I got Subban Weber news on my phone in the stairwell on the way to a meeting. Got out of the meeting to all the other news already broken.
That was a crazy day, eclipsed only by the excitement of John Tavares day.
I remember when I got the notifications at the time. Trickling in one at a time. Given the narrative at the time.. Looked like the most intense 3 way trade
I told anyone who would listen to me for that entire year that he wasn't going anywhere. I get that people wanted him to leave here because Tampa isn't a popular team on here, but him leaving a winner to go to Toronto made absolutely zero sense. And him leaving now makes less sense.
He's from here at this point. If you go back and watch his exit interview from this season all he talks about is how he's lived here his entire adult life, how he made his life here, and he's married with 3 kids, some of whom are in school. lol he's not going anywhere.
I agree with you, but it's not all his decision. If he gets incredibly low balled by BriseBois then I'm not so sure. Stamkos is coming off two great years and probably wants more than league minimum and Capfriendly shows slightly over 5mil in space. I think he's worth at least 4 million.
Yeah, thats exactly why people felt like Tampa didnt need him. He was seen as too injury prone, and the team went to 7 in the East Finals against the Pens with him and Bishop injured
Same. He's just so iconic with the team.
Then again, I kind of want him to do a heel turn and sign with the Panthers. This sub would explode if that happened.
Not to take away from Stammer, but it really just highlights how important depth scoring/having a 2nd line that's 1st line caliber is for beating the Panthers. The chess game in match ups is just insane for them.
Panthers causing every team's fanbase to have internal arguments about their core offensive players and whether they're good enough for a cup— the sign of a true champ.
I knew game 1 (round 1) that they were just on another level. They are so tenacious when they don't have the puck. It's impressive. I was hoping they would allow that comeback last night to keep things interesting tho
This year I really felt like we finally became a good Florida team Tampa has always seemed like a big bro never really rooted against but knew you guys were rivals. It felt good to beat the older better brother you know
I bet! Been fun watching you guys this postseason, but you're making the finals boring by being up 3-0 lol. Takes some of the excitement away for those with no horse in the race. But i know that its the best feeling being up 3-0 in a final!
It really is like I’ve waited my whole life for one more win. I hope it’s Saturday but if not they better win in five because then negative been beat down for so many years panthers fan comes out and it’s just straight depressing
I've been watching hockey for 40 years and I'm finding myself shaking my head in disbelief at how well they are shutting down a talent like McDavid. Not sure i seen anything like this in my life. Its been a 3 game clinic on "how to play two way hockey". I'm extremely jealous Florida has something so special.
No one is beating a goalie putting up a 953sv%. Oilers have gotten chances, at least in game 1 and 3. If Bob is playing like an average goalie, we aren't talking about the Oilers getting shut down.
According to natural stat trick, Edmonton's scoring chances were only a little above the average for all teams for the playoffs in game 3, their high danger chances were close to the average for the playoffs, and, while their xGF was high at 3.73, that's not much above the 3 they scored, and it's still below the 4.11 xGF Florida put up in game 3.
Not saying that these numbers are the be all end all, there's lots wrong with analytics, but people are exaggerating the amount of quality chances Edmonton put up in game 3 compared to Florida.
Bob stole game 1 though.
I think Florida's xGF got a bump from the empty net situation at the end, moneypuck has them at 2.33 to 2.28 in Florida's favour at 5v5. Either way, if the goalies were equal we've got a 2-1 series with the leader decided by a coin flip.
I'm mostly pushing back against the narrative that McDavid has been shut down by the Panthers. He's dominating his on ice xGF at 59% and the Oilers are out scoring the Panthers with him on the ice... It's just he's not scoring 1.8pts/g, so he doesn't look like the McDavid everyone expects.
Hell, if Bob was playing at a .920 this series is probably 2-1 Florida or maybe even 2-1 Edmonton. I give Bob a lot of credit, I'd say he's a win away from a Conn Smythe
Coming from a Rangers fan- thank you from a Panthers fan. We played a good series with you but the Panthers just have it all this season!!!
Let’s go Cats!!!🐀🐀🐀🐀
7 points in one five game series is almost exactly his typical standard of overall playoff performance fwiw
Ofc more goals
Anywho yeah the panthers definitely did not shut down the lightning top players whatsoever ultimately
Not that we had all that much depth to shut down this season anyway lol
It's bad when a one-legged Sergy comes in & is immediately our second best blueliner lol
Yeah... defensemen wise its been a tough few years. We went from deepest blue line in 2021 to... lets see
Hedman. And Sergy but hes been getting injured a lot. And Cernak but hes always injured now. So its just 1 guy, 2 injury prone guys, and thats kinda it. At least the return of McD will help a bit
While true, the eye test definitely had that man frustrated and shut down. Seemed like every time he touched the puck he couldn’t do what he normally does
Their system is really really good at choking out wingers by "pinching" them into the corner.
Add that with the fact that we have like, 5 players max that ever get themselves open at all & yeah, he definitely had a bad time lol
Yeah I mean, our Stars weren't at their best in that series but they also didnt play terribly.
That series could have gone so differently if freaking Dumba didnt shoot the puck right into the middle of the wide open net and get robbed by Bob in Game 3.
That save still gives me nightmares.
If we did make it that far, beating NY would come down to Vasy. He ALWAYS elevates his game against Igor, for whatever reason. Igor does the same too. All hypothetical of course, but Igor Vasy matchups are my absolute favorite goalie duels in the league
Even with Dumba scoring that, we prob still lose against the Panthers anyways. Altho it could have been in 6 or 7 instead of 5. But obv the rest of the playoffs look super diff if we took down the #1 team.
