so long. And Barkov's just like, it's actually a desperation play. He just makes it look calm where he like turns and just like, you know, lizard tongue, boom. Yep. Has it out of the zone. Unbelievable player. And I hope he's okay. I really do too. I love watching him play and also so important to this team and it was just playing at the highest level. So hopefully he's back. I mean, you could just tell.

And because of the way he's been, him and Forreling have been defending these guys, but also I think just because of the game, the way the game was going, like you could visibly see Edmonton was getting quite frustrated. And obviously when you scored one goal in two games, considering the stage and also your expectations as an offense as a team, like it's understandable. But I think you really could see it in many different ways where it was like manifesting itself. And Edmonton was just, you know, really kind of playing on the edge there.

And it doesn't really, you know, it doesn't wind up hurting, them in the grand scheme of this game or this series because I think they want to create this environment where like if they take penalties, their penalty kill has been so reliable. So they're not necessarily that worried. But also we know with how NHL officials operate. If they call a penalty against Edmonton, there's probably another one coming down their way. And so it's almost like this like double whammy where not only do you get the game away from 515, but you also potentially create future powerplay opportunities for yourself.

Not that I'm suggesting that they should just go out there and keep. trying to take penalties to create, like artificially create this environment. But if it winds up sort of devolving into that or playing that way, I don't think it's necessarily a negative for them. For Edmondton, not at all. No. No. And it'll be interesting to see how the Panthers respond, especially in what I assume is the likely

event that Drysidal is not suspended for game three. No, he won't be. Yeah. So, again, we don't know, but we're late enough in the morning on Tuesday that I think if there was going to be a huge bombshell hearing announcement, we'd already have it. And, you know, that, I mean, it really is a tough one. I actually think it's a tough one because I'm not sure that it is more than a minor for elbowing. And it just sucks that it was such a harmful or like such an injurious collision.

I mean, it was up high. And I think it certainly wasn't accidental. I don't think he was like, I'm going to go try and break his jaw. But also, I think it was like, if you just consider the context of the matchup and the game and the way. it was going, it was like a very frustrated player taking out. So you think it should have been, you should think it's worth the suspension then? I don't think, I mean, listen, they're not going to suspend him to start playing the playoffs. I did think it was a five-minute major within the game.

Not that it would have really affected the outcome at that point. But I don't know. I just thought it was pretty predatory. And that doesn't suggest that Florida hasn't had their own because I actually thought that it just sort of got glossed over. Like he got the two-minute minor for it. But earlier on in the game, that, that knee that Ben, it essentially kind of threw towards Bouchard and it wound up being tripping.

Like, I hate that stuff as well. Yeah. So, like, it goes both ways here. The fogle hanging the knee on Listerine and obviously was appropriately penalized. It's going both ways, certainly. I just, man, I just hate it to see Barkov down like that, especially since we're, like, when we were watching the game and I was making the note to you that I just feel like in our usual hockey vocabulary, we don't have the right adjectives to describe the way he's

playing. I was suggesting that we just need to refer to him as being sublime and start getting into like some footy terms because that's what what he like the elegance that he's playing with is almost it's like it's from a different sport what quality yeah exactly yeah yes I'll leave the accents to you please do not I will say you know we've focused a lot on on McDavid and we've talked about Dreisaitle as well I think Hyman's been really good here he hasn't scored yet but I think similar it's interesting because similar to the the West final against a guy like Hayskin and especially Tanev, for all the talk about McDavid's speed

and sort of how dangerous that is and how difficult it is to deal with, Hyman's like relentlessness down low, but also how strong he is on the puck has really given some of these elite defenders like legitimate trouble. Like we've seen him a couple times just dust off Foresling and we know how difficult that is based on his postseason. And so he's almost been a bit of a matchup nightmare for them. It hasn't led to any goals yet. He's been threatening around the net. But at home, particularly in the power play, like, I would expect him to finally start getting a couple of these bounces because he has been otherwise all over it. Yeah, he's been, he's been, behind the net, almost like dunking on, on both Eckblatt and,

and Forseling. It's like he's fast enough to use his speed to beat Ekblad, and he's big enough to use his size to beat Forzling. He's getting caught in that, like, in between. Yeah, he's doing the Mario in Mario Kart thing where, you know, he's faster than D.K. And he's bigger than Toad. And the, there's, there's been some sequences where just like quick shifts to his body weight along the wall, a handful of Diques, quick pass, get the puck back and go do it again. And, you know, he's, he's dunking on these guys. Like, he's winning pretty handily on a far more routine basis than I.

I even think he did in the Western Conference final, to be totally honest with you, which given how imperious Forrestling and Eckblad have been throughout the playoffs against the best of the best, wildly impressive stuff. What do you think the adjust, like, okay, let's say Barkov misses game three. What do you think Florida does? They bump up Lundell to top line center, right? Yeah. And then they move Lusirina down the middle in the third line.

I think so. With Tarasenko and potentially, I'd say, even give them Rodriguez as a winger. and try to replicate that like sort of leaning on Edmonton's bottom six that way. I think so. I'm curious. I mean, it probably means the Lamborghini draws back into the line of much, which is exciting. It is exciting, but I do think there's... It's a bit of a drop-off going from Barkov to Lamborghini as much as I love the latter.

Yeah. The one thing I'd note is there were some moments where Edmonton, even on the road, was able to catch, you know, the Panthers' fourth, line against McDavid and then there'd be multiple icings. And again, somehow the Oilers never did damage, but it was white knuckle time for the Panthers. We know that the Panthers' fourth line has been a problem for them as they've got to the pointy end of the playoffs. I think that could be accentuated in a major way game three and four. And if you want to, you know, if you want to sort of chart like the roadmap for the Panthers,

or sorry, for the Oilers to get back in the series, like keep doing that. with last change and actually get a bottom line feels to me like the most probable, most probable thing in this series that could turn in Edmonton's favor is the Florida fourth line is getable. You are already getting them. It's just about putting up margin. And then obviously the thing that the Oilers need to stem is what's happening with the McLeod line on the ice. Yeah, which might help if Lundell is not part of that equation anymore, right? all of a sudden that becomes a much easier battle, I think, for them to win. Although Listerina, he also had that scare as well.

And I was like, man, this sucks because he's playing so well. But he came back and made a bunch of plays down the stretch as well. He's playing unbelievable hockey. I do think, too, if you're the Panthers, you don't want games three and four with a hostile crowd to turn into, you know, power play slot fests with lots of retribution. You want as much of this as a five-on-five as you can. Yeah, you want it as drama-free, play your game. Because if you play five-on-five, if you play your game,

you know, the Oilers are going to have to find answers, you know, to a question that might not be answerable for them with their personnel on the back end. So you just want to keep it simple and keep that pressure on. And don't let this go, you know, 2011 Canucks Bruins. Don't let this become a sideshow. Which is tough. They've done a great job this postseason as we've illustrated along the way of, like, avoiding that temptation of the way they used to play. In this series, I actually do think they've been very sloppy. like they have some very unnecessary penalties along the way.

Early. They haven't been burned by yet, but yeah. Sam Bennett took another offensive zone penalty early. So it's like, okay, Sam Bennett's back to his, you know, regular diet of one offensive zone penalty a game. Yep. I don't like that. No, no, I don't. No, this is, I'm excited here for the series to ship back to Edmonton to keep watching this

because I do think we're going to see a pushback here. And so it'll be fascinating to see what that looks like and then what that means for this series. Tom, we'll be back with plenty more to talk about all that stuff. as this week progresses. Everyone check out your work at the Athletic, but also Kinnock's Talk. Let's go. We'll be back here with plenty more

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