The Hockey Show: We're Going Back To Edmonton
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Cuervo. The tequila. That invented tequila. Proximo. Cuervo.com. Please drink responsibly. This is the Hockey Show. My name's Roy Tholomey. That's David Droka, the Hockey News. Ethan and Rosie are in the shipping container. They are our producers. We have the Stanley Cup final matchup set and ready. It's a rematch between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. Game one is going to be on June 4th. We're not going to talk about that right now. Dude.

Oh, we're not going to talk about it right now? No, we're not going to talk about that right now. I'll take a step back. Shut up, Eden! Eden, shut up! It's one of the great Stanley Cup final matchups of all time.

What do you mean we're not going to talk about it? I said right now. Right now. Right now we're not going to talk about it. What are we going to talk about? We are going to talk about... Welcome to the hockey show. We're not talking about it. We're not talking hockey right now. By the way, Bob Raschusen is going to join us in a little bit. Can we talk about hockey with Bob? The voice of hockey. The voice of hockey. He's one of the voices of hockey. He works for ESPN. Will we talk about hockey with Bob? We will talk about hockey.

Non-goalie Bob. Non-goalie Bob. Okay. You know, the guy that talks for a living. Broadcast Bob. Yeah. The voice of hockey. He's one of the voices of hockey. Ethan's a big fan. Yeah, he's a big fan. He has his phone number. That's how he booked the... That's my friend. Love Bob. Great guy. Little buddy. Anyway, we're not going to start talking about the Stanley Cup final yet. What we are going to talk about is a conversation that we had with Rose last night. Oh, no. That...

that was not hockey-related. You and I, separately, were watching the Western Conference Final, obviously, right? We were. Yeah, we were. And out of the blue, in our chats... Just as Conor McDavid scored. Yeah. Just as he scored. That was pretty beautiful. We'll talk about hockey soon. We're not doing it yet. You're trying to do us all a dissent over here. I don't want to make Roy any angrier. But this conversation that we had,

the four of us were in this group chat you know usually for show prep and stuff like that as rose just can't stop laughing because she's thinking about what happened last night yesterday all right she said it was sandwich day

That's the first thing she said. It's sandwich day. Conor McDavid scores and Rose says it's sandwich day. We did have sandwiches for lunch yesterday. And we've been talking about going to lunch after the show for months now. And we haven't done it. Not doing it today either. Are we all going to make sandwiches and give them to each other like secret sandwich day? Are we going to Mr. Baguette after or something like that? What are we doing? I didn't pay it any mind. Sucked me right in. But David didn't know what was going on. And he's like,

and he wanted a little bit of further clarity. It was the best because they did answer, so... Well, because Rose, just to explain what she was doing, she decided to go line for line of a scene from Lilo and Stitch. Oh, man, I'm trying to relate the story over here. Wait, so she texts me, Rose texts me, I'm also watching the game, I'm exhausted, and Rose texts me, if you know what I'm doing, don't say anything. And I texted her back,

Rosie, I have no idea what you're talking about. Nobody knows what you're doing, Rose. Nobody knows what you're talking about. She said, every Thursday I take Pudge to fish a peanut butter sandwich. And today we are out of peanut butter. That's when I got sucked in. Because...

I don't know what she's talking about. No, like who feeds their fish peanut butter? I don't know what that means. And then I'm like, and today we were out of peanut butter. And then Roy, Roy answered. This is the best message here. Rose writes, do you know what tuna is? And Roy writes, Bill Parcells. No, and the best part is like, and today we don't have peanut butter. And then Roy's like, you have a fish, dot, dot, dot. And you feed it peanut butter and bread.

That's when I started laughing. Yeah. And I couldn't stop with the joke. And then, you know, obviously we're talking about cannibalism with fish over here. I'm like... Fish only eat fish. What are we talking about? We're getting back to this again. Yes. You don't want to feed the fish. What else are they eating? Is the fish having steak for breakfast? Like, what are we doing here? Well, do regular fish, like, let's say... Okay, I don't know what they're called, so I'm just going to refer to them as Nemo characters. Clownfish. Just like...

No, I know... Thank you. I know Nemo's a clownfish, but I don't know what Dory's called, right? It's a blue... Angel fish. No, Dory's not an angel fish. Dory's a blue something. That sounded pretty smart. Does Dory eat...

Does Dory eat Nemo? Or is it more like sharks eat Nemo and other fish? I think sharks eat Nemo. Dory is a blue tang. A blue tang. Thank you. A regal tang, also known as a blue tang. By the way, Finding Dory, we love movies. We love Pixar on this podcast.

Finding Dory's better than finding me. Oh, wow. I've never seen it. Oh, man. Yeah. But the thing is that it ended with Roy saying, she ate a gummy, didn't she? Yeah. Yeah. That's when it all made sense to me. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that you were hacked. I asked you offline if you were hacked. Did you really? I did. Oh, man. That would have been worse. Your WhatsApp was hacked. I'm like...

Yeah, I know. I got it. I think I threw in a picture of Pudge Rodriguez at one point. Yes, you did. That's the only Pudge that we know. Pudge Rodriguez and Bill Parcells references. That's a great conversation. When I asked her if her WhatsApp was hacked, that was where our chat is, she said, wah-ha-ha-ha-ha. No.

