Hurricanes Brace for their BIGGEST Challenge Against Florida Panthers!

The Carolina Hurricanes have stormed into the Eastern Conference Finals after dispatching the Washington Capitals in just five games, setting the stage for what promises to be their toughest challenge yet against the defending champion Florida Panthers.

At the heart of the Hurricanes' success stands Frederik Andersen, whose playoff performance has been nothing short of spectacular. With a 7-1 record, 1.36 goals against average, and .937 save percentage, Andersen has emerged as the best goaltender in the playoffs. What makes his performance even more remarkable is that he allowed only six goals against Washington despite facing expected goals numbers exceeding 12 – a testament to his ability to make difficult saves when they matter most.

The upcoming series against Florida presents a fascinating mirror-image matchup. Both teams employ similar systems built around puck possession, high shot volume, and strong defensive structures. They're so evenly matched that the series may hinge on small advantages: Carolina's rest after finishing their previous series quickly, Rod Brind'Amour's matchup decisions with home-ice advantage, or perhaps Andersen's elite goaltending against a Panthers offense that creates dangerous chances. Key players to watch include Andrei Svechnikov, who leads the team with eight playoff goals by emphasizing shooting over fancy playmaking, and the defensive pairing of Jaccob Slavin and Sean Walker, whose effectiveness at both ends of the ice has been crucial.

As the Hurricanes prepare for Game 1 in Raleigh, the question remains: can they exploit their advantages against a Panthers team coming off a grueling seven-game series? With both power plays struggling and penalty kills excelling, this series will likely be decided five-on-five, where small edges in execution and effort could make all the difference between advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals or seeing their season end.

Highlights:

• Freddie Anderson has been exceptional with a 1.36 goals against average and .937 save percentage
• The Canes dominated shot attempts but Washington blocked many attempts, particularly from the defense
• Andrei Svechnikov leads the Canes in goals by focusing on shooting rather than making fancy plays
• Alexander Nikishin made an impressive NHL debut, showcasing his powerful shot and physical play
• The defensive pairing of Slavin and Walker has been particularly effective at both ends of the ice
• Florida presents a mirror-image challenge with similar playing styles to Carolina
• Both teams have struggled on the power play but excel on the penalty kill
• The Panthers' bottom-six forwards have been productive, particularly the third line with Brad Marchand
• Home ice advantage gives Rod Brind'Amour control of matchups in the first two games
• The Hurricanes' rest advantage could be crucial against a Panthers team coming off a seven-game series

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Carolina Hurricanes made short order of the Eastern
Conference, leading WashingtonCapitals, knocking them out in
five games in the second roundof the NHL playoffs.
The Canes dominated all aspectsof the series, including
goaltending, where FreddieAnderson bested Logan Thompson,
next up the Florida Panthers,the biggest test for the Canes

(00:25):
so far.
Can the Canes continue theirdominance against a much tougher
opponent?
We're going to talk about thelast series and take a look at
what's coming up in thatPanthers series.
And joining me, as always, ErinManning and Katie Berger Ladies
.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hi there Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
As I mentioned, the Canes dominated the Caps For
sure.
Freddie Anderson was one of thekeys.
Freddie, his numbers areamazing Seven wins, one loss,
1-3-6 goals against average anda 9-37 save for Saints.
These numbers are justincredible.
And other players were in thereas well.

(01:10):
So what are we thinking?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, I think that this is the first time that
we've gotten to see a trulyhealthy Freddie Anderson for the
Canes in the playoffs.
He did have to step out for agame, but it wasn't a big thing
and came right back in and justtook over the Washington
Capitals series.
He and Logan Thompson were rightup there together for a while

(01:38):
as two of the best goaltendersin the playoffs, but now Freddie
stands alone at the top of thatlist.
He has been the best goaltenderin these playoffs.
I think it's a moment where Ican kind of maybe eat a little
bit of crow, because I wasn'tsure that Freddie was going to
be able to do this.
I was one of the people I thinkwe all were a little bit kind
of hoping for more of a tandemstyle, maybe not every other

(02:02):
game, but bringing maybeKuchetkov in every third or
fourth game just to keep himfresh and also to be there in
case Freddie couldn't go.
But I think that what we'reseeing from Freddie Anderson is
that when he is healthy, hereally is one of the best
goaltenders in the NHL andthat's been a huge, huge factor

(02:23):
for the Canes, especially comingup against the Washington
Capitals with their firepower.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I would definitely agree.
I think that one of the thingsthat has helped Freddie for sure
has been the low shot totalsthat he has seen.
The Canes have been really goodabout making sure that he's not
getting bombarded at anyparticular given time.
In fact, I believe the averageshots on goal for the washington
capitol series was 19.2 so um,not only was freddie excellent

(02:56):
when he was called upon, but hewas never asked to do too much,
never got to the point where hewas worn out or scrambling too
much.
He always seemed like he wasfocused, centered well um,
square to the puck, covering thenet.
Um.
And if you look at most of thegoals he gave up, you just look

(03:16):
at them and say I don't thinkanybody is saving that
particular goal right, um, whichis good, because in the past
you always kind of felt likethere was this that Freddie was
going to be good, but there wasgoing to be one soft.
There's going to be one softgoal that he let in and that
really has not happened in theseplayoffs, specific and
specifically in the Washingtonseries.

