Postgame Show: The Hockey Show Takes Edmonton
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Welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Drucker of Hockey News is joining me from Edmonton. And with us is Dennis Prinstein from the fourth period. We are going to discuss game six, which would hopefully be a win for the Panthers. So, I mean, we're not going to come back here after this, obviously. This is the last home game for the Edmonton Oilers in the season. So we're good on that part. But in games four and five, um,

What went right for the Oilers in this situation? We've been talking about what went wrong for the Panthers all series right now, but what's gone right for the Oilers? The special teams. Starting both games with a shorthanded goal. Having the crowd behind you and playing confident hockey. I think that's it. I don't want to talk about what's gone wrong for the Panthers because it's a pretty long list, but this is the Edmonton Oilers team, Roy, and Dwight.

Dworky, when they're playing well, that's how they play. Aggressive, confident, bottom six production, and not a lot of mistakes from their defense. And they cleaned up a lot of stuff. And I think that game four win – if the Oilers had won game four 3-2, I think the series is over.

But the disparity in that score of 8-1, I think they gave them way more confidence going back down to Sunrise. That's why they found a way to win 4-3. So I think that's it. I think you see Oilers' wins look like not Game 4 because that was an anomaly. But you saw what you got. Bouchard gets a power play goal. They get Sage, some Skinner. Nurse and CeCe don't make big mistakes. So that's why we're back at Edmonton, a city I'm sure you guys love.

It's not bad. There's some nice spots to visit here in Edmonton, Dennis. You talk about what the Oilers are doing right. I feel like they've really been able to flex their muscle over the last couple of games with their speed. Their zone exits have been a lot cleaner. And honestly, I feel like they're throwing the Panthers game right back at them with a bit of a heavy four check and taking away Florida's time and space. Have you kind of noticed that Edmonton has kind of turned the series on ahead by doing what Florida has done well throughout the playoffs?

Yeah, but Dave, where's the physicality from the Panthers last week? If you're up 3-0 and it's done and you quieted the building game, why did you go out in game four and pound the crap out of the team? And why did you do it at home? The aggressiveness isn't there.

And now, I'm sorry, we all love Paul. He's a great coach. He's eloquent. Coach up. Let's go. I know you're making changes tonight, but if it goes south again tonight, his legacy is at stake here. It's on the verge of very negative history. So I agree with you, Dave. I think that they –

And I think in the first three games, I don't want to throw Paul on the bus totally. He way outcoached Noblock. But the last two games, not so much. But, yes, their strategy changed for game five. Not for four because that was just they weren't ready to play. So I think that's it. I think the aggressive four check. But the Panthers got to find their game. Like the last two are not what got them here. And they need to do that tonight without question. Exactly.

Dennis, I also wanted to kind of ask you a little bit about the consmith race right now. I feel like earlier in the series, we were talking about Sasha Barkov or sorry, sorry. Bobrovsky was the guy early in the series. And I feel like there's been a bit of a trend more toward the Barkov love in terms of the consmith. But also, yeah, we could we possibly see.

a losing team, Conn Smythe, for the first time in 21 years? Is Conor McDavid, because he's got more points than everybody times two right now. So I feel like there at least needs to be a discussion for that. Yeah. Well, with respect to Barkov, and we had Dan Rosen on our pregame show for SiriusXM. You were on there as well. Thanks for coming on. And I talked to Dan about it because my perception was Wabrowski. And Dan made a great point. It's the entire playoff run. And

And for the Panthers, Bobrovsky wasn't the better goalie in the Boston series. Swamming was. Certainly wasn't the better goalie in the Rangers series because Shostakovich kept that team in there. So if you're talking about the entirety of the playoffs, it would be Barkov. But I agree with you. 42 points and Barkov has 21. Are you going to give it? No. It's the best player in the playoffs. Yes.

It's Conor McDavid. Like, I don't care if they win, lose, draw, whatever. He's the most valuable player in that. And what's Leon doing in this round? Nothing. Bouchard's making mistakes left and right. Folley played a good game in game five. It really has to be Conor McDavid. Like, we know some of the voters, and I will tell you this.

I think they have to vote by the second period of the clinching game. So in game four, let's say the Panthers came back. It would have been Barkov. I really think it would have been Barkov. But now you're talking about two guys who have scored back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup final, Wayne Gretzky and Conor McDavid. How do you not give it to Conor? I get it. It won't be great, especially – guys, especially tonight. Imagine if the Oilers lose and you've got to hand a consmite to Conor on the home ice when he lost the Stanley Cup final. Yeah.