Quote, unquote. I'm just looking at the messages that I added to this. What the bleep are we talking about here? Fish literally only eat fish. Late to what? What's happening right now? And then Pudge Rodriguez. That's unbelievable. I actually thought that this was her distracting us from having to think about traveling to Edmonton for games, potentially. Games five and seven yet again.

and I can feel Ethan's look. Listen, I've come around a little bit on this because Rosie told me about her adventure last time. I didn't know the full details where she had to fly from here to Dallas. We've only been saying it for a year, dude. Then she had to fly to San Francisco. No, I listen to you guys. Hold on, hold on, hold on. One second, one second, one second. If we're going to talk about my troubles, I'm going to say it. No, one second. So let me just say that I...

When I heard your travels, I heard seven different cities. And I didn't know how they all went. And then you had to drive from Calgary to Edmonton, which sucks. Don't get me wrong. But still...

Okay, so Rosie had to go from, the first time, had to go from Florida here, Dallas. San Francisco at one point. Yes, that's what I'm saying. First, I had to go from Miami to Houston. Then I lost my flight from Houston to Denver. So they had to change it from Denver to San Francisco. Then from San Francisco to Edmonton. In Edmonton, there is a storm. So we have to fly all over Edmonton. Oh, we run out of gas. So we had to go to Calgary. We filled the tank and

And then we go back to Edmonton. Now it's just game four. Yeah, that was the first time. Don't get me wrong. That's brutal. And then they lost 8-1. You guys still. 7-1. But you guys still interviewed. No, it was 8-1. You guys still interviewed Alexander Barkov on the ice after he. That was at home. That was at home. To lift the Stanley Cup. So you didn't have to go to Edmonton if you didn't want to. We did. We did.

But you went. There's no way because they wouldn't have gotten beaten, what, 13-2 in those two games or whatever it was. If they would have actually closed out the series there like so many of us thought they would, there was no way we were going to miss that. There was no way. Well, remember, Dmitry Kulikov and Vladimir Tarasenko told us that him and Vladimir Tarasenko, even they didn't believe they were going to close out the series in Game 6.

You remember that? Speaking of belief. I mean, that locker room was trashed at the game six. Total side note, and I know we'll get to this later. Speaking of belief, the Panthers down 2-0 in game five in Carolina the other night when it looked bleak as hell and Carolina looked great. So angry. I ran into Max Ivanov, Panthers skills coach, in intermission. And I just looked at him. I'm like, rough period. And he goes, I think we're coming back. Oh.

That's the lead. Straight dead face. They're an amazing team. And then I saw him in the second intermission and he just laughed at me. It's rigged. It's rigged? That's what my mom thinks. My mom starts chiming in on hockey all of a sudden. She's like, I think the NHL is rigged because they didn't want the Panthers to go to the... My mom always does this too. It's like, dude, why would they put Florida up 3-0 if it was rigged? Like, oh my God. Wherever there's money, there's... Yeah, you are. Um...

Let's go to wins and fails. What just happened? Did Rose just glitch? Before I transitioned, what was that? What was that? That's why I said let's go to wins and fails. No, no, I want an explanation about this. The call just dropped. No, I was like... Into the microphone. I was going to say let's go to wins, but I didn't want to steal your thunder. When did that ever stop you? Wins and Fails brought to you by Jägermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister. Damn, that's cold. For more, visit Jägermeister.com. Drink responsibly.

Rose, I'm sorry. You just distracted me. I'm done for the rest of the show now. I'm just like off because of A, what you did last night, and you just short circuiting. I mean, what is going on, man? Dave, go ahead. So speaking of things that are cold, referencing our awesome sponsor, Jägermeister, my win of the week is cold.

Because my win of the week is the Carolina Hurricanes. Congratulations to you for your win of the week. Your first win in the conference final in 16 tries. So congrats. Nothing really to it. I don't want to, you know...

Just, you know, slow clap. Good job on you guys. Next time when you don't play the Panthers, maybe you'll win two or three or even four. You know, it might be a few years. I think the Panthers kind of set themselves up pretty well for the conference final for a while. But props to you, Carolina. You didn't get swept. The streak is over. I know Rod the Bod was happy to not be able to talk about it anymore. So, way to go. Happiness did not show during the handshake line. We'll talk about that later. My win of the week.

Comes from the International Ice Hockey Federation's World Championship for the men. The United States plays Switzerland.

And with both teams going to overtime, the Buffalo Sabres for Tate Thompson carry the puck into the zone, into the faceoff circle and fight a wrister for the golden goal. This win earns the United States men their first IIHF gold medal in 92 years. 92 years. It's been a good run for USA Hockey this year in 2025. You just saw the men win gold.

Four Nations team won silver. The World Junior team under 20 won gold. That's for the men. The World Men Junior team under 18 won bronze. The World Women won gold. The World Women under 18 won silver. That's a lot of goodness for our country. Yeah, and they still got the Olympics coming up in Milan in 2026. Oh, I'm going to try to go with that one.

You look like you're dressed for it. Yeah. No, I'm going to try to go to the Milan. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the hockey show covering the Winter Olympic? Oh, guys. That might happen because I am going. Good luck trying to convince. Rose will be representing the hockey show in Milan. I got to talk for that one. Ethan. I don't have a win of the week this week, Roy. Rose. So my first win of the week is, of course, our boy Barky.

When he did that assist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That assist. Look at him. This was sick. This might be his statue. That was the best. Him holding off Orlov here might be his statue. That was a holding penalty, by the way. That was a holding penalty on Orlov. It did not matter. They let a lot go. And my second win of the week is actually Roy. He scored. Also, look at him in practice. Whoa. Yeah, yeah. One, two, three.