(03:37):
He has done a great job.
The most impressive stat isprobably, I think, he only.
I think there was only sixgoals against him.
I think Washington scored seven, but there was an empty netter
in there.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Only six goals against him.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
But the expected goals in this series was over 12
.
And so the fact that he hadmore goals saved above expected
rather than actual goals allowedallowed is just an insane stat
and kudos to him.
I'm thrilled, and if he and thedefense with, you know,

(04:15):
preventing high volumes of shotscan repeat that performance, I
feel really good about the caneschances.
But it starts with freddie andnet freddie is is the foundation
that the Canes are going tobuild on if they are going to
find success moving forward.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, for sure.
And I mean you talk about thedefensive core was stingy as
heck.
They were doing a great job outthere and you know you saw some
of the forwards jump in.
We saw a great block by JordanMartinuk which I think possibly
saved a goal, but certainly wasa great play to at least prevent

(04:52):
a goal if Freddie couldn't saveit.
So it's great.
Yeah, outstanding performance byFred.
He looks well-rested.
He's a happy camper right now,of course, with that re-upping
and the new contract for nextyear.
All thumbs up with Fred, andyou know we talked about this.
I had actually mentioned thathe might be an X factor in the

(05:13):
series and I felt all along that.
You know Freddy's numbers inthe past have been tremendous in
the playoffs they really have.
So he's been there.
The challenge has always been,you know, could he remain
healthy and continue to berested sufficiently to do what
he does best?
So it's great.
One thing that we saw we heard alot about this in the broadcast

(05:35):
was just the shot numbers thatthe Canes were getting shot
attempts.
Washington in particularblocked a lot of shots from
their decor, but the shotattempt numbers were just insane
.
I remember the first game.
They were just off the charts.
Again.
The Canes, using that fullpressure, play that.

(05:56):
You know, get in your face, youknow, get in the ozone and
press hard.
And it seemed to go well forthe Canes and press hard.
And it seemed to go well forthe Canes.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Thoughts about that.
I think that it's just part ofthe Canes' DNA.
The idea is to control the puck, to keep possession of the puck
.
If you have the puck, theydon't have the puck, and if they
don't have the puck they can'tscore.
And then the idea is to justconstantly be cycling, throw
pucks on net I know it drivesall of us crazy, we have talked

(06:30):
about it in the past where theshots often taken are low danger
chances, low percentage chancesof scoring.
It's been very maddening,that's for sure, but in the
first two series it's beeneffective.
They have been able to foolThompson a few times.
I think that was the onedifference you go back to.
You know, freddie, not givingup the soft goals.
There were some soft goalsgiven up by Thompson and a lot

(06:53):
of that had to do with the factthat the Canes were just
relentless in getting pucks onthat and giving themselves every
chance, whether it was lowpercentage or high percentage
yeah of trying to score and itended up working for them,
particularly in game five um.
so you know it.
If it works, you know, don't,don't fix it, don't mess with it

(07:15):
, keep going.
I do think that they're goingto have to do more or perhaps a
little bit better balance ofquality versus quantity, moving
forward.
But the blueprint is there andthe don't change the blueprint,
just build on the blueprint.
And one particular player whohas seen a lot of success with

(07:37):
shooting the puck more on nethas been Andrei Svechnikov.
It is no doubt, there's nodoubt in my mind, that the
reason that he is leading theCanes and goals and is second
only to Rantanen, who has playedmore games than Svechnikov has,
there's no doubt in my mindit's because he is shooting the
puck more Instead of trying tobe fancy instead of trying to

(07:58):
look for that extra pass,instead of trying to pull a
nifty move, he is just puttingthe puck on net.
He's shooting if he has a chance, and that poor guy would be in
so much like have even moregoals if he didn't have this
awful relationship with thecrossbar and the posts.
He I think he has as manycrossbars and posts as he does

(08:21):
actual goals exactly yeah butyou just you have to think that
if he keeps shooting and hekeeps building that confidence
and keeps believing in himselfin that shot, that the number of
posts and crossbars is going tostart going down and the number
of goals is going to keep goingup.
So hopefully a few of the othercanes can take a page out of

(08:43):
such as book and see how wellit's worked for him,
particularly on his line.
It would be good to see Ajo andJarvis starting to put puck on
net a little bit more and notjust playing around with the
passes.
But if we can get some more ofthose types of players, then
let's ride Svets' coattails andhopefully get some more
offensive production movingforward.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, I mean Svch sits right behind Mikko Rantanen
for a number of goals.
Right now he's got eight.
Of course and you know we talkabout the shot volume thing A
lot of folks call the canesboring.
And of course, rod Brendamorebasically said hey, that's how
you score goals, you shoot right.
Rod Brendamore basically saidhey, that's how you score goals,
you shoot right.

(09:25):
And probably the biggesttestament to that would be the
goal that Svet scored the othernight From way on the right side
.
It had no right to go in.
Frankly, it should have beensaved easily and the Canes that
pretty well sealed the deal onthe whole series.
So, yeah, the biggest concern Ihave, of course, that pretty

(09:45):
well sealed the deal on the onthe whole series.
So, yeah, the biggest concern Ihave, of course, with all of
this is the effort that'srequired to do this.
It's a tremendous amount ofwork the Canes have to do to get
the puck out of their zone, getit up and take the shots.
It's, you know it's a lot andand I think you know that's one
of the things we're going tohave to be watching is to see
how they can hang up andcontinue to go.

(10:07):
But some other interestingstories in this round.
Of course we did see AlexanderNikitin, so you know a lot of
excitement there.
You know we had talked a littlebit about this last week,
thinking that he was, you know,probably going to show up in the
series somewhere.
Week thinking that he was, youknow, probably going to show up
in the series somewhere and asit turned out, it was right away

(10:32):
because of the situation withJalen Chatfield Nikishan.
He played 10 and a half minutessheltered minutes for sure, but
showed some things.
What did we think aboutAlexander and?

Speaker 2 (10:42):
his debut, erin.
Well, I liked the fact that youknow one of the shots he took
on goal registered at just over92 miles an hour.
I mean, this is his first gamein the NHL.
We are going to love that shot.
We're going to love it a lotand we're especially going to
love it when he's been able toplay in the system a little bit.
And they can start, you know,doing something setting up some

(11:05):
screens, getting that net.
And they can start, you knowdoing some things, setting up
some screens, getting that netfront, which is, you know, we
were talking about.
You know, just to carry on withthe shot volume thing for a
second, the Canes have alwaysbeen a great shot volume team.
What's working for them now?
I think a lot in the Washingtonseries was the net front
presence was much better than ithas been in the regular season
and if they can keep that going,especially with a player like

(11:26):
Nikitian maybe coming into thelineup here and there, that's
exactly what you need becausehis shot alone can pretty much,
you know, beat some goalies.
But when you're talking aboutthe playoffs, you want to have
some people, some traffic infront, and they've done a good
job of that they really have.
So I love seeing that shot.

