Episode 10 - The Final Showdown: Conference Kings & Our Cup Pick

The stage is finally set. After a wild ride through the East and West, two teams have survived the gauntlet and punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. In this episode, Dante, Donny, and Jordan break down how the Conference Finals were won, what separated the contenders from the pretenders, and which stars rose to the moment.

Then it’s all eyes on the Final. We dive into matchups, momentum, X‑factors, coaching battles, and the one question every hockey fan is asking right now: who’s lifting the Cup when it’s all said and done.

Strap in. The Final Showdown starts now

Transcript

Intro

0:14

Alright, welcome back to the Rink Hockey Podcast. I'm here with Jordan and Donnie, and today we're going to break down both of our Eastern Conference finals, both in the East and the West. We'll give a nice little outlook for the Stanley Cup final. Stanley Cup final starts on Tuesday, as we're recording this at Sunday. So we've had a couple days to decompress on the series. We'll start with uh the West here boys. We had uh Vegas and Colorado, and

Western Conference Results and Colorado Future

0:42

I don't think anyone saw the sweep coming, especially by Vegas. Maybe some people thought Colorado. Uh Donkey, let's start off with your thoughts on this one. What did you think of this? Yeah, I think um Yeah, like like you mentioned there, Dante. I don't think anyone really saw this kind of quick series coming. I think if anyone had Vegas winning the series, it was most likely in six or seven, just with Colorado's depth down the middle. President's trophies winners, what we saw from them this year. Uh, I thought the major turning point, well, multiple turning points that happened in the series, but obviously the Kale McCarr injury was a really big one. It does sound like they rushed him back into game action just to kind of get him back there as a presence, even if he wasn't 100%, he wasn't at his game, not skating as well as he probably could have been. But if if Colorado had absolutely any chance of winning the series, I think the one moment you have to look at is that game three, where they built that three-nothing lead. Vegas clawed back from 3-0 down, got three straight goals, ended up winning that game 5-3. And at that point, with those empty netters being a 3-0 series lead, we know the the uh statistical probabilities of teams coming back from 3-0. Uh you kind of knew Colorado was cooked. Um, I think maybe some people would have thought they might have won one or two games to at least push this series a little bit longer. But credit on Vegas, man. I think just from coaching system structure top down, they they really took it to a very good, solid, talented hockey team, and we're were able to kind of step on the throat as a metaphor here uh when they had to to get it closed out. I think the biggest thing for Vegas for me this year is we talk about Carter Hart and how well he's been playing. Uh, that was kind of the main key X factor for me was the goaltending difference. Uh Avalanche used both Blackwood and Wedgewood throughout the series, and it felt like every game Carter Hart was just very solid uh behind their five skaters, give them a chance to win every night. So Vegas moves on. Yeah, I agree with you on that. The goaltending was definitely like the main point in this series where you saw it turn. I thought Carter Hart has gotten better throughout these whole playoffs. He was shaky in the first round against Utah. I didn't think he was that great. I was like, this they're not gonna go far with this, Carter Hart. He was much better against Anaheim, and he was even better against Colorado. Um, I don't know why Colorado didn't go to Blackwood earlier all season. You've kind of been two number one goalies. Sky's been splitting for the most part, and then you decide to ride Wedgewood, who clearly didn't have it. Um, and then Blackwood finally got in. I thought he actually looked decent. I think McCar not playing Dante. I think you and I both kind of said that we thought Vegas would win if Makar couldn't play for a while because the original report was game five. Ultimately came back game three. It was already too late. Um, he was skating in that game two warm-up. I don't know why at home you don't put him out on the ice. He is able to skate. Yeah, he's not 100%, he's not gonna be 100% through the whole series. It's the playoffs. You can pick your spots way better at home, start him in better uh situations, start him in the O zone against not as good aligns, just protect him more. Um, that was a big question to me. And then it just going into that series, Colorado had 17 guys that had scored goals and their depth just went away. You didn't see them at all. Yeah, they really struggled. There, just for reference, um, Donnie, you and Jordan both had Vegas fighting the series. Donnie, you had them in seven, Jordan. You had them in six. I was the only idiot that Colorado and six. We we recorded that after after game one, I think, though, right? So that's yeah, while going on, basically. Like we had after game one, while game two is going on, and you guys hit the nail on the bugging head for me, I think. Here, the goaltending difference was massive, even when Colorado had any type of momentum whatsoever, Carter Hart was there to stop it. The save percentage overall, the average for him was 0.944 that series. Whereas Colorado's overall team save percentage was 0.865. That's just not good enough. And we talked about it a little bit with Edmonton, how once again they don't have a goalie, they don't have a goalie, and now we're looking at Colorado, who made a great move at the deadline for coggery, but now you're also wondering like, should they maybe get away from this, for lack of better terms, two A to B situation kind of thing and go for the solid number one. You know what I mean? Um, which is where you find that. Well, I think this offseason is gonna be a pretty decent goalie market, I think, to be honest. Like, if I'm Minnesota, I'm fucking uh I'm shopping one of their goalies for sure. I think you have to at this point. Go after Babrowski at this point. I don't think there's been any reports of those guys coming together on any type of terms right now. But yeah, the other thing too is power play percentage over the four games, Colorado is at 10% on the power play. That is power play has been bad all season, like it was bad all season, and and with all those guys there, it's unbelievable that it wasn't good, right? And then you take out Kale McCarr, like you said, well with his injury, and we I think yeah, I think we all commented about it in our group chat there. The power play difference with Kale McCars running it as opposed to someone else running it was night and day. They look so disoriented without McCarr on the point running their power play, and then injured injured obviously comes in and does that. I'm sure Colorado was dealing with quite a few injuries. I know McCar is a big one. McKinnon got hurt towards the end there. I don't know if he was previously having an injury up until that point, but just all around, like Donovan said, credit to Vegas. They played their game this whole series, they did not back down from Colorado's speed. I'm just looking at some of the speed graphics here. The amount of short burst speed, the amount of over distance speed, all Colorado's favor for the series. But Vegas just found a way to clog that neutral zone. They have a great system, and like Donnie, like you're saying, credit to the coach, John Tortarella, man, comes in for this Vegas team late in the year. I know we all scratched our heads about it, but clearly it's working for them. I don't know what the record is with them, but I'm pretty sure it was massively in the positive, right? I think they went on a tear at the end of the year, right? Yeah. So credit where credit's due at the end of the day. Great job for Vegas moving on to their Stanley Cup final