And there he goes. Hey, hey. Yeah. You got the crisscross tape job going, too. I like it. Look at that. Look at that. Yeah. Yeah, I am. I'm in pain. I'm hurt. Get your legs into that, Roy. Get your legs in that shot. No, my feet were hurting. My shoulder feels like it's out of place right now because I kept crashing into the boards. Untuck the jersey in the back. It's untucked. It's bad luck. Bad luck. It was a bad look. Yeah, it's bad luck. That's all. I will do that. I want to see your hockey pants.

Okay. I would do that two weeks from now because I think next week, Wednesday, he's going to get postponed because again, here's my question for you though, as I watch you move. And when was the last time you got your state sharpened? Uh,

About a month ago, I think. Oh, two months ago. Might be time to get them sharpened. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I looked pretty slow out there. I kept falling in as well. You feel better. What's your fail, Dave? My fail of the week comes from the PWHL finals between the Minnesota Frost and the Ottawa Charge. Pretty funny moment when Manny McMahon and Melissa Chanel Watkins got their helmet cages torn.

Tangled up. And the referee, for whatever reason, did not want to stop play. She's literally standing next to them. They're screaming at her, we can't move. Help. And the ref was just like, eh, keep playing. And this was game three of the final. The game that ended up going to triple overtime. Can you imagine it being four and four after that? Oh my god. So Minnesota eventually won the game. They eventually won the series. Congratulations to them. Back-to-back champions for the PWHL. But that was one that I had not seen before and I hopefully won't see again.

My Fan of the Week comes from this play by Jesperi Kakaniemi. Seth Jones was handling the puck behind the net. And look at this. I hate this. Kakaniemi leapt. He left his feet, right? He left his feet, jumped. His skate went horizontal. He put his elbow up like he was trying to elbow him, trying to get a piece of Jones. And then he swung his stick with his left hand.

and a stick hit the board's head level where Seth Jones would have been. That's not... I hated that so much. That's four things that I just mentioned right there that were so dangerous. Some people were saying that he was trying to avoid knee-on-knee contact, but when you watch the replay and the way that he's coming in and the angle he's coming in, he's just trying to make contact. Their legs were kind of lined up, but it wasn't going to be a knee-on-knee hit. No, Jones moved his leg out of the way anyway. So I...

I don't know exactly what he was thinking, but thank God Jones was out of the way there because it was like one of those Matrix things where like slow motion things are just whizzing by that could potentially hurt him. But I didn't like that at all, dude. That's ridiculous. Ethan. All right. My fail of the week goes to me. A few months ago, I went to watch the Oilers and Panthers play.

And afterwards, I had a hot take, and that take has not aged very well. We're going to roll it right here. Went to watch the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers last night take on the team they knocked out in the Stanley Cup final, the Edmonton Oilers. And the Edmonton Oilers are 3-6-1 in their last 10. They've lost five in a row. I got a hot take, boys. They're going nowhere this year. Rough start to the year, and you kind of knew, okay, this isn't who Edmonton is. They're a lot better than this. They'll get hot. Listen, there's ups and downs for every team. They've played a lot of hockey.

I just don't think this team is going anywhere. I think there are too many good teams in the West. Dallas, Winnipeg, Colorado is still really dangerous in my eyes, even without Rantanen. What I saw from them last night, if you take McDavid out of the game, which the Panthers kind of did, they're relying on a lot of Brett Kulaks and Arvidsons and Skinners. And for what it's worth, these guys killed the Panthers.

Stanley Cup final last year. Look, they can always make a big move at the deadline and make a big play and get back into this thing, but I just don't see them as a real threat to win the Stanley Cup right now. He jinxed them even worse than I did. Rose and I are even on bad Oilers takes.

One of the reasons this is so bad is because their depth has been phenomenal in the Stanley Cup playoff. And I said that if you just take McDavid away and you make Arvidsson and Kulak and whoever else beat you, it's a good strategy of attack. Well, I mean, McDavid's getting his, don't get me wrong, but their depth has been phenomenal. They look incredible. I cannot wait for the Stanley Cup final. And I and Rosie are both the reason that they're back. Rose, fail.

My fail of the week is that we have to go to Edmonton, but what can I say? That's my only fail. All right. For those of you watching on DraftKings Network, you can watch our interview with Barbara Susan from ESPN, and you can watch the rest of the show on YouTube. It's the Levitar and Friends YouTube page. Click on the playlist tab and click on our photo. Barbara Susan's coming up next. Folks, the Dan Levitar Show with Stu Gatz is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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We have Bob Ashuzen from ESPN. He's been covering the National Hockey League and very many other sports for the worldwide leader. And Bob has had a majority of his career

Down here in South Florida. And he has seen many iterations of this Florida Panthers hockey club. And there's a story that he tells a lot about what the Panthers, as far as an organization, does to attract people to the game. Bob, can you share that story with us? Going all the way back to when they were first founded? Yes. Yeah, I was at WQAM.

1993, the summer of 93, I arrived my first job out of college. And that happened to coincide with the Panthers being founded. Um, so I was, I was at opening night. I was the first ever Panthers game. And then we were there. I'm not stopped. I was probably, if they played 41 home games, I was probably like 38 of them because, uh,

I wasn't getting paid a lot, realized that the media buffet was free. So that was nice. But I remember, obviously, Wayne Huizenga owning the team back in those days. He also owned not just Waste Management, but Blockbuster Video. And there was a Blockbuster Video across the street from our apartment complex, myself and John Chamby. And we used to go rent movies there.