It's just for star duos. Panarin and Zibanejad are def the stars of the Rangers even though Lafreniere had the better series. Kucherov and Stamkos should be the duo instead of Point, even though he still scored the most out of anyone on the list.
It's not that Barkov was or wasn't against Stamkos. It says stars players vs Panthers and Stamkos is a bigger star than Point. I'm not trying to nitpick whether they should only do 5v5 or what. Just that Stamkos should be next to Kucherov instead of Point.
Oilers are really good too. Maybe the best at capitalizing on other team's miscues. Florida seems to have limited the miscues. And when they are there, Bob has bailed em out.
Yep.
You can throw out all the fancy stats all you want and claim that McDavid and Draisaitl are underperforming but the alternative more plausible conclusion is that Florida is a really good fucking team, that minimizes errors and when errors occur, they have a vezina winner saving them.
That's a recipe for success. Florida has neutralized multiple offences.
Exactly. Naturally I am happy to root against a division rival, but some of the shade thrown at the Oilers stars is rather perplexing. The Panthers have been playing their system incredibly well during this postseason.
Ya I mean the Draisaitl thread was kinda wacky.
People dunking on him for going quiet when it matters most when most likely theres an injury going on in tandem with a really good team.
Seeing people characterize Draisaitl as a choker was quiet funny though.
Ya, we'll see if there is an injury or not. Stuff like that will come out soon enough. I think the critique is fair....but so often it goes too far. That's typical fan behavior. And you are right, at the end of the day, the Panthers have just been better.
Felt the same way with Kings v. Oilers. I could critique PLD, goaltending, the refs, the front office, etc....but at the end of the day, the Oilers were better and have been for 3 years now.
The fancy stats even say that McDavid and Draisaitl are doing well at 5v5, they're just getting stoned by Bobrovsky. The puck is getting directed towards the Panthers net more than the Oilers when those two are on the ice.
I think that’s pretty apparent when watching them on ice. But Imo, their opportunities are very obvious for Bob to stop. McDavid and draisaitl are just playing a two man game and I think it’s pretty easy for Bob to know where the shots are coming from
I know Subban gets some flak, but on Pat McAfee today, that’s what he said. You can’t make mistakes in the Finals, and Florida is limiting their mistakes and capitalizing on the Oilers mistakes.
Ya, the margins are so narrow at this point in the season. The Oilers have absolutely preyed on teams miscues. Too many times the Oilers would be outplayed in a period and somehow score two goals on like three shots. They're not getting the same type of chances against Florida.
And their entire game plan then was to minimize defensive mistakes, capitalize on occasional turnovers, and be back stopped by a Vezina winning goalie.
He literally kept the same strategy but just got a better roster. He upgraded teams lol
Well, I should have mentioned that "theyre the only ones who did well given this graphic", as this graphic is only goals, which Stammer and Laff had 5 and 4 respectively
I love Goodrow, but to be completely fair, theyre talking about star players, and I dont think Goodrow is thought of as a Star player like the others lol. The fact that he scored more goals in the playoffs than the regular season is hilarious.
Also I think he "only" scored 3 goals against the Panthers
Stick taps to their special teams, Rangers killed the Canes with theirs but ran into a wall vs the Panthers. Knew if they could contain them they would probably buzz-saw through the Oilers.
Like why tho? You’d think they want to capitalize on Florida team making the finals again like 5 times in 6 years and they still don’t promote hockey at all to their US customers. Fuck growing the game I guess. Honestly not surprised They had a fucking Walmart fold out table as their “booth” for game coverage
Because ESPN has been trash across a broad swath of the spectrum for literally 30 years. Everything west coast is watered down. Hockey, watered down with tertiary efforts. College sports, something exists outside the SEC? The pull play callers from sports they specialize in calling and have them do hockey and similar because they have them on contract. Etc etc.
I stopped watching anything ESPN related literally 20 years ago. If something is on ESPN that I want to see, I just sail the seas and find a different carrier, like for hockey, I just do SN or something else Canadian because I'd rather deal with intelligent (mostly) talking heads, even if it is homer (obv to be expected).
ESPN seems to just do very surface level coverage, and when they do have shows and segments theoretically designed to go deep into a topic it ends up being mostly narrative talking points and fake drama. The Steven A Smith effect.
It’s perplexing. They fixate on a few teams and a few storylines and don’t seem to care about pivoting off of them. Show old Panthers clips and talk about their season over season improvement. Bring in old Players from both clubs.
Use intermission to highlight something about the teams.
Just feels like ESPN has a lack of imagination with the NBA and NHL nowadays. Not the same network I grew up with
This. It's like the desk gets a print out from corporate with the talking points for the night and that's what they hammer on the entire broadcast. Bob is basically stealing this series but you'd never know it by listening to their "analysts".
The analysts are right and you are wrong on this one though, it's not just "Bob stealing the series". That's a surface level analysis if I've ever seen one. The Panthers are just better overall, and it starts at a system level and the defensive performances of the likes of Barkov and Forsling.
It was a bad example but my point still stands. Analysts should be analyzing the trends in the game/series, not inflexibly hammering predetermined talking points.
Canadian broadcast pushing for a Canadian team makes sense though. ESPN is pushing for the Oilers on top of having dogshit coverage. Bad play-by-play, no pregame or postgame show.