again. I know, I know some people are really pissed off with an expansion team being this uh successful at the beginning of their franchise, but I think Donnie, me, and you mentioned it one night there. Uh give credit to that GM over there. When he sees an opportunity to get someone, he goes and gets it. He doesn't care what the price is. They're cutthroat. They're cutthroat. Like they'll go and do anything to try and make the team better, which you have to give them a hand for, right? Like, I would love for my team to do that. Yeah, which which you can do when you have this kind of success with trades and bringing superstars over to your team, right? Like, I think like we're we're eight years since the Vegas expansion series, so I think we we're almost at the point now where I take expansion team off the label, it's completely gone now. But to your point, Dante, like from that expansion team. Nobody like Martius was one of the was one of the last ones, right? William or Jonathan Martius there. Yeah, Carlson's the only one I can think of at the top of my head. But to your to your point, Dante, like it's it's actually super insane to me how much success this Vegas team has had in acquiring their key building blocks via trade, right? If you look at how many of their current roster like key players are draft and develop, it's almost zero. So to your point, Jordan, you get it, you get a Jack Eichel, you get a Mitch Marner, you get a you've been going back to Max Pastoretti, Noah Hannah from Rasmus Anderson. These quality players you're able to go get from other teams with picks and prospects without subtracting from your roster. You're able to add them to yours. Why would you keep draft picks? Why not just keep going for it and trying to win the cup year after year until you're forced to start looking at a rebuild to kind of draft and develop strategy? That's gonna happen. We understand the NHL cycle and windows, windows to win are a really big thing in the NHL cycle. Player careers are obviously at a cap. Uh well, kind of related to that. But just on Colorado there, Dante. So I think there's some real potential here on that team to see some significant surgery on their team, I think. Like you obviously have McCar on the back end. Devon Taves is locked in long term. He took a step back this year in terms of production. I know he was kind of he's tagged as McCar's partner, but he's also 32 years old. Uh they got Sam Molinsky, who's a 27-year-old defenseman, smaller in size. The only the only real big physical defenseman they have is Josh Manson, who's now turning 35 this year. So he's also getting up there in age. And then they have Brent Burns, Brett Kulak, and this Nick Blankenberg, who we saw in a few games with McCar out all UFAs end of this offseason. So they could be in the market, I think, for a big free agent defenseman. I think they'd be looking at one more physical guy to add to this kind of bottom 4D. And then I'm like to your point with Kale McCarr out on the power play, like I if you're Colorado, I would try to go get some kind of 1B or 2A offensive-minded D that can run your second power play unit or fill in when McCar is out, right? I don't think Devontae's impressed us in that role. He's kind of a guy you can pass the puck to and he'll pass it to someone else. But as far as that as far as that dynamic offensive ability, I think that's another hole they could look at filling on the back end. Yeah. No shot threat from him at all, right? No. Like you're not worried about it. No. Their outlook, I mean, like, like Donnie said, like they'll have some big changes probably on their blue line just based on age and based on trade availability or uh or signings. But you know, up front, I I don't know what their contract situation is. Is Codri have another year, I think, right? We talked about it. Cadri has two three more years, three more at 5.6. I'll have it looked at yeah, that's the funny Don. How are they looking up on what's going on with their there's a lot of guys still locked in? So, yeah, they have and it's aging guys though. So you got McKinnon at the top, obviously. Nietzsche, they locked in at 11.5 for another five years. Brock Nelson has two more years at 7.5. I think they wrap that out. Yeah, he didn't do anything last year for them. Would he have three points in the playoffs this year? Like, that's just not good enough. That contract, that contract's an anchor. So I think he moves out of your lineup to 3.4C eventually with the cap going up 7.5, it's manageable, I think. Landiscog, three more years at 7 million. Nechushkin, who I think he missed some games in the series, or he missed game four for sure. He has 6.1 for four more years. Dante, you mentioned Cadry at uh 5.6 for three more years. So yeah, that their second and third line centers are 35 and 34. And they have all multiple years left on their contract. So that's pretty much your top three centers locked in. One name that I've already heard as a potential flip trade target, is Ross Colton. He's a little bit overpaid for what he kind of brings. He brings up playoff energy, a little bit of speed, bottom six player, but he's making four million dollars, 29 years old, one year left. Uh they might find a trade where they send him somewhere else, and maybe they get a similar D player back. And then Nick Waugh, who they gave up a first four from Toronto, which Toronto got him from Vegas in the Marner trade. One for one heck of a trade, Leafs. Uh he has one year at three million left. Um, and then the only person off their books on the forward front is Kibiranta. Uh, so high level, like that they're locked into these contracts. If they want to get creative and try to unload some money and bring in some uh cheaper players that can still contribute, there's options there, but I'm not too sure. Yeah, they're handcuffed a bit with those contracts. That being said, though, like those players, while they are getting age, you probably still have one, maybe two years with them producing. I love I mean Brock Nelson, maybe not, but Codri, he he did pretty decently, in my opinion. You got Nikes, who's great. Lekker in is one of those top six guys that you can insert anywhere. I love Lekoden. I missed him on the half so much. And then, yeah, like you said, Anspott's getting older. So Colorado's kind of like in a situation where they're probably gonna go for it obviously again next year. Yeah, you're never out of it, in my opinion, when you have a McKinnon and a McCar. Uh and it doesn't matter what you have. When you got those two guys, you're gonna win hockey games. Um, so they're gonna be going for it again next year or and possibly in the year after. So, like you said, Donnie, they're probably either gonna be looking at uh maybe trying to push some guys to where uh towards a trade to try to flip and get some more depth guys that still contribute, or look at maybe some free agents. I don't know what their how much cast base do they actually have there, Donnie. Do you have for that? Yeah, if if they're gonna shake up their roster though, like if they're gonna shake up their roster, that's gonna be a lot of work to try and really make it work with the money and contracts, right? Like a lot of guys locked up, it's gonna have to be players in for players out. So that makes it a lot more difficult nowadays in the NHL to make those trades. Yeah, and then my my feeling and goal, I think they just come back with Blackwood. I think Wedgewood still has a year left as a backup, but they have Blackwood locked in for four more seasons at 5.25, which is cap going up, very affordable. I think if we see I think if we see any changes on this this team this year, this offseason, it'll be on the the D side, maybe very minimal up front, and they'll they'll roll it back with the same group and see if things change, I guess. Yeah, I mean, like everyone said, no one really expected them to lose there at all. Um but congrats to Vegas, they're on to the finals here. Uh let's switch over