And I remember when the Panthers were first coming into existence at Blockbuster Video to teach South Florida, which I don't know if this is still the case, but I remember being told that

You know, Dade County spoke Spanish as a first language, like 70 percent of the people. Now we're trying to do hockey in downtown Miami. And so Wayne Huizenga had John Van Biesbroeck record this like, I don't know, 10, 15 minute tutorial video of this is hockey. And it was like, this is icing. This is offside. This is hooking. This is fighting. You can't do that with your stick.

And when you went to rent a movie back in the early 90s, you would get, if you wanted it, a free...

John Van Beesbrook explains hockey tutorial video. So you could go home and learn like what the rules of hockey were. So if you went to a Panthers game, you'd have some idea of what was going on. And now the Panthers are a dynasty. And you've got kids of like Cuban immigrants with like Hispanic last names that are diehard hockey fans that have grown up with this franchise. And it's they all blow up your phone every single day. Yes. Love it. And it's exactly what it's supposed to be. Right. Like it's worked.

It's proven that it worked exactly the way it's intended to work, to introduce this sport to a population that probably never saw ice before, much less, never was probably in temperatures below 50 degrees before, much less conceived of hockey, but then saw it.

Fell in love with it. Grew up with it. Loved this team. And now great crowds and an amazing general manager has put together an incredible team. And they might be on their way to back-to-back cups. So, you know, to see it from its infancy...

to see what hockey in Florida was like 30 some odd years ago and now what it is is awesome. I gotta tell you, if that video is still around, you need to give it to Rosie. I was going to say, do you have one, Bob? Do you still have one somewhere? Well, again, this is one of those things, you have no foresight. I would have held on to all of my Star Wars toys if I would have known that it was going to be really valuable someday or a collectible. So no, I didn't know that

the John Van Biesbroeck instructional tape was going to be something that you'd want to hold on to. I mean, I don't know, maybe somewhere, you know, in the depths of YouTube, you can find it, you know, or maybe there's some copy of the big stuff out there somewhere, but I don't have it. I'm literally Googling my butt off right now, trying to like all these different terms. I'm searching for it, but I'm coming up with nothing right now. Oh, yeah, I don't know. I mean, but then again, we don't have VCRs anymore. Maybe you should call up the folks at Blockbuster Video, but oh, yeah, I guess that probably wouldn't work either.

Bob, you were here, you know, you're talking about the Panthers in their infancy. It takes me back to like Miami Arena, downtown Miami, how different everything was back then. As somebody, you said you dropped WQAM. We have some familiarity with that. You had some veterans in the house. But knowing the hustle that has to come with being a radio producer, especially back then, give me your best South Florida sports story at Miami Arena, downtown Miami, Florida Panthers at that time. Overtown. Yeah. Just what's your best slash worst South Florida sports story from that era?

Oh, man, I don't even know. Like, you know, well, you know, I could tell you how, you know, strange like careers get started. Right. So I get brought down to Miami to be the Hank Goldberg's producer. Right. Like I was Hank's button pushing, call screening, traffic recording, guest booking as you guys do producer. OK. And I'm getting paid seven dollars and ten cents an hour. And I'm told to keep this under my hat.

*laughs*

Because there were guys at the radio station that were living at home, but they hadn't cracked seven bucks an hour yet. This is, by the way, 1993, not 1953. Yeah. Right. So 1993, I'm making seven dollars and ten cents an hour. But again, I'm paying rent. These guys are living at home. So I guess they figured if they bumped me up like the extra 30 cents an hour, somehow that would help me make the rent in our apartment complex. And so. All right.

I'm working every hour I possibly can. I am burning the midnight oil. I'm working 70-hour weeks just to try and hit overtime to get up to like $10 an hour. And our boy, Joe Zagacki, right, who the voice of the Canes, who was our program director at the time and, you know, was probably only about, I don't know, eight or ten years older than I was. I mean, he was, you know, in his early 30s. I'll never forget, he comes into the control room one day and

I'm probably there for like two or three months at this point. And I forget exactly how

he phrased the question. Do a Josie right here. Do you have a Josie? Do you have a Josie impersonation? Not really. Hey Bob! I need you to cover hockey! Where did you get a look? He comes into the control room and again, I forget exactly how he phrased it, but the essence of the question was do you know any other jerk off dumb enough to come down here and do what you're doing? Like, you have a guy. Give us one idiot that would be stupid enough to come here and work for $7 an hour. And I was like,

I got just the guy. His name is John Shambi. And he'll come, he'll come down here in a heartbeat because Boog was working, I think at a radio station in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Oh,

where there's like 100,000 people live in Bradford, Pennsylvania. And I think 75,000 of them at the time worked at the Zippo lighter factory. So that's where he was working. And he was done. Like, you know, they were sending him with like a police scanner to cover car accidents. If someone hit a telephone pole, he'd have to go out and cover it thinking he was going to be there for sports. So he's bailing. I called him up and I'm like, you want to come sleep on our couch?

And he's like, yeah, I'm on my way. And he basically hopped in his Tercel and drove south. And that was it. We ended up finding QAM as a home. And he ended up, I mean, three years later, he's in a Marlins victory parade. Well, I can tell you 32 years later, not

Not much has changed in radio. It's still getting paid very, very low. Ten bucks an hour is pretty good if you're working in a radio getting ten bucks an hour. I'm painfully aware. All right, Bob. We'll pivot here to actually talking about hockey, which we have not done enough on this show yet. And one thing I want to ask you about is from last night. You saw the Stars a lot this year. I feel like you saw them in the playoffs especially. And last night was really just – this whole series has been stunning, but last night it really feels like –

Things really fell apart, especially when DeBoer pulls Ottinger and there's Ottinger sitting on the bench next to Ray Ferraro. And this is the guy who I think should play goal for the United States next year at the Olympics.