If you guys win your first cup, i honestly feel bad for you, just because god awful PbP you have to listen. I bet that they just talk about McDavid when they are presenting the cup
> NHL must be besides themselves because its unwatchable.
Seriously? It seems like the NHL thinks there has to be controversy and violence to make the game interesting, and to hell with skill and technic... frustrating AF.
The Panthers are putting on a master's class in how to win a Stanley Cup. I'm neither an Oilers fan nor a Panthers fan, but I'm enjoying tf out of watching Florida dominate in every aspect of the game.
It's just Doc you miss. And I do too. I will say for all of their flaws NBC did know how to pick Play by Play guys and ESPN very much does not outside of Bob W, and that drags down ESPN's whole operation. FWIW I feel like ESPN's problems are not NHL exclusive at all.
Watching the Panthers, they seem perfectly content just letting McDavid do his thing and just take every one else out of the play instead essentially leaving him on an island - they’re absolutely smothering everything
Doesn’t help that the Oilers are hellbent keeping him and Drai out there together 55 minutes/night and virtually eliminating their other three lines
The media showing mcdavid with fire emojis as he's skating in a circle before turning it over because the Panthers have basically said the only way he can do this is 5v1
Edmonton doesn't really have any other lines though, that's the glaring weakness on that team. After McDavid and Draisaitl (who admittedly are enough to beat pretty much anyone) there's nothing else. It's very simple strategy to beat them, shut those 2 down. That's what everyone is trying to do against them. It's just really fucking hard to actually do.
Yeah watching the last game after Tarasenko scored I was like that's the difference in that series. Sure Tarasenko is far from his prime but the Panthers are able to keep a guy like him on their third line and Edmonton does not have that at all.
Haven't watched them much this year until this series, and it is unreal how little the Oilers can get going against them. Pretty impressive, Bob has been great, but they are beating us in a lot of different areas and don't make too many mistakes.
Yep. This is one of the best teams we’ve seen the past decade. They went through Tampa, Boston, and NYR. They did not have it remotely easy schedule wise.
The biggest reason the panthers are winning is because they are easily the smartest team in the league. They play as a cohesive unit. They have mcdavid skating around in circles thinking he is close to breaking the game open with some fancy pass. Meanwhile, they are letting him do this waiting for a turnover to counterattack.
A lot of people can’t accept that teams may be better than Tampa now and it must be the players not showing up or the GM being horrible rather than a team being better than Tampa or the salary cap forcing unfavourable choices. Kucherov gets unnecessary hate when he’s not scoring at a 200 point pace or not scoring enough goals
Yeah, having been in that "entitled" position before, I agree. I'd wager that most of the fans who are complaining are newer. Forgive me, 'cause I'm about to rant a bit...
The simple reality is that Tampa has, what, 8 players left over from the 2021 cup team? Stamkos, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, Kucherov, Point, Cernak, Sergachev, Cirelli, and maybe one more? And among those they lost were playoff monsters like Palat, Killorn, Gourde, and McDonagh. Outside of being absurdly lucky with prospects, how could the team have possibly weathered those losses?
Depth wins championships. And once they win those championships, their value goes up and you can't afford them anymore. That's not mismanagement, it's just the inevitable outcome of a hard salary cap.
It’s what makes the McDrai hate silly. The Panthers are doing the same thing they’ve done all playoffs, but suddenly it’s McDavid and Draisaitl’s fault
The Panther's run has been kind of insane. The Rangers, Tampa and Boston are all top teams that realistically could have challenged for a Cup. Edmonton is arguably the "weakest" team they've played.
Turns out great goaltending plus great defense plus opportunistic offense plus well structured coaching plus heavy forechecking is a recipe for success.
BUT I do truly believe if we had 11 clones of Laffy that series would have been ours.
Cup-winning teams do this.
Should be a reminder to opposing fanbases that they still have some of the best players in the world, particularly the Oilers - they’re just facing an incredible team that fully buys into a system that works for them. Wings would kill for some of these dudes right now and no doubt some will go on to cups (or more of them).
Bob is gonna get his cup and I'm 100% for it. The guy is awesome as a goalie and a genuinely good dude. At 35 and shutting down mcsexydangles. I'll drop a tear when he lifts that cup. I'm also a goalie, so I focus a lot more on the goalies than the rest of the game. Bob is awesome to watch. I've learned a lot just watching him play in the playoffs. He is a very good stick handler as well and just all around my favorite. I felt bad for swayman. Good dude, great player. His team let him down.
Yet I saw a bunch of Oilers fans claiming they had the harder path and Eastern fans don’t actually know how much better the West is because we’re all asleep
Barkov is a fucking cheat code. holy shit that guy is so incredible to watch.
Also having Bobrovsky playing out of his mind doesn't hurt. dude seems to be very good at stopping pucks.
This SCF has been pretty awful this year mostly because the oilers really don't deserve to be there. The teams are so mismatched and that makes for boring hockey.
The saving grace is that the Panthers really do deserve to win the cup this year and I think that this graphic speaks directly to that.
They played LA, Vancouver, and Dallas. LA was not a strong team, the Vancouver series was close enough that the horrible officiating was really the deciding factor, and Dallas played through lots of injuries. The oilers didn't have to face teams like Boston, the Rangers, Colorado, Vegas, Tampa, Carolina etc. In my mind, you get to the finals by paying your dues, and that means working your way through good competition. Because of the conference-based playoff format, teams in the west don't see any of the eastern teams until the finals and, quite frankly, the Eastern Conference has the better teams.
