The Hockey PDOcast - What We Saw in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Sean Shapiro to break down everything they saw in Game 6 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 Filippovin. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Demetri Filippovich and joining me for this Game 6 postgame show here in the PEDAWCast. My good buddy, Sean, what's going on, man? So it's just telling you on air. I'm looking at, I'm booking my hotel now for Sunday and Monday night since being in the building, to be in the building Monday night for Game 7.

So I seem to have time in mind perfectly for games to miss. So I've saved the travel budget a bit and we'll be there for Florida for Game 7. A historic Game 7, no less, it will be quite an event and quite a spectacle, not skeptical at all. I'm not skeptical that it will be a spectacle. It's fitting, though, on the longest day of the year right here on June 21st, that we have guaranteed and extended the longest season ever, but I think for good cause, because this is shaping up to be quite an event.

We're recording this quite literally minutes after game six ended, so I haven't had a chance yet to do my usual going back and digging into the tape and all that stuff, the way I will tomorrow, I'm sure, or this weekend. I think that's part of the fun. I've really grown to enjoy these post games in the Stanley Cup final. It's kind of trying something new and a little bit out of my comfort zone, but I think people have enjoyed it,

and we're just going live pretty much fresh off of the latest impressions of what we saw. So let's get into what we saw in this game six and the Oilers 5-1 victory at the end, which felt a little dicey there in the third period when they were kind of just playing back and try to preserve the lead, but also never really felt like it was in doubt,

especially after it went up 3-0 in the second. What are your immediate impressions from that game and what you saw? Because the last time you and I spoke, right, was last weekend. when this comeback sort of started, when the Oilers definitively won game four. And you and I noted the stuff that the Oilers did in that game that should have given them and their fans optimism and the Panthers, a bit of concern, but also noted that it was still 3-1, Florida going back home in their favor. And we weren't sure how much it was just a series effect thing where it's like, all right, the motivations here for Edmonton.

They got one. Florida is going to take care of business. I felt like you in particular were sort of leaning in that direction more so. I really was. Yeah, I really well. The door here. Now the door has been blown wide open. What are your takes on both what you've been seen in the series,

but this game specifically in particular? Yeah, so kind of in this series in this game, right? The one, the biggest thing that's from an emotional, like, and from an emotional standpoint from Florida for a team that thrives on a lot of, and I thought they were, I thought Florida played well enough to, win to win game five. It was one of those, game five was a tremendous game. And I thought Florida had its kind of had its pop when it came out in game five.

But for a team that we hear all about being like this emotional team that has great leadership, that everyone follows everyone and they just kind of build on each other, they've looked really disjointed for, they looked really disjointed tonight. They looked really disjointed for parts of game five. even though I thought they played well enough to win game five and obviously back in game four. And so just from a quick like human side, from being up three nothing

to basically kind of have zero killer instinct over three games is really something I did not expect. Like we see this Florida team. We hear about how Barkov sets the tone and with his play and his motion and how everyone follows Kachuk. And maybe that's the big one. Maybe right there when you look at like,

Chuck's been. good in this series. I don't think he's been as bad as some people have tried to drag him down for it, but he hasn't really been... I think he's been noticeably uninvolved, let's say. Other than Game 5, game 5, he was obviously phenomenal and almost tried to drag them back into that fight. But otherwise, I can't really think of too many notable plays, especially positive ones for Florida where you're like, all right, he's creating below the goal line and

he's getting involved and doing stuff. He's not really bugging Edmonton at all, really. Like, they've been totally... unbothered by his shenanigans for the most part, and he hasn't even really been trying to do anything. It's been, and that's what's been kind of, I guess, most puzzling. It's not that it's not working. It's that he's not really even trying anything.

Yeah, he was invisible tonight. And then the other, like, big thing, too, just from a perspective, like you look at what kind of happened in this game is, basically Edmonton's taken the middle of the ice just since, aside from a couple stretches here and there for the last nine periods of hockey, then you can even go back to the third period of game three.

basically Edmonton has just taken over the middle of the ice. They've, you see so many little plays throughout the game for me. And I was watching it. It was one of those things I kind of thought about coming into this one. And since I was watching this one on the couch on TV and had a chance to pause after watching Game 5 live, I wanted to kind of, it was a nice little side by side to be able to kind of have that assessment here.

And the amount of times you would see like Edmonton and Florida both go into those space into a battle along the boards. And almost every single time, Edmonton is somehow putting, coming out, coming out in a more opportune matter, whether it's the breakout or the entry. It seems every single, it just seems like they're smarter coming out of that space,

having better execution. And to me, that's been the biggest thing. Where basically Florida no longer does much in the middle of the ice, and the oilers are just been great there. And that was reflected in this game by the fact that what Florida's forwards didn't get on the board. terms of shots on goal until 31 or 32 minutes into the game, which is just an absolutely stunning stat, right? They had just the two shots on goal in the first period as a whole, and the broadcast

showed the graphic that that was the lowest total for them all season in any period. And just remarkable to think about, I'm with you on that. And in particular, I think what's really stood out to me, I mean, listen, in this game, I'm with you that Florida, I thought played much better in game five certainly and was like there and a few bounces here or there that game could have gone differently in both of those games though game five and six should note that any good stuff they they generated happened after they were already down by multiple goals oh yeah yes yes that's also yeah yeah an important bit of context here particularly in this game because it felt like in the third period edmonton was very happy to just kill as much clock as they could

and they weren't really pushing offensively themselves, right? And so Florida was able to generate a little bit. But what's really stood out to me has been Edmonton's ability to feast off the rush during these three games. And going both ways in terms of not giving Florida anything and then what they've been creating themselves. And let's stick with the theme of what Edmonton's done defensively, since you kind of brought that up and what it's done to Florida's attack and controlling the middle. The ESPN broadcast also ran this graphic where I believe in the first three games of the series, Florida, they had Florida down for 12 odd man rush shot attempts, and they scored three goals off of that. In games four, five, and six now, they've had one combined shot attempt

and zero goals in terms of odd man rush opportunities. And obviously, they're not necessarily as much of a rush team as they'd been in the past years, but still, they're just not getting anything easy that way. And every time they do get a rush shot, it's an even number one where Edmonton's back and it's a straight line shot where they're just essentially skating into it. And we know that Stuart Skinner, one of his weaknesses is moving laterally and they're not testing him at all doing so. He's basically just being able to square up all these shots and then soak them up. And that's been a theme here for me. We're going to get into what Edmonton's done offensively and how much they've generated. But just in terms of what they've done to Florida here

in these three games, they've completely taken away the middle. They've sort of ground their rush attack to a halt. And that's wildly impressive because think about like the reputation. of this Oilers team for so many years, right? How they couldn't be trusted in these moments defensively, how they would get loose and have these backbreaking mistakes. And they just haven't really done that in these games. And I think that's what's almost been most impressive to me out of everything they've done. They've done a really good job of with the rush defense.