What do you make of all this? What kind of changes could be coming in Dallas? Do you think this could be the end of the line for Pete DeBoer, where all of a sudden there's a rift between him and his franchise goaltender? What do we make of all that happened last night? To me, that was not about Ottinger. That was about, I realized that I am down to my last button to push, really. Because outside, again, of one flurry of power play goals,

in game number one, I mean, that was a non-competitive series. You know, you hate to say it. And to me, that's...

That's like a football coach faking a field goal or faking a punt in the third quarter of a game that he knows he's probably out of. You're down to kind of your last button to push. And Ray Ferraro said it. It wasn't as much about Ottinger. It was about, like, he's been on that bench. He knows the impact that making that kind of a switch can have. And you're hoping that that's going to be the last –

you know, kind of light the fire under the rear ends of your team move you can make when in reality, the stars were not winning that game and the stars were not winning that series. And I think to micromanage the big picture of what happened in all five games down to one decision made by Pete DeBoer when the series was pretty much all but lost would be, I think, blowing it out of proportion.

portion. Next year, Jake Ottinger will be the opening night goaltender. And if they can make a run next year, it'll be because Jake Ottinger is back where he's supposed to be. And that is as their franchise goaltender. And I think one conversation between Ottinger and DeBoer can probably put that to rest, at least between the two of them. Yeah. I mean, they're both hockey guys. It's not like it's an unheralded situation that we've never seen before. It was just, they were up against the juggernaut team from Edmonton. And that's kind of where I'm taking this now, Bob is the,

With the Oilers, the way that they're looking right now, they really dominated that series. You know, a couple bad periods, double bad penalty kills. But with Hyman going out, Ekholm coming back in, where are the Oilers right now as they head into this final? I know they're confident against the Panthers, but do you see them as better than they were last year and potentially a team that can get over the hump now?

Well, I mean, they got the thing to game seven last year, right? Like they don't have to be that much better in order to possibly win the series. As a hockey fan, you know, I know some people are rematch. OK, Edmonton, Florida. I want to see it right. Sign me up for seven more games of these two teams, because to me,

the team that when they can get to their game with their superstars being arguably, you know, I mean, certainly the best player on the planet, another top five player on the planet, what team is built better to come at you physically in waves, put an elbow in your chest and try and take you out of your game when you've got that kind of offensive talent than the Panthers. So to me, it's tough.

McDavid and Dreisaitl and their supporting cast against a team that probably has the best antidote for that of any team in the NHL when they get to their game. And it's going to be which team can get to their game and take the other team out of it.

And, um, you know, I think it's a toss up series, you know, I'll probably pick the Panthers in seven, uh, to suck up to you guys. But other than that, you know, I, I don't know how anybody could sit there and say, I've got a great feeling about the outcome of this series. Like I don't, there's, there's no, I mean, I haven't even looked, I'm not a Vegas guy. I'm not an odds guy, but this has to be almost a pick them series. It is. It is. I saw on ESPN last night that it's one 10, one 10. Yeah. I mean, it has to be like a, almost a coin flip result. Uh,

The Carolina Hurricanes finally won an Eastern Conference final game. It took them about 15 games, but they finally did it. But they end up being 1-15 in the last four East final appearances and with the mess with Mikko Rantanen. Where do you think they go from here? I don't know. Because to me, that team, especially what happened the first couple of games of the Panthers series, they're going to be the first team to win the Panthers.

There has to be a moment of realization where those guys are all sitting around the room, look at each other. And look, I don't know if anybody says it out loud. They probably don't. But you can look into the eyes of your teammate and tell we can't beat these guys.

We just can't. We can play as well as we're capable of playing and we can't beat them. Our goaltender isn't as good as their goaltender. Our stars aren't as good as their stars. Our depth isn't as good as their depth. They're more physical than we are. You know,

the Panthers can do to you, especially if you've got a team like I thought, you know, it's got to be hard to be the Rangers as well, to be committed to guys like the Zibanejad and Panarin of the world and then see the Panthers take those guys out of their game from regular season hockey to playoff hockey better than anybody. The fact that you have to go through that team to do it. Look what they did to the Lightning.

In the first round, like, you know, you've got probably a hard trophy winner and certainly the number one offensive player in the league in Kucherov was invisible basically for the entire series. Florida does that to you. And when it's your turn and they do it to you,

It's got to be a tough room to be sitting and looking at your teammates going or at least thinking to yourself, the cartoon bubble coming all out of all of those guys' heads must have been, we can't beat these guys and we know it. Because anybody that watched the series could tell that it was just a matter of time. Even if they won a game, all it did was delay the inevitable.

Bob, I have a general announcer question for you before we get out of here. You are the voice of hockey, and that is a very difficult job. I can't imagine what calling a hockey game is like. I've been dying to ask you this question.

On things like scrums in front of the net, block shots, saves, where the puck is just flying around, has your eye just been trained to know what's going on? Or how often are you guessing and just being like, I'll wait for the replay and see what exactly happened here? Well, I mean, I appreciate you saying that. My year ends at the end of the second round every year, so maybe someday it won't. I shouldn't.