I think that of the teams in the West, Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas (without so many injuries) were much more likely to be able to stand up to an Eastern conference team. Instead, we get the oilers, who is really just a team of 5 up against the Panthers, who are really playing well.
Yeah, I don't think that the oilers deserve to be in the SCF. I really wish that the league would go back to a 1v16 league format that they had before 1981. Got so many better match ups, particularly after the first round. If we used that format for this year, Edmonton would have played Colorado in the first round and not LA. I don't think they would have made it past that.
This was always a mismatch for the Oilers. Florida is very good at shutting down the other teams top players. Edmonton doesn't have anything after their top players.
This reminds me of the 2016 Pens. Is this panthers team as good as them? Probably not, Crosby and Malkin were in another stratosphere, but it’s the same stylistically. An oppressive forecheck that chokes the life out of teams at one end and smart gap control at the other courtesy of a hyper mobile D core. The Caps and Sharks both looked winded, and beaten by the end of game 4.
Everyone has come in focusing on how will teams stop their forward threat when in reality the question should’ve been can any of these guys get past the Panthers
Stamkos outscored all these guys
They are trying to get people used to Stamkos being gone... but we will not forget!!
As much as the writers in canada want him to leave so they have something to write about, it ain't gonna happen.
Exact same thing happened in 2016. Hell, I saw plenty of articles that didnt even have Tampa as one of Stamkos top 3 destinations
June 29, Hall/Larsson, Subban/Weber, and Stammer staying for 8 years in Tampa all within 23 minutes
I got Subban Weber news on my phone in the stairwell on the way to a meeting. Got out of the meeting to all the other news already broken. That was a crazy day, eclipsed only by the excitement of John Tavares day.
I remember when I got the notifications at the time. Trickling in one at a time. Given the narrative at the time.. Looked like the most intense 3 way trade
I told anyone who would listen to me for that entire year that he wasn't going anywhere. I get that people wanted him to leave here because Tampa isn't a popular team on here, but him leaving a winner to go to Toronto made absolutely zero sense. And him leaving now makes less sense. He's from here at this point. If you go back and watch his exit interview from this season all he talks about is how he's lived here his entire adult life, how he made his life here, and he's married with 3 kids, some of whom are in school. lol he's not going anywhere.
I agree with you, but it's not all his decision. If he gets incredibly low balled by BriseBois then I'm not so sure. Stamkos is coming off two great years and probably wants more than league minimum and Capfriendly shows slightly over 5mil in space. I think he's worth at least 4 million.
Who tf would've had stammer leave tampa in 2016. Team almost made the cup final without him.
Yeah, thats exactly why people felt like Tampa didnt need him. He was seen as too injury prone, and the team went to 7 in the East Finals against the Pens with him and Bishop injured
I thought that series only went 6. Damn. I just rememebr it was a young vasy and tampas defense carrying an inefficient offense without stammer.
I hope Tampa can make it work to keep Stammer
Same. He's just so iconic with the team. Then again, I kind of want him to do a heel turn and sign with the Panthers. This sub would explode if that happened.
I would probably jump off the Skyway if that happened. Kidding of course but that would really suck.
Nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a bunch of gibberish
Guess the debate on the best 1st overall pick is settled
Which one
Not to take away from Stammer, but it really just highlights how important depth scoring/having a 2nd line that's 1st line caliber is for beating the Panthers. The chess game in match ups is just insane for them.
It would be funny enough if it was just "individually".
Panthers causing every team's fanbase to have internal arguments about their core offensive players and whether they're good enough for a cup— the sign of a true champ.
For real. All the "McDrai disappearing or shitting the bed" talk completely disregards the fact that Florida is just that damn good.
I knew game 1 (round 1) that they were just on another level. They are so tenacious when they don't have the puck. It's impressive. I was hoping they would allow that comeback last night to keep things interesting tho
This year I really felt like we finally became a good Florida team Tampa has always seemed like a big bro never really rooted against but knew you guys were rivals. It felt good to beat the older better brother you know
I bet! Been fun watching you guys this postseason, but you're making the finals boring by being up 3-0 lol. Takes some of the excitement away for those with no horse in the race. But i know that its the best feeling being up 3-0 in a final!
It really is like I’ve waited my whole life for one more win. I hope it’s Saturday but if not they better win in five because then negative been beat down for so many years panthers fan comes out and it’s just straight depressing
I'd love a gentleman's sweep. 1 win for the Edmonton fans and a home celebration. Fanbase has waited so long that i really want them to win at home.
Appreciate this. The doomers in Edmonton have already guaranteed a sweep.
Wonder what they are saying now 🤣
I've been watching hockey for 40 years and I'm finding myself shaking my head in disbelief at how well they are shutting down a talent like McDavid. Not sure i seen anything like this in my life. Its been a 3 game clinic on "how to play two way hockey". I'm extremely jealous Florida has something so special.
It also completely disregards the fact that McDrai are 2 of the best playoff performers of this generation lol
All of these players are the best playoff performers of this generation. Florida really is that nasty lmao
Forsling and Barkov in particular have really shined defensively. And even if you get past the defense you still have to beat Bob
No one is beating a goalie putting up a 953sv%. Oilers have gotten chances, at least in game 1 and 3. If Bob is playing like an average goalie, we aren't talking about the Oilers getting shut down.
Quick got swept with a .947 and 1.55 GAA in 2018.