Eastern Conference Results and Montreal Future

15:08

to the East Boys. Uh, I know Donnie and I were heartbroken with this one. We have the Montreal Canadians losing to the Carolina and a gentleman's sweep for uh 4-1 series there. Montreal winning the first game in Carolina, completely dismantling the Montreal Canadians after. Um let's start with uh since you know Jordan, Donnie and I are very passionate about this. Let's uh hear your thoughts, Jordan, on your on the series. Um, I thought game one, they uh Montreal came out, was high off their adrenaline, winning another game seven, kind of ready to play. We talked about Carolina's rest and how what 13 days or whatever it was longest in NHL history and it showed, they weren't connected uh with their pressure points as a full unit, they left a lot of holes. Montreal really exposed them, and you're watching game one, you're like, man, if this is the team that we're gonna be playing, Montreal's gonna be in a good spot here. Dobitch was playing good, and then after that, I thought game two was gonna be a lot more of what you saw throughout the series, more back and forth. Carolina kind of putting the pressure points on them, they kind of know how to pressure, they they move their feet well, they they keep uh skating you into the ground. Montreal made some mistakes in that one, but I thought it was a close game. Dobic kept them in it, obviously, over time, right? Like I thought it was back and forth. Montreal definitely had their chances to win. Um, but then as the series went on, so so to the next game, Montreal felt like they got tired, their legs weren't there, they're skating quicksand all of the time, weren't making fast decisions. What I said early, like on the predictions, was Montreal's defensemen had to move the pocket, move it quick to be effective against Carolina because of their pressure rate, and they stopped doing that after the second game, I thought, and just got hemmed in. And it felt like Carolina at times were playing with six, seven, maybe even eight guys on the ice. You just couldn't do anything against their four check. And even when Montreal did have time, their players thought they were pressured and panicked and shot the puck away because they thought there was someone on them. It definitely paid a price to them. They didn't uh they didn't have their legs anymore. And you really saw it this final two games as they kind of got dog walked, unfortunately. Uh, those games weren't close. It didn't ever feel close after that. Um, that's the most I was talking to Donnie about this. That's the most like disappointing part about it, I think. Probably for Haves fans. It's a great season, right? Two game sevens. You get to this point with your playoff team, you get invaluable playoff experience. Taking Tampa, an ex very experienced team there, an up and coming Buffalo completely different style team to a game seven, winning both of them, and then you come into Carolina tired, but you just as a fan wish that those last even the last game maybe was closer, tighter, felt like you had a chance, just doesn't leave a sour taste in your mouth. Well, ultimately, I thought the season for Montreal was great. I think a lot of our season now is gonna get a little overshadowed with the series, which is quite unfortunate because the stepping stones that this team took this year were next to none. They were like they're amazing from what we had from the previous year. And while we can all, you know, look at the series, and yes, we're obviously disappointed. The youngest team in the league made it to the Eastern Conference final. Uh, that's something to be proud of. There are still holes in our lineup. Every Montreal Canadians fan knows there's holes in this lineup still, and there are positions that need to be met, and not little holes, pretty massive holes, like as the second center kind of thing. Uh, I know Donnie mentioned to me the biggest the biggest thing about this playoff run that really surprised Donnie and us was Dovesh. The he really stepped forward and showed that he can be not only a starting goaltender in this league, but a goaltender that we can can depend on in very important games up until this Carolina series. Maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but he was undefeated after a loss in the playoffs. I'm gonna go to Carolina. Going into it, yeah. And he he was he was lights up for us in those situations. Um Johnny, for I get you there, uh just one more thing I wanted to say. You know, I never like making excuses for this team, but everyone gets banged up, and it sounds like the Montreal Canadians list of injuries was quite long and extensive as well. Which I think not only is not an excuse, but I think that's a little bit of something that Ken Hughes and Jeff Gordon have to work on maybe this offseason, on getting us some bigger size guys in this in those holes that we have to maybe take away from the fact that Donnie me and you watch very intently sometimes too. Lane Hudson getting absolutely killed whenever possible from the Carolina Hurricanes. They didn't let the guy breathe, he couldn't breathe, but he was hit so often so hard. And it sounds like he had a massive shoulder injury there. Uh Donnie, uh, what did you think? Yeah, I think um if if I could sum this whole series up to one thing, I think it would just be energy running out of juice teams we typically see. Dante very close to similar to we look at 2010. There's a lot of comparables to Halak and Dobish. That 2010 team, they beat the President's Trophy winners, Washington Capitals in game seven. 