Like to me, if you've watched enough of the game and called enough of the game, it's a combination of calling what you see, trying to keep your eyes on the puck for as long as possible. Obviously, your eyes immediately go to the goaltender to see if you can tell from his body language, has he found it in all of that traffic? And then looking at the body language of all of the players around the goaltender. I mean, if you've got a guy furiously stabbing his stick,

Then, you know, either someone's about to get decapitated in a fight because you're stabbing the goaltender who's got the puck or that thing must still be loose and he must see it. And so it's just describe what you see that that's really all it is. But the mayhem around the net, I mean, I'll I'll give you a perfect. Well, like the game winning goal where Edmonton ended it against Vegas. You describe what you see.

But there's a couple of sticks there and we're kind of low and on an angle in Vegas. I couldn't see that Kapanen was the player that got the puck in the net in overtime until we saw him celebrate. And he, you knew, you know, when they mobbed him that he was the goal scorer, but, uh,

You know, that's just the nature of like that little black disc in amongst sometimes a mosh pit. And it's probably a combination of trying to follow that, the goaltender, and then the body language of everyone that's involved in the scrum. Finally, you said you had the Panthers winning this one. How many games and who is the early favorite for the cons? My trophy? Well, I have seven and I would never pick these two teams in anything other than seven games.

And I don't have a problem. You know, like where is game one? I forgot. I don't have a problem. I would pick the Panthers in seven, regardless of venue, because they're better on the road than they are at home at times. You know, I mean, it's amazing how good they are on the road. So wherever the game is, I would pick them to have a great chance to win. I mean, the Panthers are so balanced.

Right. Like they're so deep there. They've got six different guys that could be that guy. Maybe I'll lean into Reinhardt. Maybe he's just going to have a big series and score four or five and get a couple in game seven. And, you know, he becomes the guy almost by default. But if there was ever a team that when they win, you could give that trophy as a group trophy, it's Florida.

They are the definition of the sum of their parts. For Edmonton, if they win the series, it's almost impossible to not think it's one of two guys. For Florida, it could just like seven or eight guys that it could conceivably be. If you wanted to single one out,

but that's a hard team to pick a guy on because they're so deep and so good. It feels like because of that, it's Bob's to lose, right? They would just default to the goaltender, especially because he's played really well. It's like the quarterback's the MVP of the Super Bowl every year, no matter what, unless they've got a running back that scores three touchdowns or something. You just give it to the guy that is never leaving the playing surface, basically. So, yeah, that makes sense. Bob's got the Panthers in seven. You know what that means, Rosie?

We're going to Edmonton twice. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Barbara Susan from ESPN, thank you for joining us. As we were sad that we have to travel to witness. Could be worse.

Howdy listeners, it's Mike Ryan. That temperature, it's starting to turn up a little bit. Maybe you're going out on the boat, maybe you're having a pool day, maybe you're just hanging out in your backyard, your patio, and you're grilling. Oh, you're prepping the meats, you're looking at the family, you're enjoying your time with the friends, and guess what's in your hand a

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I want to touch on for a little bit the conclusion of Game 5 and what happened with Paul Maurice and Rod Brendamore. Paul Maurice, who said he wants a players-only handshake line because, you know, the coaches. Rose, your mic is on. Oh, sorry. Thank you. You can talk a little bit later, but you're snickering in the background. I don't know. This is about the thumbnail, isn't it?

This is about the thumbnail for the YouTube. Sorry, I did not know I had it on. Carry on. Yeah, carry on. Anyway, Paul Maurice says that this is about the players and the players should do a handshake line only. He did that for Toronto after the Toronto series. He did not do that for Tampa. No, well, it was after the Tampa series that we first started talking about it with him where it came up.

I don't remember who asked or what brought the topic up, but I do remember after the Tampa series and shaking hands with John Cooper and everything, Maurice spoke about how he thinks it should just be the players, how a guy that just went to battle for potentially six or seven games shouldn't have to shake hands with some guy in a track suit that he has no idea who he is. And, you know, it's no disrespect to the trainers and the coaches, but

But it's the players on the ice playing the game. So I get where Paul Maurice is coming from. And as you said, there was no handshake line for the coaches when they beat Toronto. Him and Berube did it all on the benches. And that happened again in Carolina. But got some attention. People were thinking that they were chirping each other or whatever between the benches. Like, no. It's a coach and his former player. One of them just lost the conference final. Again. So...

I don't know. I get it. I like it. Yeah. Rye Brennamore looked like he was annoyed. As a former player, I would think that... And Paul Maurice, I guess, would think that he would understand. Especially him and Paul because...

He played for Paul. He was on his coaching staff in Carolina as well before Paul went to Winnipeg. What Paul said after the game made it seem like Broad was fine with it, that he understood that it was all good. Their animated exchange maybe was a little bit more...

visually than what it was verbally. It sounded like they were very much on the same page based on what Paul Murray said. But again, I agree. I think, you know, I get where he's coming from. The coaches have their handshake line with each other next to the benches and the players have theirs in the middle of the ice. I think that makes sense to me. And a lot of this is because, I mean...

He said it himself. The Panthers are really very much a player-ran club. It's on the locker room, on the ice, on the bench. It's pretty much all the players. He doesn't have to say anything to this team unless he really absolutely necessarily have to. Yeah, when he needs to put on the goalie's pads and get down in a...