Like Edmonton has done a really good job of funneling Florida, basically when it does, when the rare times it's happened. And it's kind of through the, Florida is done a really good job of this. Edmonton, sorry, has done a good job of funneling Florida to basically, typically to the weak side. And the other thing that's been interesting to me a couple times is there's, there's a couple times you've seen the past couple games where Florida has had a chance where basically Edmonton, if, and it's been multiple players where basically

Edmonton has given the opportunity where if they were to try to make the quick pass to try to get back to the middle, it's probably been there. And that's so like, give Edmonton a ton of credit for how they've been defending it. But Florida has never once really didn't like, okay, you can make that short little second pass, you can make the little drop that seems to be there. And when your opponent's not taking any, not going to do it at all, like more power to Edmonton, don't change it at all. But like, it seems to me there is a spot there where there's part of this chess match where if you're Paul Maurice and you're looking at going into game seven and everything like that,

it's like, look for that, that simple quick pass, that little playback that the oilers are effectively giving you right now and they have no reason to defend it because you're not doing anything with it. Like that's one of the things I look at with kind of that defensive structure perspective from the Oilers. And like it's been it's been wild to see Florida and not adjust. I think other than Barkoff, I've been a hard time thinking of any player who's actually tried to generate that way. They haven't really had any middle lane drive. No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. None. No. You're saying it's like and Edmonton is closing that off, I think at least initially to like yeah. Not just let them walk in there because I think

otherwise they probably would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're almost, they're like, all right, well, this is what you're giving us. And so we're just kind of going to the outside there. You know, Paul Maurice had a really, I thought, insightful interview. I think it was during the first period. It might have been even later in the game. I'm not sure it all kind of blends together at this point.

But he told Emily Kaplan, he felt the reason why they weren't generating anything was because they were getting stuck on one side of the ice. And that's exactly it, right? And that's in large part, as he noted, because Edmonton's doing a great job of blocking an awful lot of those lanes and passes and preventing them from doing so. And they just have had no way to kind of get around that. And so it's been very on one side,

kind of stuck to that no east-west or lateral presence or effort at all. And it's become exceedingly easy to defend in very sort of one-track mind, right? And so, yeah, that's a clear adjustment for them. But listen, I think Edmonton, we shouldn't discount that, right? Because it's- No, no, no, no, yeah, yeah.

You can look at it through both lenses here, like, But I do think what Edmonton's done in terms of their effort level and the way they've competed. And they've just been all over them, particularly early in this game. Every time someone turned around on the Panthers, it looked like there was someone in an oil or sweater there. And, you know, that's what it's all about. And that's like, we talk about how defensive effort for the most time, defense is just all about given the effort. And that's exactly what we're saying here. Well, like, in Edmonton's done a really, my point isn't that the Panthers are just given that Edmonton's backing up and taking this.

I think Edmonton's done a really good job basically defending coming forward at guys enforcing this earlier. Like let's let's, I want to be clear on that. I'm giving a lot of credit to the oilish here for basically coming forward and forcing, and forcing some of these decisions as opposed to just backing up and like accepting the Panthers making a mistake. So yes, credit to the Oilers. I want to be clear on that there. One other note that I had on this. Well, let's actually pivot and then let's talk about that.

the other side of the rush game. So the Euler's perspective here, right? Because I don't know what the count is at this point, but they're in the double digits in terms of rush goals scored over the past three games here. And pretty much, I mean, everything they generated in this game, the three goals all came off of that. There was the Hyman breakaway off the block shot.

There was the beautiful Drisito pass. There was like a vintage moment for him in this series, finally. To Holloway, East-West. And then there was the Henrique went off, the Yanmark pass where Babrovsky kind of overshot his angle. and Henrique went against the grain. And so I'm curious for your take because now that we've seen three games of this, what you feel like Edmonton's doing and kind of what the adjustment then would be for Florida

or if they're just kind of being put into a bind by a team that just has the firepower simply that they haven't really bumped into yet in this postseason, right? Because they played this Tampa team, which at 5-1-5 didn't really have that much to offer in the way of that. Boston certainly didn't. And New York did atop the lineup, but we're just struggling. to really string together passes and even have the puck for sustained periods and were neutralized pretty easily that way. So this Oilers team is just an entirely different animal than anything they'd bumped into at this point. And that's coming from someone who, you know, sung the praises

of the Panthers as a defensive unit all year. And they've just been rocked the past couple games, basically, by this Oilers rush attack. Yeah, it's kind of, it's one of those things where you look at what the Oilers have almost done this entire postseason where like, it just seems like each round, they just kind of get better, like probably, like around game three, depending on the series, whether it's game three, four, whatever it is. They just seem to get better. And it's the rush across the group always comes across. Like, obviously McDavid's been playing at an all world level to past couple games and everything

like that. But there's the, like that, that Yenmark line. And I know technically they're supposed to call lines by the center sometimes, but I think we have to give Mattis Yenmark as due or the oilers are at least doing it. like that Yanmark line has gone from, and I'm a person who covered Matias Yanmark with Dallas for a while, right? And this is something that's always been part of the threat that Matthias Yanmark provided on a line and a depth of Dallas. But he never finished. He never like it's kind of like it's, or he was never having and I know he's not scoring all these goals.