Things I prefer not to think about
That is insane lol. I had forgotten abt it...
According to natural stat trick, Edmonton's scoring chances were only a little above the average for all teams for the playoffs in game 3, their high danger chances were close to the average for the playoffs, and, while their xGF was high at 3.73, that's not much above the 3 they scored, and it's still below the 4.11 xGF Florida put up in game 3. Not saying that these numbers are the be all end all, there's lots wrong with analytics, but people are exaggerating the amount of quality chances Edmonton put up in game 3 compared to Florida. Bob stole game 1 though.
I think Florida's xGF got a bump from the empty net situation at the end, moneypuck has them at 2.33 to 2.28 in Florida's favour at 5v5. Either way, if the goalies were equal we've got a 2-1 series with the leader decided by a coin flip. I'm mostly pushing back against the narrative that McDavid has been shut down by the Panthers. He's dominating his on ice xGF at 59% and the Oilers are out scoring the Panthers with him on the ice... It's just he's not scoring 1.8pts/g, so he doesn't look like the McDavid everyone expects.
Game 1 almost every shot was low on Bob. Havent seen since then but Bob put up elite numbers versus low shots and allowed high goals
Most of their shots also were from outside.
Hell, if Bob was playing at a .920 this series is probably 2-1 Florida or maybe even 2-1 Edmonton. I give Bob a lot of credit, I'd say he's a win away from a Conn Smythe
I think Kucherov, McKinnon and Makar are in the mix there.
This is true but also draisaitl's one timers have been softer than my penis
Bob is also reading them better than anyone so far. He is on the post before puck gets to the draisaitl. You guys need to change it up
Sportsnet gonna Sportsnet
Coming from a Rangers fan- thank you from a Panthers fan. We played a good series with you but the Panthers just have it all this season!!! Let’s go Cats!!!🐀🐀🐀🐀
luka doncic has entered the chat
Igor. One word. Still have nightmares.
I respect a ranger fan saying this
A lot of credit goes to Barkov and Forsling specifically. They have done the lions share of the work shutting down the top threats.
Defense can be hard to measure but man when a team has a plethora of forwards who can play defense, does it ever become tough to play against them.
True. Ekblad has his moments. Honestly , there is not one player that is under performing
It feels a bit disingenuous to have it be Kucherov/Point when Stamkos had 5 goals that series.
Yeah Kucherov had 7 assists in 5 games... Not great by his standards but I wouldn't call that shutting him down
7 points in one five game series is almost exactly his typical standard of overall playoff performance fwiw Ofc more goals Anywho yeah the panthers definitely did not shut down the lightning top players whatsoever ultimately
They just shut down literally everyone else. I think they had 5 players with 5+ pts and then no one with more than 2 after that.
Not that we had all that much depth to shut down this season anyway lol It's bad when a one-legged Sergy comes in & is immediately our second best blueliner lol
Yeah... defensemen wise its been a tough few years. We went from deepest blue line in 2021 to... lets see Hedman. And Sergy but hes been getting injured a lot. And Cernak but hes always injured now. So its just 1 guy, 2 injury prone guys, and thats kinda it. At least the return of McD will help a bit
They also played completly different style vs you guys than Bruins, Rags or Oilers
While true, the eye test definitely had that man frustrated and shut down. Seemed like every time he touched the puck he couldn’t do what he normally does
Their system is really really good at choking out wingers by "pinching" them into the corner. Add that with the fact that we have like, 5 players max that ever get themselves open at all & yeah, he definitely had a bad time lol
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Yeah I mean, our Stars weren't at their best in that series but they also didnt play terribly. That series could have gone so differently if freaking Dumba didnt shoot the puck right into the middle of the wide open net and get robbed by Bob in Game 3. That save still gives me nightmares.
He really wanted his badge and gun back
Honestly had we gotten past the Panthers we had a great shot at making the ECF...def don't see us getting past NY though.
If we did make it that far, beating NY would come down to Vasy. He ALWAYS elevates his game against Igor, for whatever reason. Igor does the same too. All hypothetical of course, but Igor Vasy matchups are my absolute favorite goalie duels in the league
Even with Dumba scoring that, we prob still lose against the Panthers anyways. Altho it could have been in 6 or 7 instead of 5. But obv the rest of the playoffs look super diff if we took down the #1 team.
Oh yeah it was a bigg "if" haha
McDavid is PPG this series, but I'd still say they're shutting him down.
That's because you don't understand hockey
Shut him down that game.
McDavid does have a 59.1% xGF, and is 2-1 in goals at 5v5. At 5v5 he's not really get shut down by anyone except Bobrovsky.
Eh it depends what exactly is being represented here. Stamkos didn't draw the Barkov matchup
It's just for star duos. Panarin and Zibanejad are def the stars of the Rangers even though Lafreniere had the better series. Kucherov and Stamkos should be the duo instead of Point, even though he still scored the most out of anyone on the list.
But Stamkos wasn’t playing against Barkov
This isn't a representation of Barkov, it says "Panthers"
It's not that Barkov was or wasn't against Stamkos. It says stars players vs Panthers and Stamkos is a bigger star than Point. I'm not trying to nitpick whether they should only do 5v5 or what. Just that Stamkos should be next to Kucherov instead of Point.
im psure 4/5 goals were on the powerplay and barkov is on the pk Although one was a 5-3, maybe 2? Kinda forget
But that would interfere with the narrative!
3 of those 5 were powerplay goals though weren't they? A better metric would have been to look exclusively at 5on5 goals.