Start displaying. That's the first thing I thought of was Maurice. You get too in close, you got to go up high. And that's going to come in handy because, you know, do the same thing as they did last year. I'll just say this. People are making a really big deal about this. It's driving me crazy. Like, 32 thoughts today. I love that podcast so much. They spent more time talking about this than they did talking about the Panthers. And a lot of other shows I've listened to have talked about this more than they've talked about the Panthers.

it's not a big deal. Like, Paul Murray's... Yes, he's been in handshake lines before. He's coached a lot of times in the playoffs. This is clearly something he's thought of recently and he wants to try and change it. And it's not really a big deal. I think what he said was very thoughtful. He's always very thoughtful in his approach in press conferences. And, you know, if you want to go listen to what he said, go find it. And I think it was a very thoughtful approach to this is about the players. And the players, this is their moment. And I want to stay out of that. And I don't think that's a very big deal at all. It's a big deal because...

because of the exchange that was caught on camera. If it's not caught on camera, he doesn't get asked about it. Plain and simple. So we're going to move on from there. Now, what I should have put as my fail of the week is P.K. Suvannamalai.

Because, and this is coming back from the beginning of the playoffs, he did his playoff brackets. He was right about two matchups. The Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues matchup, he picked Winnipeg to go to the second round. And the Vegas Go-To Knights, he picked correctly to move past the Minnesota Wild. Wow.

Wow. Everything else is a big fat zero. He had the Vegas Golden Knights defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final. That's a little embarrassing. That's not. I mean, I get where he's coming from. If Tampa knocked out the Panthers, I could have seen them making a run, but that was a big if. I mean, he has the current Stanley Cup Final matchup, the same one from last season, not making it out of the first round. Yeah.

That's pretty bad. The Kings almost did it. I was going to say half of the hockey show. They almost did it.

Also agreed with the Oilers. No, I had the Oilers getting out of the first round. No, I had the Kings winning the first round. I had the Kings winning the first round, and so did Rosie. Of course, I did that. Second round on, I did the second chance bracket, and I'm four for four. I don't want to hear about the second chance bracket, Dave. You had to pick two matchups. That's total bullshit. I don't care. That's ridiculous. Don't try to take credit for this. This is the easiest thing you ever had to do. You had to pick Edmonton over Vegas,

Dallas over Winnipeg, Florida over Toronto, and Carolina over Washington. And obviously, you were going to pick the Panthers, and then you just had to pick between the oil and Dallas, and that's pretty easy once you saw how the oil were playing in the first round. Wow. This is ridiculous. Okay, let's stop fighting. Does it matter how you get there as long as you get there?

It does matter because you got to do it from the start. It's got to be from the start. It's got to be my bracket from the start. How did your bracket do from the start? I just told you. I would have gotten the Oilers wrong in the first round. See, this is why I don't do brackets because now everybody's annoyed. And speaking of annoyance, we have a new bidder on the show. Oh, nice segue. Yeah. I named it Dworky Sounds Off.

Now, we can come up with a better name later. Wait, what is this? Dworky sounds off. You got a new segment starring me that you're just telling me about now? Yes. All right. Good. That's how we do it here. Yeah, I hope you are ready for this because here's the scenario. Paul Bissonette, during the NHL on TNT's post-game show following Game 5 of the East Finals, said that the NHL needs to do something about the Panthers, and I guess...

Subsequently, the Tampa Bay Lightning, since they're in the same states, but specifically the Panthers. The NHL needs to do an investigation about the Panthers taking advantage of the fact that the state of Florida does not have a state income tax. David, you have words on the issue. Please take it away. Stop your bitching.

That's for everybody that's complaining about this. All right. We didn't hear about this state income tax issue for 30 years when the Panthers sucked. Now, all of a sudden, they're relevant. They got somebody in the front office that knows what they're doing, that knows how to stretch a dollar, that knows how to build a team. Now guys want to come here. So, yes, take advantage of it while you can. But, dude, it's been around forever. OK, it's not just Florida, Vegas, Dallas. Other teams have the same benefit, right?

It's not just hockey. It's every league. It's every league has this. It's ridiculous. I'm just sick of hearing about it because I feel like the last few years, they're putting the Panthers up on this pedestal of it's only happening because they can make these great deals and yada, yada, yada. It's like, no, that's not the case at all. I'm just so sick. It's like a crutch. Get over it. The Panthers have built a great team. You want to get mad at someone? Get mad at Bill Zito. The other thing about this is...

It only equates to 41 games a season or 61 games a season or seven games a season. Yeah, just the games that get played in Florida. Yeah, that's it. I mean, outside of the teams that play each other, you know, like Florida and Tampa and whatnot. But Canada, Canada, the other thing. So, yeah, it's only taken this state income tax is only affecting half.

of your paycheck. And I should know the answer to this and asking it in real time, I'm probably making myself like a moron, but doesn't that, does that mean yet that the visiting players when they play in Florida are not paying the tax on those games? That's correct, yes. So, you know, it's just a couple games, but, you know, still a little bit more money that you're getting there. So again, stop your bitching! Yeah.

So there's that. I almost just dropped it. We have a minute and 50 left in the show, and we haven't really previewed the Stanley Cup final. That's what I'm getting to because I want your predictions on the Stanley Cup final. Yes, I know the answer about who you think will win. How many games? Seven.

Unfortunately. Six. Hard to see it not going seven. I think it's going to be a six. Edmonton, don't hate me. You have Edmonton in six? I think they're going to win because McDavid is coming with another mentality. And the thing is... You think Edmonton's going to win? Sadly,

I think. I am hoping it's the Panthers that win. You think Edmonton is going to win in six games? I think so. I am sorry. And you can put me in my place right now because it's been just two years that I've been watching this team, but I feel like the Panthers, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but every time that they're down...