He's having more assists. But it's been kind of interesting for me, from my perspective, from someone who's seen this player up close. And I talked to them a little before to see a guy somehow finding that. the polish at the exact right time. So that's a big part of it, right, where you've got that depth line doing it. The other thing that I think just for them to the scary thing, the really scary thing for Florida going into game seven is now dry sidles up and going, right? We're like, okay, where like Edmonton was doing this and the one, it was pretty remarkable. They were coming this back up without dry saddle kind of getting up and going and being that guy. And then you

mentioned that vintage play where he goes across the grain, kind of slows. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a quick play, but at the same time he slows the game down and it just kind of lets everything kind of move around and he picks things apart. The fact, he's going again and you have essentially three lines that are going to attack like this at all times. That is, that's something the Panthers haven't dealt with. And I don't think the Oilers really ramped up to it until, I mean, obviously they didn't have it in the first three games. And now it's just the oilers are just who they are now and they're just kind of up and running. And maybe it's a momentum thing. I've said before, I'm not a believer in momentum from game to game in a series, but I think tactically

speaking, there's probably a confidence level in that. There is. I think a lot of like what's happening both offensively and demensally seeps into the other end of the ice as well, right? I think that's probably what you're seeing in terms of that concept of momentum in terms of like a material effect. I've noticed a couple things. So last time we spoke, we kind of noted their utilization of the anchor. And in this game in particular, they brought that guy even closer to me. make the pass more feasible to the point where like they had a guy kind of standing around their own blue line at times with his back turned almost ironically doing like the matthew kachuk to the panthers right which we excel at almost better than anyone in the league

and what it's done is it's kind of it's setting a trap for the panthers right because we always speak about how they pinch so aggressively on the strong side where they're defenders right there are guys sort of try to close off the wall attack downhill keep the puck in the zone and that facilitates their and a lot of the chaotic broken play opportunities they get. In this case, the player doing that has obviously done a, like, it's one thing to stand there. It's another thing to make a play under pressure. But what it's done is it's almost baiting that Panthers defender

into coming down and closing off. And as he does that, they send another player to basically sprint past them and occupy the space where that defender just left, right? And it's sort of this like Darryel Belfrey utilization, I guess, of speed differentials where this defender is moving in one way at a certain speed. And then you've got another guy moving much faster basically in the opposite direction. And it's created a lot of this chaos for Florida where all of a sudden one of their defenders

is dragged out of the play. And it's creating these two on ones or three on twos or you're seeing them do it a lot to to Ekblad where he's pinching. And then it's forcing force length all of a sudden coming to the middle and cover so much ice. And it's exposing kind of putting them on an island a little bit. And so I think they've utilized that really well. I think if you go back and watch this game, you'll see countless examples.

of it. They've done it in these past three. And it's work to perfection. And like I said, it's easy to say, like, draw it up on a board and be like, all right, a guy needs to stand here and this is what we're going to do. But it's another one as a defenseman bearing down on you, trying to poke, check it away from you and for you to still in a calm, composed manner, make that play. And the Oilers are just executed at the end of the day. And I think that's kind of been the big difference here. It's in a bit of a coaching adjustment tactically. And then the players have just followed through on it. And so that's kind of what you're seeing, I think. Yeah. I mean, it's to me, the more impressive part about all of this is the

some of these depth depth pieces that have probably more skilled than like they're smart players like this entire oriler's depth is it's built with guys who I think kind of have that reputation where they're probably not the most skilled but they're all smart players

and they're all been in the league for that and I wonder and I don't know this at all but I just wonder from a coaching perspective of it's the type of group where you kind of teach the calmness there, right? And I realize I'm making a bit of a stretcher, but just the thing where, like, I don't expect a Yanmark or a Derek Ryan or whatever

to ever, like, finish place. But you're in your 30s. You're a veteran player. I think that there is something that plays into that of, okay, I'm just going to listen to, I'm going to listen to this tactical change. I'm going to not let this overwhelm me. And I also wonder, from a perspective of everything with Edmonton, there's been no pressure on them at all.

Once you go down 3-0 in this series, now everything has been, okay, well, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. There's really been no pressure on them at all. And I wonder if that kind of applies here as well. It's, I went on a weird tangent. I hope you can keep us on track here. Yeah, I've heard, I mean, I've heard that brought up a lot along the way here of like after every game, all right, who has the pressure now, who's feeling it?

And like, I get it, especially when you're facing a historic collapse like this in the Stanley Cup final. it makes sense there'd be pressure. I just think everyone is probably feeling the pressure. Like it's the Stanley Cup final. And I get the sentiment of when you lose the first three games, you kind of, you have something to lose in the sense that if you lose another game,

your season's done and you fall short of your dream. But there is something still to lose, particularly if you're in the Oilers' shoes here where you go down 3-0, and you're playing at home in game four. You certainly don't want to get swept in the Stanley Cup finals. So I think they have pressure there. And then it's fair.

That's fair. there's always pressure. I don't know. I just think it's a bit simplistic, but I get what you're saying sort of the sentiment behind it, and I certainly think you're seeing them play much more free hockey.

I guess my question for you was going to be on that note. Are you seeing anything then in these games from Florida that would actually reflect or be manifesting this idea that they're getting tight or getting nervous or feeling this pressure? Because listen, what they started this series, up 11, 2, I believe, on the scoreboard.

the first, whatever, two games and two periods of game three, since then it's 20 to five in the last 10 periods for Edmonton. And so once you're getting Shalak that way, and especially like tonight, you're in that building and it's just absolutely, absolute pandemonium, right? The crowd's going crazy. I think even though you're a pro athlete, there's got to be a level of feeling it. Like, that's like a very tough environment to be in. Ray Ferraro was talking about how they were sort of like a step slow early on, right?