(11:47):
I loved seeing the enthusiasm.
I think we all loved seeing Idon't know how many of you
follow Kaniak Brainiac on X, buthe was at the game and he took
a clip from Nikitian's firstshift.
He had the video of it that heshared online and there was a
great moment when Nikitian stoleAlexander Ovechkin's stick and
then did the innocent who madethe palms up.

(12:07):
You know that was a terrificmoment and what a great moment
for a kid from Russia to get todo that to his hero, you know,
in his very first shift in thegame.
So it was a lot of fun to seehim.
I see the potential.
I think there's some time.
There's going to be somepolishing needed as he fits into
the system, but he's.
There's no question about thetalent or the impact he's going

(12:28):
to have going forward.
What do you think, katie?

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Oh, I absolutely agree, and it's been fun seeing
some of the non-Cain centricmedia outlets starting to talk
about him and his potential andwhat he can mean.
Talk about him and hispotential and what he can mean,
um, uh, there was one articlethat I shared on x where they're
talking about he's a bit of athrowback, but the type of
throwback that works in themodern nhl because he likes to

(12:56):
skate backwards that he reallyprefers to defend skating
backwards and that that's a realskill and but he still has
positioning to where he can stepup into people and he throws
the body and has the big slapshot and that sort of thing.
So it's going to be really funto see how he adapts that.
There's going to be some work.

(13:17):
The Canes already have a badhabit of shooting into other
defenders' ankles, so hopefullyhe doesn't go along with them
and learn from them and slapshot into people's ankles.
Um, I don't think the defenderswant him to slap shot into
their ankles either, so thatthat would probably be of
benefit for both us and them.
But yeah, he has lots ofpotential.

(13:38):
Ultimately, we want chatty back.
Chatfield right now is a betterdefender than Nikitian.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
But I mean, it's hard to stay in the here and now
because it's easy to salivateover the future and the
potential of what this young manis going to mean to the Canes
for many, many years.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, I mean I think it was ESPN's John Boucher-Ross
was quite adamant on thequalities of Nikitian as he saw
it going forward, so that'sexciting.
Yeah, he let go a couple ofrockets, which we expected, and
he hit a couple of folks prettyhard, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Tom just ran into him and bounced off Like he didn't
do anything.
I just ran into him and bouncedoff Like he didn't do anything,
and of course he had that greatplay with Alex Ovechkin where
he kind of followed him to theblue line and got the puck and
knocked it out.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
It was a great play.
So, good, so great stuff there.
You talked about Chatfield,wondering what the situation is
with Chatfield and what thatmight mean to the Canes Katie.
What are you thinking there?

Speaker 3 (14:45):
After the practice press conference, Rod seemed to
suggest that Chatfield needs apractice with the team before
he's ready to play again, whichfeels problematic to me.
It makes me wonder if he's notgoing to be ready to go for the
first game.
With that particular comment,we'll be keeping a close eye on

(15:07):
Morning Skate, whoeverparticipates in that and see
what that looks like.
But it is what it is and theCanes are just going to have to
work with who they have and ifChatfield's not available, it's
next man up and moving forward.
But we definitely need Chattyback as soon as he is able to go
and compete at the level thathe can compete, because he is an

(15:30):
essential part of our groupdefense.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Yeah, for sure.
One of the areas that I thinkthere was a concern the other
night was on the penalty kill.
So when a defenseman went outit put tremendous pressure on
the other three kind of solid Dguys, because they don't
normally use Goss to spare thereand they weren't going to use
Nikitian.
So you know, missing Chatty inthat situation is a tough one,

(15:58):
so for sure.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, that's okay.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Just let Slavin play the full two minutes, like he
did before we know he can do it,it's no big deal, he's got this
.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
He's got this, yeah, well, and they did have.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Moro was up with Gossespierre today at the
practice.
So some people are already, youknow, trying to spin that
narrative of.
You know we can't put Moro inwhen we have Nikishan.
But realistically, the biggestdrawback for Nikitian right now
is simply the language skills.
It's very hard when you don'tspeak the language of all your

(16:30):
players around you tocommunicate and make those last
second adjustments.
So he did fine for the timethat he was in.
He did great.
But if they're not going to beable to pair him with Orlov
which they really aren't thenfor a game at home it's easier
to shelter a ghost Morrowpairing with third pair minutes

(16:52):
and keep them.
You know, do what you need todo with the other two pairs than
it would be maybe to rotateNikitian in and out with other
defensemen.
So we'll see.
It'll be interesting to see howthey decide to go with that.
But there's always apossibility of Chatfield's at
Morningscape that he could go.
So we'll see.
It'll be interesting to see howthey decide to go with that.
But there's always apossibility of Chatfield's at
Morningscape that he could go.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
So we'll see what happens, and you know that if he
can, he will for sure.
He's tough as nails, as they say.
So we'll see what he can do.
I think it's probably going tobe Scott Morrow if Chatty
doesn't go, and that's OK, he'splayed alongside Goss Despair
before.
Doesn't go, and that's okay,he's played alongside
Gossespierre before.

(17:27):
So it's not like, hey, we gottwo new guys out there, as they
did with trying to work Ghostwith Nikitian, so it's good.
Now, talking about Jacob Slavinand the work that he had to do,
kind of working on the PK extratime, and so too did Sean
Walker.
That combination to me, whenthey were together, were really
something to watch, and they aregoing to be critical for the

(17:49):
Canes going forward.
Katie, your thoughts on Slavinand Walker?

Speaker 3 (17:54):
I have made no secret here or on X that I love each
of them as their own defenseman,but I am really in love with
the two of them as a pair.
In the Washington series Ibelieve they logged about 20
minutes of ice time together,overall combination penalty kill
and five on five.