2-1. I think Halak had 52 saves in that game. Uh-huh. Right? Like they didn't deserve to win. They pull out a game seven against one of the best teams in the league. Second round, play the Raining Cup champions, Pittsburgh Penguins. Game seven, they win that game five-two a little bit more handedly. Third round, they come up against the Philadelphia Flyers, and coming off of two tough Game 7 series, they lose in five. It's almost like it's it's a mirror image of kind of what happened in this series. Uh Philly, I don't think at the time was as uh as developed and veteran team as Carolina is here. Um but yeah, like from what we saw in game one, that six-two win Montreal on their toes. We understand Carolina was rusty after that historic break. I had a little bit more confidence in our ability to create offense from there. But it was very evident following game one, Rod Brandenburg got his guys in, and you have to give that coaching staff and team a ton of credit. Carolina's been to this round three how many times and fallen short of Florida, right? And then they they exercise some demons with the series win. I think it's pretty easy to say. And and we look at the shots on goal, Dante. I think uh I'll just rattle them off here quickly. But game two was a three-two overtime loss. Ealers scored it. Montreal had 12 shots on goal in that game. Game three was a 3-2 overtime loss. Svetnikov scored it. Montreal had 13 shots on goal in that game. Game four was a 4-0 shellacking. Dante we watched that one. That was start-to-finish Carolina. They had 18 shots. And then game five was a 6-1 win. Montreal got 24, which a good chunk of that was third period, kind of garbage time. Carolina sitting back on a 5-0 lead there. I I think if there's anything that I am disappointed in in this series, it is the lack of changes from Marty's side. I think Marty is a very loyal coach. He loves his players. He's a very player-centered coach. Players love playing for him. But it was very evident that the lineup that you were putting out between games two to five were not getting it done. To your point, Jordan. I don't know how often Montreal stopped behind their net to try to regroup and figure a way how to break out of their own zone, but it felt like they stopped behind their net more in this series than they did in the entire 82 game season. But Dante, to your point, we have Brendan Gallagher who bleeds red, white, and blue sitting on the sidelines. He came in in the Tampa series, scored a huge goal. We have Oliver Kapanen and we have Patrick Line, which which Line is a different talking point. But that inability to understand when guys are out of energy and make a change, especially in that last game where they they lost 6-1. I would have loved to see that that that be a change that Marty make, right? Didn't this series just feel like after after this the third game, especially that it needed that injection of emotion on the Montreal side, the exact type of boost that Gallagher could give them. And it wasn't like he was playing his fourth line a ton, anyways. They he was it would have gone out there and got like what seven minutes? You can't trust the guy for seven minutes? Yeah, you can. And he was gonna give that like boost of energy. Everyone rallies around. You saw it against Tampa. He came into the lineup, the whole team got going, the whole team rallied around him when he scored the goal. It was like they won the cup on that goal. Like you could just see the emotion on that team. It felt like this series, they needed more emotion in that spot. And I just don't know why they didn't bring the guy that could bring that in Gallagher. And and you could you could also say the same thing about Strubo over Jack Eye. Like Strubo played the majority of that series, he didn't bring anything positive from many of those games. Jack Eye would have done the same thing on the back end. So just to put a bow on my thoughts, Dante, quick. But um, if I could make a metaphor for this series, it's almost like if you have a family member that has some kind of debilitating disease that has days left to live. It's between games two, three, and four, no, no changes were made, Dante, but there was almost like on my end, watching that final game and a 6-1 loss, I feel like I had time as a Habs fan to process where that was going before it happened. And honestly, it kind of helped me be more okay with the loss at the end of the day, right? Like we kind of saw the writing on the wall, we understood where it was going, we had a lack of Jesus, and that's probably a very distasteful metaphor, but uh you're I love it. It's like you're watching, like, you know, I mean, I won't use a human in the situation like you did, Donnie, but it's like you know, you're driving on the highway, and yeah, you hit like a an animal and then you're it slowly dies on the side of the road. Much else will be fine from that from game two on. They just so painful death for them at the end of the day. But like I said in the beginning, it really sucks, in my opinion, too, how they go out because it's gonna cast a shadow over an amazing playoff run, an amazing regular season from these guys on the youngest team that is just gonna keep getting better. And to touch base a little bit, I want to read this post that I have on Reddit here about the shots. And this guy wrote down because obviously, right now, knock on with these are all rumors, nothing's been confirmed yet. I think Montreal's locker clean out is tomorrow time. Yeah, am I