very uncharacteristically and we're like just sloppy and not get into Pucks the way we've become accustomed to seeing from them. So maybe those nerves, that's how it's manifested, where it goes to your legs and you're just not moving as well as you otherwise would because that's how you're feeling it. Is there anything you're seeing on that beyond just sort of them not executing? Because that's kind of what I keep coming back to. And it's obviously a very difficult thing for us to quantify, but it would be sort of foolish, I think, to pretend like it's not a factor here. Yeah. I mean, the big one is I think they're just going to execute. I do think that's a big one. The other kind of notice on that is like to me, and I watch this Florida team,

obviously, we've won't watch this Florida team a lot. And I watch them a lot in the regular season as well, being then being in this covering, being based in Detroit and a team in the same division, and they come through to talk quite a bit. So the thing about the Florida team that is you could always kind of see that they, they often build off of how the other team reacts to that like phonetic Florida first three to five minutes where it doesn't feel like they even go for the puck. Like, yes, they're trying to play the puck. But like, so I'm being hyperbolic here. But for the first three to five minutes of a game, it often doesn't feel like Florida ever

cares about the puck. It's all about just leaving your mark and basically just creating this energy and just making the opponent feel like, whoa. Like, that's the thing. And I think Edmonton has just dealt with it so well. Like, that's the thing where like it's one of those things where the, the oilers have dealt so well with the attempted Florida initial charge, initial push, and we saw it there would be times you saw it earlier in the postseason where Florida would do that

and they would just start to effectively bully teams, not by what they did, but by the other team kind of overreacting to like, man, look how well constructed and frenetic this team is all at once. I think Edmonton being able to just keep playing their game and not really be altered by it has been kind of, I'm looking at that where the Panthers haven't adjusted well to another team just being like,

okay, you can do this. We're just going to push the puck right back to the center of the ice and just go right back down your throat. Well, you know what I think helps with that? And playing sort of fearlessly in that sense, having absolutely no qualms about getting in trouble taking a penalty.

Because when you're probably killed the way this is, not that you're going to go out there and be like, let's take some penalties here because you're obviously playing with fire. And when you have one fewer player out there, bad things happen. But it feels like in a lot of these games, whenever Florida does build up a bit of momentum, all of a sudden, a penalty happens. And it completely not only saps it because they get stuck in the mud and can't create anything,

but oftentimes Edmonton has, I mean, they scored a couple short-handed goals, but they're just generating a few rush chances on the PK and kind of pushing them back that way. And it's completely nullifying it and flipping the script. And then all of a sudden after that, the next shift is McDavid and Dreisito come out there on the fall ensuing shift after the killed penalty for Edmonton. And so it's a double whammy in that way. So it's kind of, I was joking in the Discord today. It's kind of brutally ironic, right? Because generally you would think, all right, if you have sustained pressure at 5-1-5, even if you don't score, you're going to force the other team into a mistake, into a penalty, and then you can kind of build on that.

And in this case, actually playing that way sometimes works to their detriment because it allows Edmonton at this point to, to just effortlessly seemingly kill a penalty and then flip that script on them. And it feels like that's what we're seeing in these games as well. And I mean, we don't need to talk that much about the Oilers, PK,

because we've spoken about it. Everyone has spoken about this streak they've been on. But I mean, talking about the entries earlier, they're not giving any clean entries into the zone. And then they're using these bottom six guys to kill these penalties. And that's where they've really shined more than anywhere else. And so, yeah.

But story-wise, think about how it impacts the game tonight. the Barkov goal that gets called for off sides and whether you want to, like, if, with how tight that call is, if Edmonton's a normal power play, I'm sorry, if Edmonton has a normal penalty kill, you're probably like, I can't really put the other team on the power play

because if we lose this, it's going to be another goal, and they're going to go right on a power play, and this could be a tie game. With how good Edmonton's penalty kill is, like I know there's like, oh, that's a, when they're giving the video coach, a ton of credit for making the decision and everything,

But no, even Knoblock seemed unsure in an interview. He was like, well, you never really know what he's like. Yeah, like it's like, but it wasn't a gut. I don't look at it as a gutsy call. I look at it as just an analytical call of, well, our penalty kill has been one of the biggest momentum changers in this entire series. So even if this goal stands and we go on the penalty kill, well, we'll just kill that penalty.

The building will get buzzing and then dry saddle and McDavid will go on the ice. Like I look at it as just a very simple analytical decision. by the Oilers to just challenge that because of how good their penalty kill is. And that's like, yeah, that's big. Yeah, I mean, it really is. You can't, you can't oversee it. And yeah, I'm with you.

You're kind of playing the odds there and working it to your advantage. And it feels like that's what they did. Yeah, that PK has been phenomenal. Let's take a break here. And then when we come back, we'll jump right back in it. We'll keep going with everything we saw both in Game 6 and kind of look ahead a little bit to Game 7 as well. You're listening to the Hockey,

PDOCAT streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right, we're back here in the Hockey Ocast, joined by Sean Shapiro. We are doing our game six postgame of Edmonton's victory to force a game seven. So before we went to break, Sean, I was kind of asking you this open-ended question of if we've seen any practical examples of the pressure or the lead-up to this moment or how these games have transpired recently bleeding into Florida's decision-making or their play, right, in terms of like actual stuff beyond just saying as a general statement, that they're feeling the pressure.

And there's a couple guys where I feel like I have started to see it. And one is Carter Brahegey. He started this series with, I believe, the first goal. It was almost certainly his own first shot attempt to the series, right? It was that two-on-one where Barkoff passed it across to him. He buried it. Heading into this game, the next 25 shots he taken hadn't scored.

And I thought there were countless opportunities along the way where he's a guy who gets the puck and he just shoots it, right? Like he loves to rip it. and initially he was doing so and just wasn't executing. And then you could tell that he started like stopping the puck and trying to slow it down. And it might be because the ice is getting worse. I'm not sure. I'm not going to use that as an excuse here.

And kind of allowing Stuart Skinner to get back and recover and then just shooting it right into him and really kind of like taking him off the hook and not really executing at all. And then now in this game on that first power play, there was this one example where I couldn't believe where he got the puck of the left circle. where he normally just fires from immediately without second thought. And he like stops and he holds it and he waits and he tries to figure out what to do. And all of a sudden the PK recovers and he turns it over and the puck's out of the zone. And there it goes that sequence. And then on the first goal, obviously, like, Vlad winds up falling. Dreysaito makes the beautiful pass to Fogel.