No, that's not going to be good. And somebody joked, I think it was Boom on SiriusXM, saying that would it be like Lee Sanderson throwing a silver medal into the crowd? I hope not. But I don't know how you can't not vote for Connor McDavid at this point because the numbers are staggering. Should we be surprised about Stuart Skinner's play so far? If you look at him from games four to seven in the playoffs, we shouldn't be.

But I don't know what's through. I mean, he could come up with a bad game tonight. I don't know. Not totally. He's got a really good team. It's funny. The team plays better in front of him and doesn't make mistakes. He's a better goaltender. Wow, what a shock. And be honest with you, same thing with Bob, right? And I get the third goal by Connor wasn't great. But when in game five, your best defenseman's OEL –

Don't hang it all on the goaltender, please. But so not shocked by Skinner, like not shocked by Skinner. But again, is he going to win it for them? Like, is he going to put up like I'll put it to you this way, Billy. If I told you one guy was going to put up heroic performance and make 43 or 44 saves tonight and have his team win, you'd probably say it's Bob and that's do Skinner. Yeah. Yeah. What about Evander Kane? How hurt is he?

Sports hernia. He's not going to play. And, you know, old man River, Corey Perry scores a power play goal in game five, the game winning goal. David scored that goal. Let's be clear. That was McDavid's goal, not Corey Perry's. Yeah. Well, maybe I could score that goal too. And I can't say.

I don't think Roy, I don't think he's going to play. He can't. Like, you can't put a guy out there with a sports hernia who's laboring, who if the Panthers are going to play a speed game, how are you going to get back down on the ice? They're going to take advantage of that. And, of course, as we know, Evander's not the most well-loved teammate either, so I can't fathom that. And plus, why would it change? You want two in a row. The guy hasn't played. Again, this is a desperation game, so I don't think Evander will play. And to be frank, I'm not sure he's going to be part of the team next year.

You talked about some of the moves that you'd like to see Paul Maurice make. We saw one, you mentioned Oliver Ekman-Larsen, actually. He's now taking reps on Florida's number one power play, which we saw early in the season when Montour and Ekblad were injured, but not really since then. I think that they're keeping Gus Forsling off the power play just because they know he's playing so many minutes and he's so important to their penalty kill that they're trying to maybe manage his minutes a little bit more. But in terms of Florida's defense...

And you kind of just mentioned it when your best defender is Oliver Ekman Larson and you just come back on the road at home for it is able to maybe play the matchup game a little bit more. You get fours when you're not out there against McDavid. Now it's going to be even more difficult. How big of a game is this for Florida's defenseman to step up regardless of the matchups?

Your top pair has got to be your best players, though. You can't accept OEL again to be your best defenseman. No. Eckblad and Forrester, you have to do the job. They have to. It's as simple as that. And Aaron, to be honest with you, hasn't really been a factor in the series. And maybe he's injured. He hasn't been that physical. He hasn't been that effective. It's just a weird thing to work. I don't know why. So, yeah, you could say, oh, OEL can have a great game and stuff like that. How great a game? What's he going to do, play 27 minutes and defend Connor every shift? No. He's not that guy anymore.

And that's the one great thing about that pair. It's been a great third pair, but it's still a third pair. You need your big guys to show up in a big spot. You need it tonight because, guys, you don't want to go back down to Florida. None of us want to go back to Florida except for you guys who live there. You don't want to go back for game seven. I don't want to go back and come back for another game. Guys, this has got to be the Panthers game seven, not game six. It's got to be game seven. That's got to be the mentality tonight for this team because if you go back and you face it again, the last three in a row and Connor's going nuts again,

You don't want that to happen. Nick Cousins in the fourth line. How's that going to affect things? Because we've been talking about the Panthers' depth all series and how their depth is pretty much better than the Oilers'. But Nick Cousins...

As far as discipline is concerned, how is that going to affect the Panthers? That's the word, Belly. Belly, that's the word. You hear the discipline. But speedier than Oposo. Oposo didn't take a good penalty in game five. More energy. So to have Lomborg and Cousins out there, I have no problem with it. Because guess what, guys? Your fourth line shouldn't win the game.

It shouldn't lose you the game, but it shouldn't win you the game. So love Kyle, love his leadership. He's been eloquent on the podium, but give Cousins a shot here, right? Because Kyle wasn't effective enough and it's a fourth one, but it shouldn't be, you know, you need, you need for Hagee and Reinhardt to step up here. Let's be honest, right? That they really need to step up here, especially Sam. So we'll see, but no problem with the change to Cousins. I think it's a smart move by Paul. Let's say the Panthers actually lose this game.