right? So tomorrow's usually when you get your confirmations on a lot of these things, but the rumor mills out on the injuries for Montreal right now, and it's some big name guys with some big significant injuries. But the one thing this guy says is I'm not gonna touch base on who they are, but I will say a lot of it is our top six and our top defenders on this team all had some kind of shoulder, hip, or hand injury, and significant ones at fact. Some separated shoulders, damaged ligaments, hands can't close properly, etc. etc. I have to hopefully chalk this up to the belief of why shots were not being as often and heavy as they should have been. Now, this is a comment from a guy on uh Instagram there. I read it and I thought to myself, you know, sure, I don't like the excuses, but yes, that maybe this is one of the reasons why our shots just completely dipped off. Eventually, the body can only take so much. If that's the case, Donnie, to your point, that makes me even more upset that there wasn't lineup changes. If you have guys like, for example, let's just say Slavkovsky, who we knew got killed in that Tanto Base series with a massive hit, you saw it, you saw the way he went off the ice that he damaged something badly in his shoulder from that hit. If you have a guy like that who can no longer properly execute a shot, one of the most basic aspects of the game, why are you not? I understand he's a top gear play, top line player, but you have to make a change at that point for me. I I love seeing the fight for hockey players that stay in the game and fight, but eventually you're just hurting your team. I I know this has been a topic for a long, long time. I just look at that, and if that truly is the case, I really wish that we could have seen like Donnie, like you mentioned, like or Jordan, like you mentioned, like a Gower come in. The Struble Jackey debate, don't get me started. I don't think any, I don't think Struble provides anything for this team. I hope he's gone ASAP. But even we had Black Aces on this team, we had other players on this team that could have been brought in. And Donnie, like you mentioned, Line A is a completely different discussion. But hell, if you want a freaking shot, uh he's one of the guys to put in the game. The guy doesn't do anything else but shoot the damn puck. You know what I mean? But overall, you can't be upset with the season as a HAB fan. We will go into a more depth outlook on the Montreal Canadians as they are primary uh Jordan or not, Jordan, uh Donnie and mine primary team. We're gonna do a full season breakdown of just the Montreal Canadiens and the outlook on them. But the future is very bright for Montreal folks. Get ready for a team that's gonna fight all the time. I just want to touch on one thing that uh I've heard a few times, and that's some people saying that Montreal didn't deserve to be there. Um that's horseshit. Um they said, oh well, they played a Tampa team that's old and slow. Tampa was projected to be one of the cup favorites going into the playoffs. They took them to the to the absolute brim, went to game seven, and maybe they didn't deserve to win that game seven. They deserve to win game six. They were able to pull it out, they pretty much flip-flop, they were able to move on. Then people said they shouldn't have beat Buffalo because Buffalo didn't have goaltending. The biggest part of uh hockey end of playoffs is who is the better goaltender. It's not Montreal's problem that they couldn't uh Buffalo couldn't find a guy that can make a save for them in a big moment. Montreal has to play the teams that got in front that were put in front of them, which going into the playoffs were two teams people thought had a chance at winning the cup. So to say that they didn't believe that uh uh belong there is an absolute joke and taking a lot away from what this team accomplished. My my favorite, my favorite part of all that is is the fans that just look at those two game sevens, the one where Montreal had nine shots against Tampa and then got heavily outplayed against Buffalo, and they act like that represented the entire series. And like Montreal was the best team in games one to six in both of those series. Um, and then also I just want to shout out the uh our friends, the Ottawa Centers fans, Dante. I've seen I've seen a ton of uh a ton of tweets out there talking about how they gave Carolina the best uh best series out of anyone's Carolina's played so far. That was that was that was the true Eastern Conference final, is what they were saying. Meanwhile, they got swept 4-0. They just, you know, it's it's it's well, Captain has zero freaking points. Exactly. Listen, we are the only teams that give Carolina a loss so far these playoffs, okay? Whether we got omni the next four games or not, we beat that team while everyone else got swept. And the famous line that I always I saw commented quite often is you know, when you're in a game and you're getting heavily outplayed in any way whatsoever, good teams find a way to win. And Montreal did that in both game seven of Tampa and game seven of Buffalo. Good teams find a way to win, and those two games alone for me is what makes me so excited for the future of the Montreal Canadiens, is they not only found a way to win as the youngest blood team in the NHL right now, but they didn't quit. Sure, we could talk about Carolina Tolabu and the space on how it ended, but it is what it is. Uh yeah, like I said, we'll go into a full-depth breakdown of the halves going forward. Let's touch base on the Stanley