(18:15):
Five on five when they were onthe ice the Canes absolutely
dominated puck possession timeand outscored not just dominated
possession time, outchanced outhigh danger chance and
outscored Washington.
I believe it was three nothingfor goals when Walker and Slavin

(18:36):
were on the ice together.
I mean just really good, reallydominant.
And it's been interesting to seehow Rod has used them on five
on five because you know,certain times it's to give burns
a break or it's a particulartype of face-off against a
different line and he wants togive, I think, walker more

(18:57):
opportunity to uh, to, toactivate and get into the play
and we saw the success with that.
There was that one goal inparticular from Walker that was
absolutely beautiful when Savenwas out there where he cut in
and shot and Rasevich wasdriving the net.
It was fantastic and I think Rodknows that Walker has that in

(19:19):
the tank but can't activate thatway when he's out there with
Ghost, because Ghost is theoffensive-minded one when that
pair is together, but whenWalker's with Slavin, then
Walker can be theoffensive-minded one.
The other thing that wasinteresting to me is when you
look at the penalty kill timethat they spent together, shots
on goal were three and three forwhen they were out there.

(19:43):
So even when they were on thepenalty kill, it was a draw as
far as shots on goal andopportunities to score, and the
score was 0-0.
So I mean they did well on thedefensive end, but they also did
well enough that they were ableto get the puck moving forward
and help keep the pressure onthe other team, despite the fact
that the Canes were the ones onthe penalty kill.
So it's been great, and I thinkit's a wonderful weapon for rod

(20:07):
to have in his tool belt, and Ican't wait to see how he
deploys them against thepanthers, because that could end
up being, uh, really keymoments in the game where you
can help tip things in thecanes' favor.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah, for sure.
And you know, Sean Walker hastaken his game to another level
for sure, and Rob Brindamore hascommented on that, and you know
, just watching the play, heseems to be involved so
frequently in what's going onwhen he's on the ice and he does
it effortlessly and kind oflike Jalen Chatfield he's he's

(20:44):
incredibly fast and this issomething that allows him to get
back and to make some excitingdefensive plays as well.
So, yeah, those guys, they'reanchors for the long term.
Of course, we've got Slavin formany years and we also have.
Sean Walker.
He's lined up for the next fouryears as well.

(21:06):
So nicely done.
And you know, I think there's abit of a byproduct here, with
Walker really being able to jumpin and do some of that heavy
lifting, and I think that'sreally helped.
Brent Burns Erin your thoughtson Brent.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
I think that Burns had a great series, much better
than his series against the NewJersey Devils, I think you know
he was much more stable in hisown end.
He was not making the defensivezone turnovers that we saw
against New Jersey and thatreally have been a feature all
year.
Frankly, he's been more solidin that series than I think I've

(21:44):
seen him play in a long time.
Now I know that some peoplesaid that the Capitals' slower
playing pace and style wasprobably a factor in that, that
he was not having to play atthat extremely high up-tempo
pace that the Devils weresetting.
And the Canes can certainlymatch that pace as a group, as a
team.
They're not a slow team.

(22:05):
But you know, for Burns that'sgetting to be a little bit more
challenging to have to log thosekind of miles and those relays
back and forth.
But I also think that the timehe spent with you know, because
Slavin was playing with Walker,there were some interesting
shifts where Burns was playingwith the Cheyenne Gossespierre
and that was also helpful andthat that could be something

(22:28):
that we could see being upcomingin the next series too, because
you know, there the thirdpairing isn't necessarily going
up against the top lines.
They're not.
They're gonna get more chances.
You know, and there were acouple of times when I really
thought, you know that Burns wastaking a little more time with
his shot.
He was taking a little moretime to try to get it into, you

(22:49):
know, a rebound area orsomething like that.
He wasn't just flinging it onthe net from the point like
we've seen him do.
And that may be because notbeing against those top lines
gave him a little bit more timeto sort of set where he wanted
to go with it.
So all of that is to the good.
You know that that makes Burnsmore effective and you know we

(23:11):
already talked about what itmakes Slavin and Walker look
like.
So I hope that we will see thatmix and match.
I hope that it will be Slavinand Burns when it needs to be
and Slavin and Walker when itneeds to be, and you know, and
that both of them will reallybenefit when it needs to be, and
you know, and that both of themwill really benefit?

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, for sure.
And I think in general and youknow we've covered quite a bit
of ground here on the defensivecore I think they've just been
rock solid.
Dmitry Orlov, of course.
He's been doing the O-1 servicetoo, so I think the D-Corps is
one of the real assets too.
So I think the D-Corps is oneof the real assets.

(23:48):
And as we get into talkingabout the preview and this
upcoming series with thePanthers, that is an area
they're very strong.
As you know.
Their top six D-Corps is very,very good, so the Canes are
going to need theirs to bestepping up as well.
Getting ready for this EasternConference.
Final General thoughts to kickit off, katie, what are you

(24:08):
thinking about this seriescoming up?

Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think this series is going to be a real test of
the Canes' identity and the waythat they play and their work
ethic, their stamina, becausethe first two rounds you had
teams that were more offensivelydriven, high-flying, and the
Canes were very well structuredto shut them down, frustrate

(24:34):
them, get in their heads andprevent them from doing what
they wanted to do with the puckand with the game.
This series is going to be muchmore like looking in the mirror
Florida.
Florida plays a very similarstyle game to the canes and you
can argue on different aspectsof their game who edges out whom

(24:58):
but that's the key, right thereis they edge each other out in
certain areas.
So I'm sure we'll get into someof these, but you get in.
You get into um something likethe penalty kill.
They're both have excellentpenalty kills, but you give the
edge to the canes when it comesto depth scoring.
They both can have getcontributions up and down the

(25:21):
lineup, yeah, but you'reprobably going to give the edge
to the Panthers.
But, the difference is that whenyou give the edge to one or the
other, sometimes little changesin the game, a little extra
effort, a little extra puck luckeven can swing that edge in
favor from one team to the other.
And so it's all going to beabout finding those

(25:43):
opportunities to exploit theedge that you have in order to
benefit your team and to giveyour team an advantage,
hopefully on the scoreboard, butdefinitely in the flow of play
throughout each game and thenoverall through the series.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Katie, you had some interesting information.
I thought to peel this back alittle bit.
Your five-on-five charts wereinteresting and also the
finishing charts.
Can you share that with us?