Game seven, back at home. What's going to happen? They just left the building. Game seven at home. We're keeping this positive. Look, as a reporter, I want that drama. Game seven, winner take all, one game, great. If you're a Panthers fan, it's the last frigging thing you want.

You want to have a parade next week. You don't want to worry about Monday night. You want to play. You want to have a parade. Right. So, again, the more desperate team is the team that's ahead in the series. The Panthers need to be more desperate than the Oilers because the Hornets are playing with house money. Everybody wrote them off. They're done. They're over. They're going to get swept.

Right. This has to be a desperation game for the Panthers. It's got to be the best game in the series, guys. It really does. Oh, they all got to show up and they got to show up to start the game. And please, no shorthanded goals to start the game. Can you stop with that? Two games in a row. I mean, come on. Be the confident team that got here, that beat the Rangers, that beat the Bruins, you know, that beat the Tampa Bay Lightning. I didn't see that in four or five. I want to see it in game six about the Panthers.

Dennis Bernstein from the fourth period. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, Stevie. It was great being on the hockey show, boys. All right, we'll see you tonight. We are back in Edmonton. We didn't think we would be back in Edmonton, but David Dwork of the Hockey News and Rival Bellamy is here. We're here. We're here in Edmonton. Dave, why?

because the Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the series and Edmonton woke up. They won game four at home. What was it? 8-1 or whatever it was. And then the Edmonton Oilers played a great game in Sunrise the other night, which made us book a flight back here. We are now in beautiful Edmonton. No complaints. No complaints about Edmonton. We like Edmonton. We do not like having to travel at the last minute to Edmonton for the Stanley Cup Final.

Good job on the Oilers for forcing a game six. But, dude, yeah, we're tired. We're tired. Yeah, we have to blame somebody for this. Who are we going to blame? Oh, man, I don't know. Connor McDavid, it's your fault. Mick overrated. It's your fault for not being overrated. It's your fault for being rated, for scoring four points a game, for getting us back here. It's your fault, Connor McDavid. Why do you have to be so damn good? I'm sorry.

You're blaming John Reed. Rose is blaming John Reed. That's where we are right now. It's not even Greg Cody's fault. It's not Greg's fault. It's Conor McDavid's fault. Why do you have to be so damn good, Conor McDavid? Okay. All right. So we're back in Edmonton. Our flights, Rose and I, we flew out at 645 from Miami. Okay. And this was a normal flight. Nothing went wrong.

Thank God. We went up to Chicago. We were in O'Hare. That was a very quick layover. And then we flew over to Calgary. And then we got a rental car. We drove three hours. And here we are. Normal. Didn't take too long. You made it for happy hour. You made it for happy hour. We made it for happy hour. No, we did not make it for happy hour. Happy hour ended just after we got there. You made it.

All right, you made it for after happy. I don't know, whatever. We were there. I don't know what to say. We were there. We pay regular prices for our drinks. Dave, how did your flight go? My flight was pretty chill. Just like the last time, I did not sleep between the previous home game in South Florida and the game in Edmonton. But, I mean, look, at the end of the day, I feel like we shouldn't complain, right? We're here. We're covering the Stanley Cup final. It's in one of the coolest places. Edmonton after game four was awesome.

We're just tired. Yeah, I have a lot to complain about. Mostly not because of anybody that we work for or work with. It's all about the Florida Panthers not winning game four or game five. The fact that we are back here in Edmonton. Beautiful city. Beautiful town. Quiet town. It'd be nice if we could live here during the summer. That'd be cool. Yeah, right. Yeah, sure. Just during the summer. Yeah. But the fact that we are back here.

For game six. I'm exhausted, man. I'm really exhausted. And we are trying to fill time here so we can get to a video. But yes, we are going to continue to fill time. So, what went wrong...

in game four? I mean, credit to the Edmonton Oilers for I feel like they kind of looked at the Panthers game, said this is how they're beating everybody. And they said, we're going to throw that back in their face and see what they can do with it. And, you know, good for them. It's working to this point. The aggression on the Edmonton Oilers

point has been pretty solid. They're taking away the Panthers time and space. Florida has been struggling with their zone exits, with their zone entries, with trying to get something going. I'm curious to see what the Panthers do to adjust to that in game six here in Edmonton. We're back in Edmonton. We mentioned that. Yeah. But credit to the Oilers. They've done a great job. They fell behind 3-0. It looked like the series was over. They turned it on its head. And now we're here back for game six.