But that all starts with this kind of this neutral zone play where for Hagey just basically throws a grenade at Barkov. And it winds up being a turnover and the Oilers push the puck back quickly the other way. and there's like he just you could tell he's being so indecisive now i know that he made the great play to set up the barcob this allowed goal right he made the assist along the wall on barcoff's actual goal he scored in the third period but there for a guy who's usually so aggressive and just like so unabashedly just loves to shoot the puck and is so aggressive in that way he just has not been that player and there was a streak he was going on in this game finally before the goal they scored where i believe he'd been on the ice for 10 straight goals against without a single

Panthers goal in like the three previous games. And that's really tough for a guy who plays such a significant role for this team and is also like generally renowned for his clutch play, right? Like think about the storylines about him last postseason. He scores the overtime winner early on this postseason against Tampa Bay. Like he's a guy who delivers in these moments and he has really struggled I thought. And I'm not sure how much of it is everything kind of building up to this. But it does feel like his decision making just looks different than I've become accustomed to from him.

Yeah, I've had it. It's been interesting looking at his series because I can't help look at his playoff and everything with the comments that Paul Maurice has said a couple times about how he always, he feels like he can't keep Verhege and Barkoff together for long times because he feels like that line always has an expiration date. And he essentially completely hints that is for Hegey based and not Barkov based because basically admits Barcoff could play with anyone in the world and have Ed have his. game. And so it's been really interesting to look at it with that knowledge, where the coach has kind of publicly said, that duo has an expiration date. And we have to keep, we have to kind of separate them to get them going again. And to me, it's, it's a public, like, admittance of, like, hey, we're, we look at this guy as an overly streaky player. And I don't know if sometimes, like, and I'm not a coach, so I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, as a coaching perspective, they're trying to push the buttons to get him to work one way or the other,

and they've kind of run out of time to do it, right? Like if I was to tell you, hey, DeBeech, you're coaching a team, and you got this guy that score all these goals in the regular season, and I need you to get him going. You only now, like, you've run out of time. Like, it's been really interesting to have our own observations, and then also hear his coach say something similar about what he is as a player. Like, that's been, it's been super, like, it's been a nice, refreshing honesty from a coach. But I can't help with think about what you, but your question to me, think about what Paul Marisa said about him.

Yeah, it's tricky because, to be fair, that line of Barkov or Hagee and Ryan Hart, whereas the only one creating anything offensive in this game and providing any sort of pushback, right? And so, like, on the one hand, and I think a lot of it was Barkov, who I thought was, I wanted to see this from him in this game where it's like, all right, well, if he's not going to go ahead to head him with David, he's going to have to actually, instead of worrying about defense, he's, he's going to, going to have to create offensively. He scored the one goal. I had another one taken off the board, set up a bunch of other chances, had opportunities. It was what I wanted to see from him. It just from for Hagey's perspective, it's looked different than I've become used to seeing.

And I've always appreciated how his game was so defined in one way. And now as these games have gone on, it started to drift further and further from that. And even if he's not scoring, I feel like he just needs to be shooting that puck because that's his best weapon, right? The other guy that I mentioned, listen, how many times have I spoken so? going on this podcast about Gus Foresling. He's had a tough time of it. He's been on the ice for a lot of goals against. I wouldn't say they're like necessarily directly,

he's directly responsible. But tying into what we were speaking about earlier in terms of adjustments the Oilers have made and kind of how they've been able to get out and transition and attack off the rush, the other thing they've been doing is sort of chipping pucks out of the zone and then going after it themselves,

almost chipping it to themselves, as opposed to just chipping it out just for the sake of getting off for a change. kind of strategically and by design getting the puck into space and then winning battles, right? And I think what that's done and why it's given a guy like Foresling some issues in this series and the rest of the Panthers defense and for that matter is they love to defend moving forward, right? That's how they get the most out of these guys. They limit their responsibilities. It's like, don't worry about going backwards. You're always attacking going forwards.

And now all of a sudden, they're being kind of thrown into the deep end here where they actually do have to either turn around and skate going in the other direction or skate backwards. And that's something that they're just not really accustomed to doing because they don't have not been doing that much throughout the season. And now all of a sudden they're having to do it against these elite forwards. And it's been giving them a lot of trouble. And I think Hyman in particular, who, you know, would he score his 70th goal this season when you combine the regular season and playoff scoring has just been an animal

on a lot of these drives, right, where you can just see his strength. And this goes back to the Star Series where even before, the foot injury, he started to finally make Chris Tannave look mortal, right? After two rounds of dominating against McKinn and Eichol and amazing rush players, he finally was like, I'm just stronger than this guy and I'm going to overpower him at times. And you could see that Tandah was kind of struggling to hold on. Similar thing has happened to Foresling in this series. And there's a variety of reasons why it's happening. But I thought that was pretty notable in this game. And you're sort of seeing the bind. It's kind of putting these Panthers defensemen in.

do you think I was thinking about this if in an alternate universe where the hurricanes get past the rangers are the panthers now who knows if then it would have been panthers panthers hurricanes in the eastern conference final are the panthers better prepped for this if they had faced the hurricanes as opposed to the rangers are they are they better did they get to make their adjustment more in the eastern conference final to this I just it's it's a it's an interesting thought because you mentioned earlier how styles and everything like that, and they haven't dealt with anyone like this in the playoffs. And it's Edmonton's making work from it.

And I know it pains you to talk poorly of Gustav of Gus Foresling. So it's a... No, I mean, listen, I'm a call like I see it. When a guy's on the ice for a bunch of goals and the lasting image is like him being the only one in frame, I think that makes him kind of responsible at least. but also I do think it kind of illustrates the fact that it's like, all right, this guy's kind of on an island a little bit here and having to cover a ton of ground because his partner is just not in the photo or there's no support, right?

And that's another thing. These odd mad rushes for Edmonton have been really prevalent. I also thought with the Puck, like he had one in the third period where I think he thought that it might have still, they might still been on the PK, I'm not sure. But he's just sort of like had space to skate it across center ice and instead just dumped the Pock in and it became an icing. And with the Pock, I thought he was, very sloppy today and making a lot of unforested errors.

And I'm not sure how much of that is the pressure, how much of it is an accumulation of minutes and just the demands of being this late in the season. But I think you're kind of finally starting to see that add up. And they're finally actually showing like cracks in the armor here. And I think that's also been a bit of a story for me. And listen, it's 20 to five, like I said, for Edmonton in the past three games. So there's a lot of a lot of blame to go around, certainly.