The Panthers. Yeah, it's hard for them to come back. Let's not talk about the last game because they did come back. Okay. They did that versus Toronto. It's hard for them to come back except when they come back. But sometimes I feel like they like to suffer. So it's like, okay, they're winning three, then they lose three, and then they come and win it. So this time, I don't know. And they're better in the road. So are we not supposed to chant? That's why they're not playing good because we chant a lot?

No. Okay. Ethan. All right. So I'm going to be honest here. I've watched a lot of sports in my life. There are two scenarios. Can you be honest in 20 seconds? There are two scenarios that this has made me think of. 2014, when the Spurs got back to the finals after losing to the Heat in seven games and the Spurs mopped the floor with them in 2014.

2009, Florida and Alabama in the SEC championship game. Florida and Alabama got back the next year. Sorry, 2008 and then 2009. Florida won the first year. Alabama waxed them the second year. Panthers are unbelievable. And there are some unbelievable storylines in this series. You have this juggernaut of a team that can cement themselves as one of the greatest teams ever.

in NHL history, I think, by winning back-to-back Stanley Cups against the greatest player of their generation. Or you have the greatest player of their generation, and I'm getting this takeoff no matter what. Oh, for crying out loud. Just stick with me for a second, because we have to set this up a little bit. This is unbelievable. I just asked you who's going to win and how many games. You have the greatest player of all time trying to cement his legacy against this team that's gone to three straight Stanley Cup finals now. It's going to be an unbelievable matchup, but there is a look in Connor McDavid's eye, and...

And it just feels like it's setting up for Edmonton. Zach Hyman said last year they're going to be back. He's not playing. And they're back. I think Edmonton... He's not back. He's not back. He's gone. Part of me thinks Edmonton... He has to go to surgery. Part of me thinks Edmonton is going to win this series because it just seems like it's all lining up for them. But at the end of the day, there has been no point this year...

Just let me roll. All right? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Yeah, it is. Hold on. He's rolling. Thank you, Roy. Thank you for getting the reference. Anyway, look, the Panthers, there has been no point this year where I haven't thought they were going to end up exactly where they are now. And there hasn't really been a point where I've thought they're going to lose this series until I saw that look in McDavid's eye. But at the end of the day... Oh, Jesus Christ! Cats in seven. Cats in seven.

After all that, I'm looking into the eyes of Connor McDavid. We spent the entire show talking about Joe Zygacki and John Shambi and Dallas, and we didn't set this up at all. This is an unbelievable Stanley Cup final with some unbelievable storylines, and we didn't set it up at all. I'm trying to set it up here. I'm trying to set it up here. Turn your mic on, Rose. Turn your mic on. Okay, there you go. All right, so to recap...

David has the Florida Panthers in seven. I have the Florida Panthers in six. Rosie has the Edmonton Oilers in...

In six. And Ethan has... The Panthers in McDavid's eyes. Yes. I'm a toss-up. I don't know what that was, dude. You just went on for like three minutes telling me about... Yeah, because I'm trying to set it up a little bit, dude. Like, we haven't done anything previewing this series. I'm trying to set it up for our fans at home a little bit. All right. Like, it's going to be an unbelievable series. It's a toss-up. But at the end of the day, I think the Cats are going to win in seven. All right, listen. When you cut up this promo...

He dropped the name. He dropped the name. Sorry. What name did I drop? Conor McDavid. No, Bob Roushuzian. You dropped that name. Listen, when you cut up this promo, make sure when you put yourself in this video that you put all three of us in here. Because that was a long one. That was a long one. I'm just saying. But what I'm trying

- Let me say also, I gave it to Edmonton because maybe that gives them not luck, so maybe the Panthers. - Reverse psychology coming out from Rose. - The reverse jinx like the Oilers tried to do last night with touching the trophy. - I hope.

Oh, God. I'm just going to throw this in at the end of the show because it just popped into one of my... It is the end of the show now. I don't have another choice, but I'm adding it in here because apparently our colleague over on the main show, Mr. Greg Cote, is already columnizing Mick Overrated once again. There's a headline in the Miami Herald right now. Cody on Connor Mick Overrated. Dream Stanley Cup rematch and Panthers as face of a changed NHL. God damn it, Greg.

We don't need to give him any more fuel, dude. This guy is pissed off. I got to wear like a... You can see it in his eyes. Four minutes up. Thanks, Rose. I'm pissed off now. Goodbye.

Howdy listeners, it's Mike Ryan. That temperature, it's starting to turn up a little bit. Maybe you're going out on the boat, maybe you're having a pool day, maybe you're just hanging out in your backyard, your patio, and you're grilling. Oh, you're prepping the meats, you're looking at the family, you're enjoying your time with the friends, and guess what's in your hand a

Miller Lite. That's right. Miller time is the best time, especially when the temperature starts ticking up a little bit because you have a beer that's brewed for people like you and me, people who love their beer, and it cools your body down. I've been stocking the cooler with it for years and for good reason. It's brewed for taste, only 96 calories and 3.2 grams of carbs. This year, Miller Lite turns 50.

That's five decades of cookouts, laughs, and ice-cold moments that never miss. The original light beer, and it's still my go-to. Miller Lite. Great taste. 96 calories. Go to MillerLite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you. Or you can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. Cheers to 50 years of Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

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