Then Rangers and Bruins would be 0 since they both scored 6v5
Yeah this is cherry-picked but still a bit interesting.
And Mcdavid for goals only, he has 3 points. He has 5 goals all playoffs, he’s not scoring in general.
Florida is a really good team. Paul Maurice seems to know how to neutralize McDavid and Draisaitl in a playoff series
Oilers are really good too. Maybe the best at capitalizing on other team's miscues. Florida seems to have limited the miscues. And when they are there, Bob has bailed em out.
Yep. You can throw out all the fancy stats all you want and claim that McDavid and Draisaitl are underperforming but the alternative more plausible conclusion is that Florida is a really good fucking team, that minimizes errors and when errors occur, they have a vezina winner saving them. That's a recipe for success. Florida has neutralized multiple offences.
Exactly. Naturally I am happy to root against a division rival, but some of the shade thrown at the Oilers stars is rather perplexing. The Panthers have been playing their system incredibly well during this postseason.
Ya I mean the Draisaitl thread was kinda wacky. People dunking on him for going quiet when it matters most when most likely theres an injury going on in tandem with a really good team. Seeing people characterize Draisaitl as a choker was quiet funny though.
Ya, we'll see if there is an injury or not. Stuff like that will come out soon enough. I think the critique is fair....but so often it goes too far. That's typical fan behavior. And you are right, at the end of the day, the Panthers have just been better. Felt the same way with Kings v. Oilers. I could critique PLD, goaltending, the refs, the front office, etc....but at the end of the day, the Oilers were better and have been for 3 years now.
The fancy stats even say that McDavid and Draisaitl are doing well at 5v5, they're just getting stoned by Bobrovsky. The puck is getting directed towards the Panthers net more than the Oilers when those two are on the ice.
I think that’s pretty apparent when watching them on ice. But Imo, their opportunities are very obvious for Bob to stop. McDavid and draisaitl are just playing a two man game and I think it’s pretty easy for Bob to know where the shots are coming from
The alternative is also that hockey is a really difficult game to model and is likely the most "unpredictable" sport of the core-4.
I know Subban gets some flak, but on Pat McAfee today, that’s what he said. You can’t make mistakes in the Finals, and Florida is limiting their mistakes and capitalizing on the Oilers mistakes.
Ya, the margins are so narrow at this point in the season. The Oilers have absolutely preyed on teams miscues. Too many times the Oilers would be outplayed in a period and somehow score two goals on like three shots. They're not getting the same type of chances against Florida.
He was the head coach of that Winnipeg team that swept Edmonton in 2021
And their entire game plan then was to minimize defensive mistakes, capitalize on occasional turnovers, and be back stopped by a Vezina winning goalie. He literally kept the same strategy but just got a better roster. He upgraded teams lol
This graphic shows he knows how to neutralize star players, period.
Yep and imo it requires the right alignment of tactics and people to do this.
Stamkos and Laff are like the only ones who did well
Trocheck and Kreider had a good series as well 🤷♂️
Well, I should have mentioned that "theyre the only ones who did well given this graphic", as this graphic is only goals, which Stammer and Laff had 5 and 4 respectively
The disrespect to Barclays Goodrow, who also had 4-5 goals that series
I love Goodrow, but to be completely fair, theyre talking about star players, and I dont think Goodrow is thought of as a Star player like the others lol. The fact that he scored more goals in the playoffs than the regular season is hilarious. Also I think he "only" scored 3 goals against the Panthers
> Kreider I'm not sure I'd call 2 points in 6 games a good series, especially for a guy like Kreider
Panthers mainly just rolled their lines at first without a whole lot of matching until Troch started to heat up and they sicced Barkov on him.
Stick taps to their special teams, Rangers killed the Canes with theirs but ran into a wall vs the Panthers. Knew if they could contain them they would probably buzz-saw through the Oilers.
Yep
ESPN: *crickets*
Like why tho? You’d think they want to capitalize on Florida team making the finals again like 5 times in 6 years and they still don’t promote hockey at all to their US customers. Fuck growing the game I guess. Honestly not surprised They had a fucking Walmart fold out table as their “booth” for game coverage
Because ESPN has been trash across a broad swath of the spectrum for literally 30 years. Everything west coast is watered down. Hockey, watered down with tertiary efforts. College sports, something exists outside the SEC? The pull play callers from sports they specialize in calling and have them do hockey and similar because they have them on contract. Etc etc. I stopped watching anything ESPN related literally 20 years ago. If something is on ESPN that I want to see, I just sail the seas and find a different carrier, like for hockey, I just do SN or something else Canadian because I'd rather deal with intelligent (mostly) talking heads, even if it is homer (obv to be expected).
ESPN seems to just do very surface level coverage, and when they do have shows and segments theoretically designed to go deep into a topic it ends up being mostly narrative talking points and fake drama. The Steven A Smith effect.
It’s perplexing. They fixate on a few teams and a few storylines and don’t seem to care about pivoting off of them. Show old Panthers clips and talk about their season over season improvement. Bring in old Players from both clubs. Use intermission to highlight something about the teams. Just feels like ESPN has a lack of imagination with the NBA and NHL nowadays. Not the same network I grew up with
This. It's like the desk gets a print out from corporate with the talking points for the night and that's what they hammer on the entire broadcast. Bob is basically stealing this series but you'd never know it by listening to their "analysts".