Yeah. I mean, Florida is now, there's things too that have just kind of felt like you could see. It's funny, right? Like when someone makes an adjustment as a coach or whatever, like we almost, like I was about to get caught in the trap of all you change who's running the power play on the top. You take off Montor and everything like that. I was about to get caught in that trap, but I don't want to go down there. But I'm admitting it on air right here that I wanted to get caught in that trap of talking about

that. but in reality, they're not entering the zone at all. It doesn't matter at all. But I was about to go down the line of thinking of like, oh, you see too much panic from, and I just think it's everything, where it's not just, the Oilers have found ways to continue to adjust

and adapt in this series. And the Panthers really haven't done any, like there's been very little. It's been, like, they know who they, they are, and that's great. It's an easy, it's great if you know who you are and it can be really effective. But Dallas and Florida are both teams that are throughout their line of very predictable. And one of the things that made them both great is how predictable they can be, especially attacking through the neutral zone. And effectively, the Oilers have kind of done the

same thing to both teams where, okay, we know what you do and we can figure it out by game four. now throw us a change of every once in a while. So I think that's something that I think I probably missed that about this Oilers team in the Dallas series honestly. Like I think I watched that and I underrated that from how Edmonton won that Dallas series. And now you just kind of have to give credit to it. And I'm giving some past credit as well from as well. So I think that part of that though is like this Panthers team along the way has been

part of the charm with them was how they were just always the aggressor in the issue. it, right? And so when that's the case, you're not necessarily having to mold yourself around your opposition because what you do presents such a problem for your opponent that that's all they're preoccupied with. And even in that Rangers series for all the firepower in New York had, every single conversation about it was like, what does this Rangers defense do to get around this forecheck? Like how can they break out of the zone? They just keep getting sent back and keep turning it over. And that was the overarching theme of pretty much every series. The Panthers have really played the past years in the post season other than last year's cup final of course and so yeah you're right i mean

i meant meant to think about it like however you want to describe it um with their backs against the wall and then with them on the ropes this season it's just an unbelievable story that they're writing here right from the regular season certainly it starts with the coach firing and where they were in the standings but that was a thing where it's like all right well mac david and make holm get a bit healthier they have too much talent to be this bad but this postseason down three two to vancouver win those two games Down 2-1 to Dallas, down 2-0 in game 4, come back and don't look back. And now in this one, down 3-0, we'll still see what happened in game 7. There's another big game to be played here, so we don't want to lose that plot.

But yeah, I mean, it's just a string now of whether it's adjustments or their best players coming through in these big moments, whatever it is. They've certainly been doing it. And Florida has not done that at all in the series. Yeah. I mean, I meant it goes back to the storyline, right? like before that 16 game win street they had lost three in a row earlier in the year they had lost three in a row then respond like i think i don't know how many times it was that they lost three in a row but there was the stat that they had in the broadcast where every single time

edmonton did lose what had lost three and or they'd won at least four in a row afterwards and i typically probably wouldn't apply that as like oh that's a that's a translatable thing to the stanley cup final but i don't know maybe maybe it is like we this this oil team has been, and I've been at all the games in Florida, all the media availability in Florida, and this Oilers team has remained incredibly confident about their spot as a team. Like, there's never been any, like, real feeling that they were out of it. Like, like, it's just been a very incredibly confident team that, hey, this is where we've been for so forth. And so just credit to, whether it's the team leadership or the coaches or whatever, I think you have to give some credit

to them where it's, they have somehow found a way to translate rent. regular season adversity into actual playoff adversity. I don't think that's the thing a lot of teams

can't actually do. Well, I know he had zero points in this game and it was relatively quiet by his standards. And that's kind of scary for Florida

because I imagine that will not be the case again in game seven because he usually does not have back-to-back efforts like that.

But I would also feel very confident if I was on the Edmonton Oilers and I knew that Conor McDavid was on my team. So that helps

quite a bit. And certainly even though he's had his struggles and they've been well documented in this series. You just see that past the Andres set I was able to make it. You could tell early on that he had a little bit of juice, right?

Like he had that rush where it really gave Abrovsky a lot of trouble catching it with his glove. And then that set up, like he still got that in reserve and was able to channel it. And I imagine we'll see more of that in game seven. And yeah, like when you have those guys that generally I feel pretty comfortable going into a fight if I'm armed with those types of weapons. You know, I was kind of talking about the rush. rush goals for Edmonton. And in this game, you know,

another poor, safe percentage from Bobrovsky, I've been not critical of his play in this series, but I've pushed back on the notion that he was the reason they were succeeding early on. Certainly not to blame for these goals against,

right? Like these are cross-ice plays, breakaway, East-West stuff, which we were just saying, Florida is getting none of, and Edmonton is being able to create time and time again.

It is interesting when you're kind of looping it into the adjustments Edmonton's made, though. They were getting some of these looks early on and now they're finally breaking through, so I think there's an element of that. But it became pretty clear early in the series that with the way Florida was defending in their own zone similar to Vegas last year, Edmonton wasn't really going to be able to break through with their usual cycle offense, right?

Like their in-zone stuff just was not creating a lot of clean looks. There was a lot of point shots from particularly the Bouchard-Eck-home pair. and now that they've broken through in the series offensively, I don't think it's an accident that all of it has come off of these transition plays where Florida's being stretched out and kind of out of position. And I think we know also that it's not groundbreaking to say that his relative weakness is rush shots

because that's the case for, you know, they're the most dangerous shots. But if Brodowski is susceptible in one way is particularly the lateral stuff because he's so noisy and he gets moving. And then if you can lift it, you actually have a chance to get a biob. And speaking of execution, it feels like that's something Edmonton's been doing really well,

particularly going to the right. I know that was a bit of a, or making him go, I guess, to the right. That was a bit of a story as well. I know that Henrique goal was going to the left and he went against the grain, but a lot of these have felt they've been coming that way. And so I thought that was pretty notable. And it's clearly a game plan for them and they're executing it. And that's why they've had the success they've had in these three games.