I don't know, I'm excited to see a great hockey game tomorrow. It seemed like the Oilers took advantage of the Panthers' aggression on their blue liners as they tried to get into the offense. It's been all about, really, the Oilers' speed. Like, we knew coming into the series that they were a fast team. They've taken that speed, they've turned it around, basically when they're on defense, when they're playing their transition game. And Florida hasn't had a team that's taken that game and smacked them back in the face the way that Edmonton has.

There have been a lot of giveaways on the Oilers' part as they've tried to play that part. They've tried to play that game. However, it's worked well for them. Obviously, they've won back-to-back games. If Florida's going to adjust in Game 6 will be the key. But right now, Edmonton's adjustments are the key in the series right now, and that's what's gotten them back into it. In Game 5, the Panthers' special teams did not fail well. They gave up

three power play goals and on their own power play they gave up a shorthanded goal based on a

Bad turnover by Brandon Montour, which led to a Connor Brown breakaway. And he scored on that. And that has led to Brandon Montour not being on the first power play for the first power play line for the Panthers in Game 6. Yeah, that's right. The big changes that we're seeing ahead of Game 6, Oliver Ekman-Larsen is now quarterbacking the first power play in change of Brandon Montour. And then also we're seeing a couple lineup changes today.

Ryan Lombard came in in Game 5. We hadn't seen him since the Rangers series, since the beginning of the Rangers series. Now we're also going to see Nick Cousins and Ryan Lombard on that fourth line for Game 6, replacing Steven Lorenz and Kyle Akposo. We haven't seen the two of them since, I think, Game 3 of the Rangers series.

But obviously, Paul Maurice is trying to get a spark. He's trying to fuel his players. The Panthers, look, they were up 3-0 in the series. They needed one win out of four games to claim the Stanley Cup. Now it's one win out of two games. We're back in beautiful Edmonton. Paul Maurice is making his changes. Is it going to be enough to get the Panthers over the hump? We'll find out in 24 hours.

Ryan Lombard and Nick Cousins has more chemistry than Ryan Lombard would have had with Kyle Leposo, obviously, because they've been playing on the fourth line the entire season with each other. Yeah, Paul Maurice has kind of moved his fourth line in terms of groups. It was Steven Lorenz and Kyle Leposo. It was Ryan Lombard and Nick Cousins. For whatever reason, he just put Cousins in Game 5. Didn't quite work out for the Panthers. They started off...

Very slow. They eventually got their stuff going in Game 5, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Edmonton Oilers jumping out to that 3-0 lead. Now Paul Maurice is going back to a line grouping that he saw during the regular season and during the playoffs with Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins on that fourth line with Kevin Stenland, who's obviously a mainstay because of his impact on the penalty kill. Will it be enough to get the Panthers over the hump? That's the question.

On the other side, Evander Kane is not playing. He was on the scratch line during practice today. He will not be playing, most likely, in Game 6. Well, Chris Knobloch kind of left it open. He left the window open. He said there are some options for the Oilers ahead of Game 6. Evander Kane has not played in either of the past two games. He's been hurt. There are several Oilers players who have been battling injuries. There has been talk about Connor McDavid being among that group. However...

The last two games of Connor McDavid, Roy, have been otherworldly. He's been amazing. He's been the guy that Edmonton needed him to be and the guy that Panthers hoped he wouldn't be. It's been a little scary what Connor McDavid has done over the last two games. At the five games in the Stanley Cup final, are we going to see, what, the third player on a losing team to win a conspire trophy?

That's a little crazy to think about, but the way that McDavid has been playing, I mean, thinking back to... Assuming that the Panthers win, by the way. Right, assuming the Panthers win. I think back to 0-3 and John Sebastian Jaguar and the way that he basically carried Anaheim to that Stanley Cup final and into that Stanley Cup final. Karn McDavid has been spectacular. A little slow start to the final, but obviously he's picked it up.

If Florida wins and McDavid puts up another few points in this game, it would not surprise me. But I mean, look, at this point, Roy, we're here to cover the Panthers. We've followed them throughout the season. We've followed them to the final. I don't give a shit who wins the consummate at this point. We're in Edmonton. Win the fucking series, Florida. Let's go.

I had to ask the questions. All right, that's fine. Let's go. I'm excited to be here for the Stanley Cup final in a Canadian city. It was awesome. It was awesome after game four. Kudos to you, Edmonton. I have the utmost respect for you as a hockey city. Can we get the Panthers up 3-0? They need to win this thing. Let's go!

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