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Well, if you go to HockeyViz and you look at the
Carolina Hurricanes 5v5 shotchart, you'll see a lot of red,
which means they are generatinglots of shots, and not just lots
of shots from one or two areas,lots of shots from all over the
offensive zone, which justmakes sense with the way that

(26:33):
they play Shots on goal, go in,create screens, get rebounds,
look for opportunities, collectthe puck and cycle it right back
again.
So from the blue line on in,they created lots of shots on
goal.
If you looked at whatWashington did, not so much.
But you bring up Florida'schart and it looks just as red

(26:57):
as the Canes does.
They produce a ton of shots fromall over the offensive zone and
the Canes are going to have tobe ready for that.
They're going to have to beready to suppress, and Florida
produced a lot of shots from allover the offensive zone, and
the canes are going to have tobe ready for that.
They're going to have to beready to suppress, and florida
produced a lot of shots too.
So, again, it's that edge thatI was talking about.
What's?
What's the edge going to leantowards?
Is the edge going to leantowards the canes ability to

(27:17):
suppress shot volume or is itgoing to lean towards the
panthers' ability to create shotvolume?
And when they create shotvolume?
I don't know about you guys,but I don't feel like Freddie
had to deal with a ton ofscreens this last series.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
No.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
He is probably going to have to work through a whole
lot more screens this comingseries, and so the Canes'
ability to limit that, to limitthe shots and then, when they do
get through, to be able toclear rebounds and not give the
Panthers those second and thirdopportunities, are going to be
very important, and it's goingto work in the other direction
too.
The Panthers are not used todealing with a team like the

(27:56):
Canes.
They had to face Tampa Bay andToronto, who are also
high-flying offense,transition-minded teams first,
and so it's going to be anovelty for them too to face a
puck possession,shots-from-everywhere team like
the Canes.
So again, that edge.

(28:16):
Where's the edge going to go?
Are the Canes going to be ableto drive, play and put the
Panthers back on their heels, orare the Panthers going to drive
, play and put the Canes back ontheir heels?
It's probably a case of both,and then so which team is going
to be able to capitalize ontheir chances?
The best, and it's just it'sreally could go either way.

(28:37):
There are just so manydifferent little factors that
can come into play, andhopefully the Canes can take
advantage of the the chancesthey're getting.
Um, as far as the charts on thepower play.
It's interesting as good asboth the canes and florida have
been five on five.
They both have really, reallypoor numbers in their previous

(28:57):
series on the power play.
The canes were great in thepower play against new jersey,
but it was not particularlygreat uh, against was In fact,
if you see where their shots arecoming from it's almost all on
the perimeter on the power playand there's this just big void
of not a whole lot of shotcreation going on right in front
of the goal, and no team isgoing to be successful in the

(29:19):
power play if you aren't gettingshots off from the high danger
areas.
So that's really going to haveto be something that the Canes
focus on is getting the puckinto those dangerous areas and
getting shots off, and not justplaying on the perimeter in the
power play.
But the Panthers have equallystruggled.
I mean again, it is likelooking into a mirror.

(29:39):
These are two very, verysimilar teams and the Panthers
are not having a lot of successeither.
I didn't really watch many oftheir power plays in their
previous series, but they musthave been keeping it to the
perimeter too.
It's not quite the black holeof no shots that the Canes have
on their chart, but there's alot of blank spaces there too

(30:00):
for Florida.
So I would imagine that when itcomes to special teams, it's
going to be a battle of thepenalty kills and I'm not
expecting to see a lot of powerplay goals, unless one of the
teams catches fire on the powerplay.
This is going to be a seriesthat is decided five on five.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Yeah, oh, sorry, just to jump in on that.
One of the things that everybodywas commenting about in the
Toronto series versus thePanthers is that the whistles
have really started to go away,a lot more than I think I
remember from.
I mean, we were all complainingabout that a little bit last
year.
I think there was a strangesense that the whole whistles in

(30:43):
the pocket thing just wasn'thappening even through two or
three rounds last year.
It seemed like a lot of sillypenalties were being called that
you wouldn't normally see inthe Stanley Cup playoffs and I
think that the league must have,you know, said something or
done something, because even youknow, with the Canes versus the
Capitals and then watching someof the games of Toronto versus

(31:03):
the Panthers, there were a lotof things that were being let go
, that were just not beingcalled at all, and unfortunately
, because the Panthers are oneof the most heavily penalized
teams in the regular season,that's only going to benefit
them to not have to play, youknow, down as often.
So that's not going to be, butthe way the Canes power play has
been, it may not end up hurtingus either.

(31:24):
So, like Katie said, reallyevenly matched there.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Well, I was just going to mention that.
I mean an interesting thingwith the stats for the Panthers
in the playoffs.
Their big scores have notreally been getting it done to
the extent we'd expect, like, asan example I mean, you look at
the power play in the past, samReinhart we get in the bumper

(31:48):
spot and he scored almost everygame.
It seemed like it wasincredible, right, and he scored
last night, but he's only gotfour goals in the playoffs.
And and again the same thingwith Matthew Kachuk and
Alexander Barkov.
So they've been getting youknow a lot of their offensive
help has been distributed.
They've been getting you know alot of their offensive help has
been distributed.
They've been doing it to alarge extent like the Canes, do

(32:09):
you know, by committee, and youknow, as you're saying too,
katie, and what you wereexplaining.
These two teams are verysimilar in the way they play and
so they had talked about, Ithink 17 players had scored in
the playoffs and the Hurricaneshad 14.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
One thing I did want to bring up is, when it comes to
finishing, we're used to theCanes having more expected goals
than actual goals scored, whichis they've been consistent with
that.
The Panthers, on the other hand,they have more goals scored
than expected goals and theyhave been creating, they have
been scoring.
Sometimes they have been, uh,scoring sometimes when you're
not expecting them to score.