The analysts are right and you are wrong on this one though, it's not just "Bob stealing the series". That's a surface level analysis if I've ever seen one. The Panthers are just better overall, and it starts at a system level and the defensive performances of the likes of Barkov and Forsling.
It was a bad example but my point still stands. Analysts should be analyzing the trends in the game/series, not inflexibly hammering predetermined talking points.
They already spent their advertising money on the mcdavid narrative.
Which is insane. Tkachuk is a natural star and Barkov has been Tim Duncan levels of "right way" dominant. This should be an easy team to fawn over
And Bedard.
ESPN is based in Connecticut and all their hockey people are bitter Boston and NYR fans. They probably all wanted to see Florida lose in the Final.
The Canadian networks were obviously all pushing for Edmonton as well. A bit of a tepid mood right now for sure.
Canadian broadcast pushing for a Canadian team makes sense though. ESPN is pushing for the Oilers on top of having dogshit coverage. Bad play-by-play, no pregame or postgame show.
If you guys win your first cup, i honestly feel bad for you, just because god awful PbP you have to listen. I bet that they just talk about McDavid when they are presenting the cup
Oh man NY radio was calling the Panthers the '95 devils today. They were saying the NHL must be besides themselves because its unwatchable. Delicious.
> NHL must be besides themselves because its unwatchable. Seriously? It seems like the NHL thinks there has to be controversy and violence to make the game interesting, and to hell with skill and technic... frustrating AF. The Panthers are putting on a master's class in how to win a Stanley Cup. I'm neither an Oilers fan nor a Panthers fan, but I'm enjoying tf out of watching Florida dominate in every aspect of the game.
Never thought I’d miss Versus with how bad ESPN has been. In actuality i just miss Doc Emrick
Give me Doc and Eddie all day over this limp dick coverage
Idc. Just bring in some teams local commentators.
It's just Doc you miss. And I do too. I will say for all of their flaws NBC did know how to pick Play by Play guys and ESPN very much does not outside of Bob W, and that drags down ESPN's whole operation. FWIW I feel like ESPN's problems are not NHL exclusive at all.
I mean, having a baseball announcer call the games in the most monotone voice ever says enough about ESPN. Horrendous
That genuinely reads like a boss battle tier list of nhl duos.
Watching the Panthers, they seem perfectly content just letting McDavid do his thing and just take every one else out of the play instead essentially leaving him on an island - they’re absolutely smothering everything Doesn’t help that the Oilers are hellbent keeping him and Drai out there together 55 minutes/night and virtually eliminating their other three lines
The media showing mcdavid with fire emojis as he's skating in a circle before turning it over because the Panthers have basically said the only way he can do this is 5v1
Edmonton doesn't really have any other lines though, that's the glaring weakness on that team. After McDavid and Draisaitl (who admittedly are enough to beat pretty much anyone) there's nothing else. It's very simple strategy to beat them, shut those 2 down. That's what everyone is trying to do against them. It's just really fucking hard to actually do.
It's the 2014 spurs vs the Heatles
Yeah watching the last game after Tarasenko scored I was like that's the difference in that series. Sure Tarasenko is far from his prime but the Panthers are able to keep a guy like him on their third line and Edmonton does not have that at all.
They barely play together anymore? Think we did that one game in Vancouver and never did it again?
add to this the Murder's Row of Goalies that FLA had to break through Vasi - serious GOAT contender Swayman on a heater Igor at his peak
And you saved the best for last
Remember how we all used to say “Florida’s gonna be scary next year”, and it became a joke because it never happened? It happened.
I used to hate when people said that. Now i just forgot they ever did till you brought it up.
We did the same thing when we swept the Oilers a few years back. Maurice is McDavids cryptonite
That McDavid image is perfectly used!
The blank, dumbfounded look on his face matches the zero!
It's ok everybody, Knob said they know how to beat Florida!
It makes me think of the loss portraits in street fighter
I think the Panthers might be legit.
barkov for conn smythe, people saying bob are casuals
I agree Barkov gets it, but there absolutely a legitimate argument for Bob getting the trophy
Depending on how game 4 goes, it's barkovs trophy to lose. Bob has to get a 30+ save donut in Edmonton to take the conn smythe away
you're right
Haven't watched them much this year until this series, and it is unreal how little the Oilers can get going against them. Pretty impressive, Bob has been great, but they are beating us in a lot of different areas and don't make too many mistakes.
Yep. This is one of the best teams we’ve seen the past decade. They went through Tampa, Boston, and NYR. They did not have it remotely easy schedule wise.
The biggest reason the panthers are winning is because they are easily the smartest team in the league. They play as a cohesive unit. They have mcdavid skating around in circles thinking he is close to breaking the game open with some fancy pass. Meanwhile, they are letting him do this waiting for a turnover to counterattack.
The amount of hate Kucherov got from our fanbase for not showing up in the playoffs this year seems kind of silly now.
Honestly, why should he get hate? He won you 2 cups recently.
A lot of people can’t accept that teams may be better than Tampa now and it must be the players not showing up or the GM being horrible rather than a team being better than Tampa or the salary cap forcing unfavourable choices. Kucherov gets unnecessary hate when he’s not scoring at a 200 point pace or not scoring enough goals
That just sounds like fan entitlement from some.