Stanley Cup Final Thoughts

31:53

Cup final here quickly. You know, I I laugh because a lot of these uh pages on Instagram, Facebook, they all had the options for what the Stanley Cup final could be. And every single post I saw called the Vegas versus Carolina, the Who Gives a Fuck Award for the Stanley Cup final. And it's funny because I truly do think this might be one of the lowest viewing Stanley Cup finals, but I still think it's going to be entertaining hockey. And as a Montreal Canadians fan, you know, we did have a lot of support from some Maple Leaf fans, but they were so annoying these playoffs. I just want to say, man, I hope Martin wins a cup and just I want him to even bring it just and shove it all in their faces. It just fan base and the auto fan base like Donnie mentioned annoyed the hell out of me. Uh looking at this outlook here, you have a team with Vegas who I think you guys can give your thoughts on this after. I think Vegas has better star power on their team, but Carolina has, like Donnie said, uh, a team by committee. You know, like they they all buy into the system that Brendan Moore has placed in front of them. That 22214 check is absolutely fucking deadly. Um even in the Montreal series, I didn't know who the hell Eric Robinson was, but man, that fourth line was fire for them. Stink Coban was unreal. Stan Coben was a huge accusation for them. He really stole that series as well. And then you look at the Vegas Golden Knights, and they have some big firepowers too. Don't don't uh struggling them at all. And Marner is looking like he's a possible Clinton Smith winner at the end of this. Um, we'll give we'll give our predictions on who wins the series at the end here. So let's start with Donnie. Um, what do you think Vegas needs to do to beat Carolina? I think Vegas needs to obviously break out effectively after watching Montreal fail to do that for four straight games. Um which I don't I don't think they have problems with. They have some pretty good puck moving D starting with Shea Theodore. They have Hannafin, Rasmus Anderson back there. I like Vegas' D core a lot in terms of both size, physicality, the ability to defend off the rush. I think Vegas' D Cor is a very strong point for them in the series. And with Carter Hart, kind of Jordan to your point earlier, with how well he's improved every series of the way, I think they have the the edge in in goaltending as well. Um, Dante, we talked about how bad Freddie Anderson has looked the entire series, even though Montreal only had 10 to 14 shots on goal in those last four games. There were times in those games he was looking behind them, wasn't tracking rebounds, a bit scrambly. Um I think I think Vegas plays a very similar style, maybe a little bit less like ferocious on the four check than what Carolina does. But I also think Vegas, to your point, has the star power that that Carolina does not have. That when you're in a tight-checking game where both teams aren't creating a lot of offense, Vegas has the guys, the dogs that can go and create it themselves and and get goals when it matters with Eichel Martner, Dora Fayevs having a ridiculous playoffs. Um as as far as prediction goes, I think Claire, Carolina's gonna do great, but I'm gonna take Vegas in seven to win the cup here. Yeah, I Dante, I think you kind of touched on it that Carolina plays their system like to a T. They know what they're want to do, and but I think Vegas is also like that. I think these are the two teams actually in the playoffs that pretty much play their system, how they want to play, and they're just gonna ram it down your throat and make sure it works. Um, so it's gonna be a battle of will on who breaks. Um, I think a big turning point here is Carter Hart's the better goalie. But I'm gonna give Carolina some flowers here with how well they block shots, and Vegas does a great job of it too. You saw it in the Colorado series, but uh Carolina does a good job of blocking shots and helping out Anderson. Um against Montreal, I didn't think Anderson was very good compared to the previous two series. But when he wasn't playing good, they weren't letting Montreal shoot a lot. I know you guys said your guys weren't shooting, but it also comes down to getting chances and guys getting sticks in the lanes and stuff like that, right? Like Carolina does a very good job of playing good defensively. I think Keandre Miller has moved over from the Rangers to Carolina and has been probably their best defenseman on this run. I think he's been unbelievable. He plays that style that they want to play there, and then they roll their four lines so effectively, give everyone equal lifetime. They pretty much see their top three lines as all first lines, which is interesting, and they don't really just rely on your top guys. Um, I think Carolina definitely has a pathway to win here. It's ultimately comes down to does the style that they play with the high pressure and um put a ton of shots on net, even if they're not high danger shots, just put a ton of pucks on net and go to the net and hopefully eventually you can crash home and and get a rebound and put one in. Is that gonna work against Vegas? I think it'll be more effective than Colorado was. I think that their pressure is gonna give uh Vegas some problems. They do have some defensemen that move the puck well, but at the same time, I've seen them have trouble against like Anaheim and Utah, who were on them quick and they kind of made a lot of mistakes. Um, I think Hart will bail them out, though, unfortunately. Um ultimately, if Vegas wins the cup, uh their 2029 second round pick turns into a 2029 first round pick for the Calgary Flames. And for that reason, Vegas and six. Vegas and six. So I'm gonna I I'm all I'm I'm gonna pick Vegas as well. We're all we're all in the Vegas train here, it seems. I just wanna, you know, you guys basically touch base on how these teams play. I just want I'm just gonna go over the lineup quickly and you guys can chime in on what you think as well. But I'm gonna do like some head-to-head looks here at this lineup. So I the way I look at this lineup, it's gonna really come down to me is which coach can effectively get their matchups, I think, in my opinion, for this. Like Carolina's first line hasn't not been the greatest. You got Jarvis, Ajo, and Svetchenkov on that first line, and they have not exactly dominated like they have