(32:48):
That could be the goaltendingthat the panthers have been
facing, that the goaltending hasnot been as strong as we
mentioned at the beginning, the.
The canes have freddie, who'snumber one, but they defeated
thompson and markstrom, who wereeither two, three or two four,
depending on which stat you'relooking at.
So one place you could give theedge to the Canes is that

(33:09):
Florida probably is not going toenjoy the level of finishing in
this series that they enjoyedin their previous two series,
whereas the Canes should be ableto maintain or improve on their
level of finishing because ifthe goaltending stays more or

(33:29):
less similar to the way itworked out the first couple of
series, they should not havequite as difficult a negative
crack.
We all have to take that with ahuge grain of salt, because
we've had our challenges withBobrowski in the past but, he
has been good this playoffs, buthe has not been elite in these
playoffs.
So if he remains good, the Caneshave a good chance of

(33:54):
outscoring the Panthers.
Because I don't think that thePanthers are going to find the
same level of success againstthe Canes' defense and
goaltending that they foundagainst the Tampa Bay Lightning
defense and goaltending, anddefinitely not the same level of
success that they found againstthe Tampa Bay Lightning defense
and goaltending, and definitelynot the same level of success
that they found against theToronto Maple Leafs defense and
goaltending.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Oh for sure.
I mean, yeah, the Leaf defense.
They don't have Jacob Slate, soI think I'll leave it at that.
Yeah, so we're talking aboutthe keys of this series and you
hit one of the keys I thought wereally wanted to touch on, and
that's going to be Freddieagainst Sergei Bobrovsky.
You know, goaltending iscritical in these series and I

(34:34):
think the way that Freddie hascome into the series, as I said
before, he's playing the besthockey, I think, of the season
for him.
He's feeling great and so hedefinitely is going to be right
there with Bobrowski.
Now, bobrowski, the last shorttime has played a little bit
better, but I totally agree,he's not lights out like he was

(34:56):
last year.
He was incredible.
But look at some of the otherareas of the Canes the defense
core.
How are we going to stack upagainst their D core?
They're deep, as I mentionedbefore.
I mean, the third pairing isSeth Jones and Dmitry Kulikov
and Jones he had a tremendousgame last night, by all accounts

(35:16):
, he was one of the stars, sothey're deep.
On the blue Goal scoring hasbeen something interesting in
the playoffs For the Panthers,they have 11 goals from their
defensive core.
The Canes have eight.
So again pretty evenly matched.
Erin, what are your thoughts onthe D court?

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Well, I think you hit on it right there.
It's going to be reallycritical for the Canes to have
the D continue to contribute tothe scoring and we talked a
little bit, I think, in our lastpodcast about how that wasn't
really going on during theregular season.
So what's what they're doingnow is definitely working.
It's definitely what they needto be doing and you know, as far
as the, you know how evenlymatched they are.

(35:58):
Like Katie pointed out alreadyto, the Canes have so far played
just 10 playoff games.
The the Canes have so farplayed just 10 playoff games.
The Panthers have played more.
So that couple extra between ournumbers and their numbers is
really just the effect of thatdifference in number of games
played.
There's not a huge edge forthem necessarily.
I think that it's going to be abigger challenge, probably for

(36:22):
Freddie, because he hasn't seena lot of that in the teams that
we've faced so far.
There hasn't been the defensivecore for New Jersey, of course
was.
I think a lot of people termedthem the walking wounded.
You know they were not healthy,so that wasn't a factor, you
know, and it didn't end up beingas much of a factor with the
Capitals either.
That'll be important for theteam defense, to make sure that

(36:45):
when the Panthers defensemen areactivating, that they can shut
them down and that they alsodon't inadvertently screen
Freddie themselves.
So, just being mindful of that,it's going to be something that
they have to pay more attentionto than they have so far.
So we'll see how that works out, but I think that the Canes
have a chance of being every bitas involved with the D scoring

(37:07):
as the Panthers.
So and then that was probablynot true.
I haven't looked into thetwenty twenty three game or two
games.
You know the series, theprevious series with the
Panthers.
I don't recall our defensemenhaving scored so well in the
playoffs that year.
So this is, you know, as peopleare putting the two teams
together and saying, well, butyou know, the Canes lost, they

(37:28):
were swept.
It's not the same team, it'snot the same players and
especially, I think some ofthose areas were areas where the
Canes weren't necessarilygetting as much, you know, in
those playoffs.
So we'll see how that works out.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Kate, I agree with Erin.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
So we'll see how that works out.
Katie, I agree with Erin.
What she said again is they'revery closely matched.
I think that which decor hasthe edge is whichever decor
stays the healthiest.
So that puts the Canes at aslight disadvantage if Chatty's
not able to go in game one andwe have to wait for him to come
back.

(38:21):
But again, they're so close thatjust a play here, a lucky
bounce there can a shift offmoving the legs, all the
different slogans that the Caneslike to say in every pregame
press conference and postgameinterview.
I mean they say it for a reason, right, it's because it's true
and it is important.
So we'll see.

(38:42):
They're so evenly matched.
Either decor could end up beinga difference maker in this
series.
So we'll see they're so evenlymatched.
Either D core could end upbeing a difference maker in this
series.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
For sure, and they are For sure.
These are two of the mostevenly matched defensive cores.
The Canes are six, deep,talented from top to bottom,
just as the Panthers are, sothat's going to be interesting
to see which one comes out ahead.
If we look at the forwards,it's interesting that you know

(39:11):
we're seeing some differentthings with this Panther team.
As I mentioned before, some oftheir top players are not, you
know, leading like they normallydo.
In fact, they're getting a lotof their production and heavy
lifting from their third andfourth lines, and this is a
little bit different than theother teams we've faced as well,
I think.
The Panthers' third line, ofcourse, which has been really

(39:35):
impressive with Lindell andLuster, aiden who used to be
with the Hurricanes, of courseand Brad Marchand.
They've been doing a great job,and Marchand in particular has
really come to play in theplayoffs.
He's got 12 points.
He's a guy that has been a canekiller in the past.
In 36 games against the Caneshe's got 14 goals and 13 assists

(39:57):
, and we saw him so many serieswith the Bruins.
He was just a thorn for theCanes, for sure, and a pain in
the butt, to put him mildly.
What are we thinking about thisforward matchup.
How do we feel about it, katie?
Why don't you kick that off?