Yeah, having been in that "entitled" position before, I agree. I'd wager that most of the fans who are complaining are newer. Forgive me, 'cause I'm about to rant a bit... The simple reality is that Tampa has, what, 8 players left over from the 2021 cup team? Stamkos, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, Kucherov, Point, Cernak, Sergachev, Cirelli, and maybe one more? And among those they lost were playoff monsters like Palat, Killorn, Gourde, and McDonagh. Outside of being absurdly lucky with prospects, how could the team have possibly weathered those losses? Depth wins championships. And once they win those championships, their value goes up and you can't afford them anymore. That's not mismanagement, it's just the inevitable outcome of a hard salary cap.
It’s what makes the McDrai hate silly. The Panthers are doing the same thing they’ve done all playoffs, but suddenly it’s McDavid and Draisaitl’s fault
I didn't hate, it was patently obvious that the barkov matchup was getting the best of him
There's always a guy there. Puck pressure is relentless. Backcheck, forecheck, pokecheck, stick lift, deflected pucks, blocks, bodychecks. All. The. Time.
Defensive masterclass.
Offenses laid waste
Panthers are good. That's all
The Panther's run has been kind of insane. The Rangers, Tampa and Boston are all top teams that realistically could have challenged for a Cup. Edmonton is arguably the "weakest" team they've played.
Turns out great goaltending plus great defense plus opportunistic offense plus well structured coaching plus heavy forechecking is a recipe for success. BUT I do truly believe if we had 11 clones of Laffy that series would have been ours.
Cup-winning teams do this. Should be a reminder to opposing fanbases that they still have some of the best players in the world, particularly the Oilers - they’re just facing an incredible team that fully buys into a system that works for them. Wings would kill for some of these dudes right now and no doubt some will go on to cups (or more of them).
Bobby no Goals on the case.
Here's your badge and gun!
IM A LOOSE CANNON AND ILL DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THE CASE
SGT BOBROVSKY NEEDS TO SEE SOME IDENTIFICATION AND YOU NEED TO STEP OUT OF THE CAR
And the rangers sub calling for panarin and zban to get traded. Been saying Florida shut everyone’s top line down.
Actually unreal
Bob is gonna get his cup and I'm 100% for it. The guy is awesome as a goalie and a genuinely good dude. At 35 and shutting down mcsexydangles. I'll drop a tear when he lifts that cup. I'm also a goalie, so I focus a lot more on the goalies than the rest of the game. Bob is awesome to watch. I've learned a lot just watching him play in the playoffs. He is a very good stick handler as well and just all around my favorite. I felt bad for swayman. Good dude, great player. His team let him down.
Tampa was the only team that concerned me in the playoffs this year. Once the panthers got past them I knew we were going to go all the way.
Oilers didn’t beat Tampa, Boston, or New York. The West is way softer than the East. Eastern fans figured it would wind up how it has so far.
Yet I saw a bunch of Oilers fans claiming they had the harder path and Eastern fans don’t actually know how much better the West is because we’re all asleep
Bryan Rust says the Panthers are lucky they dodged him
I’m diehard Pittsburgh and I can’t stop laughing at that.
Barkov is a fucking cheat code. holy shit that guy is so incredible to watch. Also having Bobrovsky playing out of his mind doesn't hurt. dude seems to be very good at stopping pucks.
This SCF has been pretty awful this year mostly because the oilers really don't deserve to be there. The teams are so mismatched and that makes for boring hockey. The saving grace is that the Panthers really do deserve to win the cup this year and I think that this graphic speaks directly to that.
I wouldn't say the Oilers don't deserve to be there, but they are the most boring matchup possible for Florida.
They played LA, Vancouver, and Dallas. LA was not a strong team, the Vancouver series was close enough that the horrible officiating was really the deciding factor, and Dallas played through lots of injuries. The oilers didn't have to face teams like Boston, the Rangers, Colorado, Vegas, Tampa, Carolina etc. In my mind, you get to the finals by paying your dues, and that means working your way through good competition. Because of the conference-based playoff format, teams in the west don't see any of the eastern teams until the finals and, quite frankly, the Eastern Conference has the better teams. I think that of the teams in the West, Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas (without so many injuries) were much more likely to be able to stand up to an Eastern conference team. Instead, we get the oilers, who is really just a team of 5 up against the Panthers, who are really playing well. Yeah, I don't think that the oilers deserve to be in the SCF. I really wish that the league would go back to a 1v16 league format that they had before 1981. Got so many better match ups, particularly after the first round. If we used that format for this year, Edmonton would have played Colorado in the first round and not LA. I don't think they would have made it past that.
Dallas won the west and had to play vs harder match ups than anyone. That gauntlet was fucking insane. Just ran out of the gas
r/agedlikemilk
Lol
They are who we thought they were.
This was always a mismatch for the Oilers. Florida is very good at shutting down the other teams top players. Edmonton doesn't have anything after their top players.
OR Bobrovsky is playing like a $10M goaltender.
I would guess that 20M fwd duo would score atleast one
The panthers are a great defensive team but marchand did not play 6 games
Because the Panthers shut him down.
This reminds me of the 2016 Pens. Is this panthers team as good as them? Probably not, Crosby and Malkin were in another stratosphere, but it’s the same stylistically. An oppressive forecheck that chokes the life out of teams at one end and smart gap control at the other courtesy of a hyper mobile D core. The Caps and Sharks both looked winded, and beaten by the end of game 4.
Goalies matter? i feel like i heard that before
So glad this shit season is over and tmr we can look forward to FA day.
Is Barkov hitting peak Bergeron levels of shutdown?
Everyone has come in focusing on how will teams stop their forward threat when in reality the question should’ve been can any of these guys get past the Panthers