at times in regular season. Whereas Barbashev, Eichel, and Dorfayev have completely taken over games and won them on their own so far. Then you go down to the second line, which is just crazy. You got Marner, Howden, and Carlson, and that line just works. Marner is just on an absolute tear as of late. He seems to be just motivated beyond anyone being able to stop him. But Carolina has very it's a younger line with St. Coven and Blake, and then a veteran in Taylor Hall, who have been pretty consistent. I think too the third line, in my opinion, here like just because we played Carolina, the either stall and Martin Hook line did give us some troubles at times. But you look at Vegas and they got hurdle and marked stone in the third line. Both of these teams are so evenly spaced out and how they've constructed their lineups and their lines. Yeah, the only real advantage I think Carolina has here in the four core, in my opinion, is line four. Is Carrier, Zankowski, and Robinson. They were stellar against the Haves. They really came alive and they took care of business. Whereas Cole Smith nicked that out and Keegan Colasar play more of a fourth-line role, like typical fourth line role. That's how you're gonna do that. Yeah, doubt's been solid for them, but outside that. But so overall, you look at these four courts, they're very depth spaced out. I do think, like Donnie mentioned earlier, the star powers on Vegas. Like, there is no Jack Eichel on Carolina at the end of the day. There is just not, there's no Mitch Martner either, in my opinion. I know there's been some great guys in Carolina that have good performances, but there's no Mitch Martner over there. No. I think I think Vegas is the two best forwards in the series. Like high level. If you just were to rank every forward on this list, Eichel Martner at the top of your list. And and Dante, to your point on like how the lines are are fabricated for both teams, like you're saying they're very kind of they're very spread out. They have Hurdle on the third line in Vegas and you have Ealers on your third line in Carolina. Like, I'm I'm also curious to see which team blinks first. Like, if if you're kind of playing stalemate hockey in the first few games where offense isn't being created, Carolina, they're not able to get their offense going with their lineup. Do you start seeing line troubles? Do you see Ealers moving up to that top line with Svechnikov Aho, Jarvis moving down? Uh that Hall, Stankoven, Blake line has been their best line in the playoffs, Dante. That entire series against the Habs, they were a complete catalyst for them when the first line was disappearing and kind of invisible. Um, so yeah, like I I think it's gonna be a chess match from the coaching side. Um, but in the long run, I think the star power takes over and and Vegas wins the series. That's just my prediction. And like you said, Donnie, who blinks first here? Like who struggles first? Well, Vegas has struggled already in the playoffs, they've already moved their lines around, they've already had to do that in two series. Where Carolina arguably has not had to. They haven't truly faced any adversity in these playoffs yet. So who blinks first is gonna be a major selling point in this? And if Carolina's the team that's forced to blink first, can they generate something after shaking up what's arguably been 100% for them this whole playoff run? Um how are they gonna deal with adversity this playoff run? Since past years, whenever it's come up, they've kind of folded under the pressure, right? And this this year we'll see in this finals here, but can they deal with that adversity better than in your past? I think that's what it's gonna come down to. Yeah, yeah. So, like to sum up my figure too, like the four core, I'm giving to the Vegas Golden Knights, they have the star power. The defense, the pairings, you got Slavin, Shaffield, Miller, Walker, Gossel Spirit, Nikishan, and then Vegas has Nav Fior, Hanniphon, and Anderson, Croglan, and Corzak. I'm giving the edge on defense strongly to Carolina. I agree with Jordan there. Miller has been just styler for them, and that's not even to mention that Slavin has been unrighteous to me. Also, shout out shout out Jalen Chaffield, man. That guy was an absolute monster in that half series. Wasn't even drafted, undrafted defenseman. I think he started with Vancouver in his career and then came over to Carolina. But you just talk about like a player signing with an NHL team and almost being molded into the exact type of defenseman you want that player to become. That's what Rod Brandemore had done with Jalen Chatfield. And he was very noticeable almost every game, shutting Montreal down that entire series. 100%. And their defense, in my opinion, is just way, way better than Vegas. Vegas does have, I mean, I really do like Chief Deodor and Anderson, don't get me wrong. But like Jordan said, will that Vegas core be able to handle the pressure that Carolina's gonna throw at them? I know Carolina's defensive core can't handle it. My question mark for Carolina isn't the D Corps, it's gonna be their goaltender, like Mention Donnie. Yeah, Carter Hart is the better goalie over Anderson. We even in the Montreal series, Anderson did not look great. He let in weak goals in that game one, which did he get pulled that game one? I can't remember. Uh no, he didn't stuck it out. But but uh he let in weak goals that game one, and then every time Montreal had what four shots a game, but two of those four shots, he had no idea where the fucking puck was. He had no idea. He's always looking behind him. He just doesn't he didn't seem into it. I have no confidence in him going into the series. Uh You guys pick Vegas in seven, Donnie, and Jordan in six. I'm going with Jordan as well. I'm going Vegas in six. I think Vegas picked the Stanley Cup this year just based on your star power. And I think Carter Hart feels a very important game in this series. I don't know about that. And I think that's what's going to be the tip the tipping stone, basically. The tipping point for this team is Carter Hartville stealing game. Whereas I don't know. If you guys are both going Vegas, then I think I'm going to switch my pick to Carolina and seven. Um and my my prediction is Freddie Anderson gets pulled in one of the first few games, they go to Brandon Bussey, and he wins them the cup. Ooh. I'm ready now. Quickly, um,