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Well, the word matchup right there that you
suggested is the key, is it not?
Again, these two teams are veryevenly matched and so it's
going to come down to matchups,and the matchups are going to
favor the Canes in the first twogames because of being the home
team, and so Rod is going to beable to very strategically put

(40:40):
the line combinations out therethat he wants to have against
the Florida Lions.
Now, the top two Florida Lions,like you said, have not been
producing as well, and thequestion is, is that more
because of them or is that morebecause of how the defense in
the previous series played them?
I think it's probably more ofthe former than the latter,

(41:02):
because I don't know that.
I'm particularly bought intothe defense in Toronto,
particularly to be that much ofa shutdown force against a line
like Barkovs or Reinhardts orwhatever.
So I think the Canes will beable to match up pretty evenly

(41:22):
with them and to be able to takeadvantage.
I fully expect to see Ajo'sline matched against Barkov's,
if I had to bet, and just kindof top line against top line.
May the best center and wingmenwin that particular contest

(41:42):
every time they're out againsteach other.
But then after that, if Rod'sgoing to let them go best on
best, then who's stall covering?
Who's he going to prioritize?
Is he going to prioritizeKachuk's line, with them not
being as productive andstruggling and Kachuk may be
fighting through some injuriesstill?
Maybe Rod trusts KK's line totake that particular matchup

(42:06):
better and then go ahead and letStahl's line be the one that
works on the line that has beenscoring more for the Panthers,
which as of late has been theline with Marsha and and try to
shut them down.
So it's all going to be in thematchups and thankfully the
Canes have the advantage therebecause they get to start off on

(42:29):
their home ice dictating thematchups and hopefully dictating
the tone for the whole series,so that once the series
transfers down to Florida thePanthers will already be at a
disadvantage in the series.
But we'll see how it goes,because these forward cores
again, they're both deep, theyboth have a lot of strengths,

(42:51):
they both have a few chinks inthe armor.
It's just about how the coachesput together who plays who, who
plays against who.
What do you think, erin?

Speaker 2 (43:03):
Well, I think you're right.
I think that it's going to comedown to the matchups and I think
that it's going to be reallyimportant for those matchups to
be a little bit fluid at firston the Kane side, because there
may be some, you know, like yousaid, who.
Who is he going to match Stahl'slineup against?
Who's he going to match?
You know, where does JackRoslevic, who does his line,

(43:24):
match up against?
Because you want the Roslevicline, with Hall and Stankoven,
to get lots of really goodscoring chances.
So what's their best matchup,you know?
Do you want to put them out?
If you're going to pick a linethat you think that they might
not have to be playing heavydefense against, which line is
that think that they might nothave to be playing heavy defense
against which line is that?
You know?
So it's, it's all going to comedown to those, those moments,
and I think that there could besome adjustments in game as

(43:46):
those things unfold too, becausewe're going to want to see you
know, rod's going to want to seehow they each um respond to the
, the challenges.
And, and you know it, I thinkone of the advantages of the
cane system is that because theyare?
You know it's the joke, they'rethe coursey canes, right?
You know that we look at thosenumbers all the time.
But those possession numberswill give very early clues to

(44:10):
which lines are not able tosuppress the shot volume, and
those will be the ones that willbe quickly altered, will be the
ones that will be quicklyaltered.
I think that was the mostreassuring thing in the Capitals
series was how quickly Rod madethe changes that he made and
how they were not reactive.
The Canes were not down in thegame where those changes were
originally made.
Both teams were tied at zero,and so he just decided that this

(44:35):
needed to be done to give thema chance to take the lead in
everything which they did.
This needed to be done to givethem a chance to take the lead
and everything which they did.
So it's just having seen thatfrom him in the first in the
capital series, I think that I'mtrusting that those changes are
going to be made on the flywhen they need to be made.
So, like you said, it's going tocome down to the little things,

(44:56):
and one of the little thingshas always been Maurice versus
Rod Brindamore when it comes tocoaching, because Maurice is
very quick to alter things andto you know to change things up
and you know to get into alittle bit of shenanigans
himself with his players andencouraging some of that.
So we don't need to talk aboutthat probably, but it is a

(45:19):
factor of their games and howthey play.
So I'm just going to when Ilook at the Canes, though, I
don't see any plays in theirlineup right now where I'm
afraid for any of these lines tomatch up against any of the
other lines.
I really I don't think thatthere's a weak line on the
Hurricanes.
So we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Well, I mean, I think you hit something which is
definitely going to be criticalin this series, which is the
coaching matchup, and I know wetalked a lot about that last
series you know, katie, you werelooking at that as an X factor
for the Hurricanes RodBrindamore up against Spencer
Carberry, and Rod did win thatseries on a coaching side.

(46:04):
I think he did a number ofgreat decisions.
I think we all agree that hewon the battle on the coaching
side, and now he's up against aguy that really has his act
together in Paul Maurice.
For sure he's taken this teamto the Cup before he really
knows what he's up to back there.

(46:25):
So this is going to be a greatchallenge again for Rod.
Last time it didn't come outquite the way he would like, so
maybe this time he's smarter.
He's learned some lessons too,and I think that's the other
side.
We talked a lot about theplayers who have learned.
You know, through these seriesbefore you know it's been a
tough learning experience.

(46:45):
They've come close a number oftimes.
Now you know they're going toput that to work, and I think
the same thing with Rod.
I think he's learned severallessons through these playoff
runs and I think he's ready totake the team to the next level
as well.
So that's going to be fun towatch and, as you say, sometimes
Paul Maurice can be a lot offun Some of the things he'll do,

(47:07):
and we'll see how he handlessome of his key players on the
Panther side.
So let's talk about X-Factors.
We had some fun in the lastseries and I think we're pretty
close to being right on with ourdiscussions.
Um, what do we think the xfactors are going to be in this
series?
Where do we think, uh, thosesituations are going to present

(47:29):
themselves that might make allthe difference.
Uh, for the team that comes out.
Katie, why don't you kick itoff with yours?