Well, think about what happened in game one, right? where it was a high shot quantity and everything like that, but that was Spabrovsky just finding everything through traffic, right? Like, that was him, game one was the shutout victory, or was it 3-0 or whatever it was. And that was just Spabrofsky finding everything, tracking everything, and he got his accolades from that and everything. But really, after, and it happened in game two as well,

because the one goal 11 game two was that at home rush chance for the five hole. But like same thing in game two, where he was just feeling it, just like tracking. Really since game two, can you think of a time? And I've been at these games in person

and watched them on TV. It's hard to see even the times where Brodowski has seen even to try to, other than the penalty kill, it's hard, I'm having a hard time trying to even watch, trying to picture Barbarowski, trying to battle to find Pucks,

which is what he loves to build on as a goal, Like you can tell that that's, he gets kind of that extra jolt from those little two, three save flurries through traffic. It seems something that he just builds on and it's effectively been taken away because Edmonton's no longer trying to score that way. Like it's, and whether that's, if we could give Knoblock Truth Serum, whether that's something that he would completely want or not, who knows? I mean, because obviously they're generating on the rush. And if you don't score on the rush, you'd like to keep. it and try to maybe get something on the cycle. So maybe that's, but I don't know.

Maybe it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's an interesting thing to see how it's impacted a goalie who, like, I remember the glove save. Um, do you remember the glove saving game one where Bobrovsky basically makes it through the other, through the screen there's body? I can't remember who it was. It was a Bouchard shot. He makes it basically, basically makes the, the gloves save reaching. And you're like, and you're like, oh, man, he's like, he's, he's seeing it.

And you're like, okay. I haven't had to see him do something. like that really since game two well there was also play on bushard actually in game three and ferraro was talking about at the time where it was off one of these end zone sequences but it was kind of a bit of a loose puck broken play it comes to bushard he's drifting down downhill and bobrowski just came like way out and cut off the angle and made a stop on him right it was such an aggressive save and now everything i keep seeing in this stuff i'm no kevin woodley certainly but he's playing so far back. And I think that's part of this as well. And that's kind of like, there was the one chance they

didn't actually score on in the second period, but it was McLeod behind the net, right? And then he makes a pass out to Henrique and he just wound up missing his target. Like, Broowski may as well have been fully in his net on that play. Like he was just so far back and just so passive. And that's an issue against this Oilers team that is really good at executing these like lateral plays at the goal mouth sort of, right? And so, um, I think it's been a series of things, certainly, but I don't think he's done himself any favors with that. And maybe it's just the fact they've kind of broken through here.

And now you're reeling a little bit. I think there's an element to that certainly. Any other kind of stuff that you're seeing here are noting? Any reasons for optimism beyond the fact that, listen, it's 3-3, but you still essentially just have to win one home game if you're Florida. And I think everyone at this point is like, oh, man, they're in trouble here. Like, this was their opportunity. They did not want to let it get to this moment.

it's going to be really tough now to recover after this. Is there anything you're seeing that would inspire confidence that they either can attack something or they've stumbled upon something that could do something that could actually yield some success, especially early in Game 7 to prevent it from being another situation where they're down by multiple goals, having to sort of throw the kitchen sink at the wheelers?

I mean, it's hard to, right? Like, it's not like there's things where it's like, okay, I'd like to see, I thought Barcoff was actually really good tonight, right? Yeah, I thought he was really good. He was really good tonight. And you know what? It's if there's going to be like someone's going to have a moment in game seven, right? And this is going to be the old sports writer cliche.

Someone's going to have a moment. And sometimes it's a depth guy. But more often than not, it's usually someone who plays a lot. And so I look at from a Florida perspective with Barkoff, like, you know what? If he was this good in game six and they lost, like I could see. see him having that type of a game like we kind of saw with him in game three where he responded to getting knocked out of game two and then maybe that's maybe that's maybe that's kind of the space for maybe that's the kind of optimism for florida i think and then you follow barcoff's

example for that because it's otherwise i'm really struggling to find other positives for the panthers to pull on because anything i'm going to point out i could have pointed out after game four. I could have pointed it out after game five. And it's, so it's hard to kind of believe that, hey, there's going to be, like, I'm just struggling to kind of see this new reason for confidence. I'll put it that way. Yeah. I mean, we talked about the breakouts for Edmonton, where they did get into a bit of trouble in this game was I don't think it was a coincidence that both times were Röberg turnovers and I think he's been phenomenal particularly the situation he's been put into but he's a young defenseman who's playing his offside and I think both of them right there was the

the one which obviously didn't wind up biting them because they challenged it and the goal was disallowed but then there was shortly after another one where he turns it over and then reinhart sauces it over to bark off McDavid hauls him down as we said the oilers can take penalties without worrying about it at this point but also that turnover created directly the scoring chance. Both were, I couldn't help but notice, as a left-shot defenseman playing the right side, he was like making plays on his backhand going up the wall, and Doylers have had some trouble doing so, him in particular, but Kulak's done it a few times in this series as well. And so that pair of him and Nurse, it didn't

burn them in this game, but those are a few turnovers that are kind of fueling whatever limited amount of offense, Florida has been able to cobble together. So maybe that's something you try to kind of harp on a target. But I do feel like if Florida is going to break through either Verhege or Reinhardt's going to finally have to have to have a goal scoring game like they're capable of and like they have in the past, but they haven't at all done in this series. And I'm just converted on a few of these opportunities. Ryan Hart had one late in the third period.

Avo Barkoff pass and either missed the net or it got saved. I forget. I think it was a Skinner's nice save. But yeah, they're just going to have to get some more offense from those guys because we saw Kachuk delivering game five. We saw Barkov, I thought, in game six, but those other kind of complimentary guys haven't held up there in the bargain. And so, yeah, I don't know.

It's brutal for them because on the one end, it's like Edmont is scoring a bunch of goals and creating all these odd man rushes themselves. So that's an issue. You've got to tighten that up. But also, you're not really creating meaningful offense yourself. And so you're kind of feeling it from both sides. It's not just one thing.