MVP Predictions

44:46

for you guys, con Smythe, uh, Con Smythe winners, one for each team. Todd got it. One for each team. Well, I'm one Martner 100% for Vegas. Uh, for two reasons. One, guy's been fucking dominant. Two, I want to see every single Toronto fan's tears stroll down their face when Martner was the issue. Shut the fuck up. And um for Carolina, I'm gonna go Stank. I think Stankhoven's been uh been such a factor for them. I really, as a Montreal fan, I really wish they had Kokinami in S2C instead of Stan Coven. So uh Stankhoven has been deadly for me. Funny. I'm gonna go Jack Eichel because I think he has the talent to take over the series that Carolina doesn't have a forward on that level. And then I will go with Stankhoven's line mate Taylor Hall. Uh I think I think he played a very physical series against Montreal. Dante, I know we like we didn't like a few of the hits that he laid on on HABs, but he does have that ability to kind of bring a physical presence when needed when asked of him. And he goes to the dirty areas and and bangs home rebounds. I think he had two or three rebound goals in that series, too. So I could see him scoring a clutch overtime goal or even a cup winning goal, uh, playing his kind of power forward almost level of game. I uh well, I did sprinkle some money on uh Ealer on uh on Ealers for uh the Carolina side, but uh I think the guy who will win it if they're gonna win that series is gonna be on that top line, and I think it's gonna be Smechnikov. I think he has to have a good a big series for them to win. And then I also sprinkled some money on uh Eichel because his odds were insanely low. But since he's already grabbed, I'll go with uh Dorothyv because I could see him potentially scoring a bunch of goals in this series. That's a good one, too. Dorothyv has had not only some big goals, but he's had a deadly playoff series for a guy that pisses me off every year in regular season fantasy when I draft him and how streak he is. He's been pretty consistent. Uh these playoffs. That's that's also a guy we have to look out for for kind of the offer sheet market this offseason. I think there's a ton of teams that would line up to put a hefty off-terre to him, give up draft picks, and potentially get him away from Vegas. We'll see. See how it goes. Uh let's uh enjoy the

Final Thoughts and Outros

47:19

final season, boys. Or final playoff series, sorry. Um, you guys got any final thoughts, Jordan? I got one, yeah. I just want to give a shout out to uh the Team Canada team after beating Team USA that put a horrendous team out on the ice in the World Cup there. Um that really only had Matthew Kinchuk on it to go on and not even get a medal for Canada with a lineup that had guys like Villardi on it, Robert Thomas, Evan Bouchard, um Don Ral Nur, Smart Schefley, Macklin Cellebrini, Sidney Crosby, Ryan O'Reilly, John Tavares. This is an unreal lineup for this kind of tournament, and to not even get a medal is pretty disappointing, Canada. I will say one thing on that. Sorry, Dante. Sorry, I just want to say no offense, but Scheifley was on this team this year and Villardi, and I watched that final game and the game before, and my god, were they the worst players on the ice? Scheifley had zero effort this whole last game to the point where if you go on Reddit right now, he is getting absolutely plastered on there. Right. With the pissed poor effort he put in, and I mean Villardi, he had some pretty bad turnovers that led to some goals the previous game. But obviously, there's the reason why Shricewee's not on Team Canada pretty often here, guys. Like there's clearly an effort issue that Team Canada sees. Uh Donnie, sorry, go ahead. Yeah, I will say I don't think it was a coincidence that Canada did not lose a game until Evan Bouchard went down hurt. Agreed. Guy was they were undefeated in that tournament until that dirty headshot by uh Linggren there. Ryan Lingren. By far their best player, probably. Yeah, like defensively. It definitely felt like they had a void following uh following him going down for sure. And then also Dante, last thought for me, but shout out tournament leading scorer, Habs Legend, Sven Andraghetto for the entire tournament for team. Absolutely legend. Come back to Montreal. Uh I mean I wouldn't go that far. But anyway, uh we'll find a spot for you, my friend. Yeah, we gotta sit up beside Gallagher in the press box. Fucking bullshit. Donnie, you got your final thoughts? Any other final thoughts? Are you good? Nope, just that. Alright, well, I'll wrap this up with saying um we will obviously touch base again. Our next podcast will be about obviously the winner of this family cup. Uh, we'll do some winners and losers as well from the playoffs during that point in time. And then throughout the summer, here we'll do some individual podcasts. Mainly the first one will be above Montreal for all of our Montreal viewers, which is one of our heavier markets, obviously. So we will fully break down the roster, what we think they should do, fossil free agents, trades, blah, blah, blah, all the above. Um, thanks to guys for joining me today. Uh, let's enjoy uh whatever the Stanley Cup final turns out to be. Uh, even though I know a lot of people just don't give a rash ass anymore, but let's enjoy it. Thanks, boys, for joining me. Peace. Thank you.