You have to tidy up. Yeah. It's not, I mean, it's a, like, you've lost three in a row to a team that somehow specializes in this coming back from losing multiple games and it's hard to be optimistic for Florida right now. It just is, especially with what the Orioles have done. I think what's been noticeable to me is,

you know, we kind of glorified this time of year these like greasy postseason goals where there's weird balances and there's pucks around the net and inexplicable stuff's happening, and we might see that in game seven. If there was ever a stage for it, it would be that one. But doesn't it feel like a lot of these goals have also just been like, and part of it is because so much of it is happening off the rush for

Edmonton, but they've actually been like very clean and nice goals for the most part in this series, right? That's another thing as well. And that's because so much of it is happening in transition. And I think that's more likely to be a beautiful passing player, a nice finish like Hyman had. But instead of all of these sort of prototypical weird playoff bounces and goals, it's just been execution clinically off the rush. And I thought that's been noticeable. Yeah. I mean, the only like, quote unquote, weird goals we've seen Edmonton score was maybe the McDavid, the McDavid. Bro,

Bro, Braun Shaw went off Mikola, right? In game. That's true. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah. And I was about to say, the only one that was, people were talking about weird was because it, it sparked an RVH discussion, of course, with class. But that's still a goal off the rush.

That's not like, like, that's the, that's we're talking about goalie, save selection and what he should have done. We're not talking about a weird one. We're talking about a beautiful rush play. So there's been,

I mean, I guess maybe, yeah, any weird one, like maybe the, like there's the Yanmark goal back in game four where if you go back and watch it technically looks like he's going to miss the net, but he shoots it off Barcoving. But that's, once again, that's off a rush. Like, it's, there's no weirdness where it hits six legs and balance Antoine Russel kicking a puck from below the goal line that bounces off a goalie's head. And then we get a 15 minute review like I've covered in my life. You know what?

I think I saw that heading into game seven right now, Connor McDavid's odds for the con smith are minus 3,000. And they were like, I think at their lowest, they were plus 1,800 in game 4 or so. I think I saw that somewhere on Twitter. And deservedly so, like especially at this point now that it's gone 7 and no one on Florida has really distinguished themselves.

I think even lost, the totality of his work has just been so historic that he's going to win it. I would love to, So what they do is, you know, all of these potential clincher games, right? You file a contingency. Yes. Is that correct?

Yes. Can you give me a little, what's the process there in terms of how that works? Because I want those, release the tapes. I want to see from game four, five, six. I want to see every contingency ballot released and put together in some sort of a graphic or spreadsheet. Yeah. So the last, yes.

So I have voted for the cons. I have not a voter this year. So I can be clear to so I can speak a full piece in my. mind, so I did not have to worry about it. In every potential clinching game, if you're one of the 18 people, I believe it's 18 now, they get chosen to vote. You have to turn in a continue, you have to basically turn in your cons might ballot with, with about, it's about seven, eight minutes left in the game. And you can add a couple caveats if you'd like, like if it's a, like if it's a tie

like if it's a tie game and you want to be like hey if so and so gets the game when you can add some of that there's a little bit of leeway but it's basically about seven eight minutes left in the third of any potential competition game so like tonight they have to do it for every game

but when it was five but when it was I mean they've done it now multiple games where the games have been blowouts where even in the eight one game where they've tend to turn in consmite ballots at the eight one game where it was clearly never going to be matter anyway. So you do that.

The one difference will now be for game seven, which is an interesting twist, is since both teams can technically win the cup, you are allowed to technically file, you could do a double contingency ballot or you could deal with seven, eight minutes left in the game, you could file a ballot if Florida wins, if Edmonton wins.

You can have, you can do that as well. So there will be, I mean, I think, but I love the idea of releasing the tapes here. So we'll get the final ballot from everyone. We'll get everyone's final ballot. But yeah, like how the ballots evolve from game four to seven is going to be great. Yeah, well, I want to see the charting of it, right? It's like, I imagine it was probably like unanimously Bobrovsky. And now regardless of what happens, I probably should not get like a single vote.

And McDavid went from like nothing, maybe a few stragglers. Certainly would have been on the ballot, but not as number one. And now it's almost unanimously flipped the other way. So I love that. That's good stuff. By the way, didn't mention it much because he wasn't really tested early on, right? Like what, two shots in the first period, as we said, forwards weren't involved. I thought Skinner made some really big saves as the game went along.

And in particular, I wanted to shout out the play he made, which I tweeted out a clip of on the final empty netter where the puppy was going wide. So he didn't necessarily stop it from going in. but with his paddle, stop the puck, and then in the same motion, essentially, flipped it out for a little breakout past his defenseman that wound up being the goal, and it was just so smooth. And the angle from inside the net was very satisfying.

So if you haven't checked that out, go find that on my feed. Sean, this was a blast. I will, I'm not only, you know what? I'm not going to let you plug any stuff because I think you've been on enough. Everyone knows. Check out your website, your work at the IP ringside. You're going to be there in attendance for Game 7,

which I know you've been traveling a lot, too, and I'm sure you're gas at this point as well, but what an opportunity to be in the building for that. It's going to be unbelievable. Either way, whatever happens, I hope we're treated to a great game. And, I mean, game sevens are always the best.

Game seven of Stanley Cup Final. I don't care how late into the summer it is. If that doesn't get you excited, then you need to check your pulse because I don't know, I mean, I don't know why you'd be listening to the show, certainly, but I think everyone that is should be excited and it's going to be a good one. I don't know if you can tell,

but I'm feeling a little delirious. not because it's late in the night or anything here in the Pacific time. It's very manageable. But I think this is the sixth hour of PDOCAS broadcasting that I've done the past like 24 hours. And there's been a bunch of new shows in the feed. Got a couple more in the pipeline that'll be dropping soon here as well than I'm excited about. We'll be back on Monday night. I'm going to let you just enjoy all your coverage there. I think our pal Thomas Drands is going to be back in the house coming back from Palm Springs.

So hopefully him and I are going to get together and record what will be at least one, if not two hours. after game seven and breaking all that down so you can find us here on the PDOCAS feed then have a great weekend enjoy a couple restful nights before the anxiety and stress and excitement that Monday night will bring and thank you for listening to the Hockey PEDEOCast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network