Speaker 3 (47:37):
well, if you look at a lot of sites, they they will
list X factors on the thingsthat are just kind of almost
boring as X factors becausethey're so blatantly obvious.
Goaltending, it's like is thatreally an X factor?
Is goaltending really an Xfactor?
I don't know about that.
Special teams really an Xfactor?
I think it's just kind of giventhose are important.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
So for me an X factor is something that doesn't get
talked about but could end upinfluencing in a very powerful
way the game and how a game, theoutcome of a game and
eventually the outcome of aseries.
So for me it is generally theCanes bottom six offense, and by
bottom six offense a lot ofpeople like to pretend that

(48:20):
Stahl's line is the third line.
Reality check Canes fans.
The top line is Ajo's line andthe second line is Stahl's line.
That's always going to be howRod utilizes them and sees them,
and so the third line andfourth line can be somewhat
interchangeable At this point.
The third line is Roslevic Halland Stankankoven.
It has been pretty set for thelast few games, so we definitely

(48:43):
want to see production fromthem.
We want to get from them um,get goals and and whatnot from
them.
Um stankoven scored in game oneof the new jersey series and he
scored in game one of thecapitals series, so hopefully he
can continue to be mr game onein this series and help provide
some depth scoring.
But the real x factor for me isgoing to be that fourth line,

(49:06):
because if you have those topthree lines just really set in
stone, then does the fourth linemake sense?
Is the fourth line just kind ofwhoever's left over?
Do they have chemistry together?
Do they work well?
Do they match up well againstwhoever they're out against on
the ice?
Are they against Florida'sfourth line or are they out

(49:27):
there trying to provide someextra defensive gravity to a
situation against one of theother lines?
And how well do theycommunicate?
Which makes it a little tricky,because the last couple of
games it's been Robinson, kk andBlake and I think that they all
have lots of good upsides.

(49:49):
as a player, but I'm stillunconvinced that as a line they
really work well together.
It would be controversial of meto say this, but I'm going to
say it anyway.
I honestly think that the bestfourth line that the Canes had
during the regular season wasRobinson, Jankowski and Jost.

(50:11):
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
And so.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
I mean, do you sit a Blake or do you sit a KK?
I don't see Rod ever doing thatwith either of those players,
but at some point that fourthline has to be effective.
And if you're going to keep KKand Blake on that fourth line,
they need to find a way tocreate enough chemistry that
they can counteract the depth inFlorida's bottom six, that they

(50:38):
can counteract the depth inFlorida's bottom six and right
now I think perhaps that is thebiggest chink in the Canes'
armor on offense.
And they need to find a way asa team and Rod needs to find a
way as a coach to help mitigatethat particular issue with the
synergy that seems to be lackingthere.
Because the other three lineshave been really good and shown

(51:01):
a lot of promise.
We need that fourth line tojust get on board with the rest
of them, whatever that thatconfiguration ends up being in
this series in the end, becauseI don't know that it's going to
stay kk, blake and robinson.
Somebody's going to move up orsomebody's going to move down,
but they need to find a.
They need to find a line combothat really works and is really

(51:23):
effective.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
Yeah, for sure.
And you know you take a look atthe bottom six of the Panthers
and we talked about the.
You know the Lindell line.
That line is a solid line, bothdefensively and offensively.
They can make things happen outthere.
And the fourth line has beentrouble for the opposing teams.

(51:45):
For sure they're a heavy line.
You know thomas noshek iscentering uh gachevich and uh
and he's got uh greer on theother side.
Those guys are big, they're,they're in your face.
And I'm a little bit concernedabout this fourth line.
It doesn't really have anidentity.
You know we've taken a look at,you know, jackson Blake in kind

(52:07):
of recent games.
The eyeball test is a littleconcerning.
You know he's struggling outthere and I don't see him as a
fourth line player, frankly, notin a series like this.
And this will be an interestingquestion for Rod.
He's got the depth.
I don't know where Jankowski isin terms of health, but he's a

(52:28):
guy you would expect to be inthis series.
He's a bigger player, he'sdefensively accountable, he can
jump in on the penalty kill aswell and I like the work that
Jankowski has done with theCanes and I'd be happy to have
him in there.
And it brings up a question Isit going to be a Jack Roslevic

(52:50):
that comes out?
Is it going to be, you know, aJackson Blake that would come
out to get him in there?
It's not going to be Kokanemi,that's for sure.
So you know there's some realquestions, I think, on the
lineup as we head into thisseries.
I'm not convinced.
It's exactly the way it wascoming out of the last series.
In fact, I kind of hope theybring Jankowski in and bring
some more size.
But I'm with you.

(53:12):
I think the you know, the thirdand fourth lines are going to
be critical in this series.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
And we'll see how it plays out.
I think, if I can, jump in justfor a second.
I think that there is.
There are two possibilities.
One is that you guys are goingto be right about this and that
they are going to have to to dosomething different with jackson
blake.
It would be jackson blake thatwould be the issue, if there is
one, because he has beenstruggling.
He is only 21 years old.
It is his first playoffs here.
You know this is a big deal fora young player.

(53:43):
So if he can't find his gameand if he can't do the things
that he can so capable of doingnow we forget.
He started out for the canes onthe third and fourth lines all
the time, you know he was downthere in the bottom six.
He can play in the bottom six.
It's not like that's not hisgame.
He's not a top six or bustplayer and actually the Canes
have had that kind of player intheir prospect pool before and

(54:07):
it's an unfortunate thingbecause a lot of those players
that are, you know, in the AHLand they're labeled top six or
bust, unfortunately a lot oftimes they go on to be traded
because they don't have room forthem in the top six.
So I think Jackson Blake is asmart player I think that he is.
You know, certainly his dad'sexperience in coaching on the

(54:28):
sides that we've heard a littlebit about is going to help him
to seize the opportunity.
The one thing that I think thatwe might see from this line if
Blake can get his game going,which I think would be great for
the Canes they need everybodyto get going.
Yes, of course, if JacksonBlake could start being the

(54:49):
offensive playmaker that he hasbeen in the past.
The other two players that youhave on this line are the two
players who were part of theCanes' best line all season, the
Robinson-Kokuniemi-Natchez line.
Yes, can Jackson Blake whoseskating speed has improved
dramatically, by the way can hebegin to take the role of

(55:14):
Natchez on that line and getthese two guys up and in the
offensive zone with some realscoring punch?
That would be a real gamechanger, especially given, like
Katie said, how all of thesethings are about these little
differences and these littleedges.
What if you have a fourth linethat can be a lethal scoring
line?
That would certainly be adifference maker and a game

(55:35):
changer.
The question is is JacksonBlake capable of playing on the
playmaking level of someone likemartin natchez?

Speaker 1 (55:44):
I'm not going to rule it out until we see well for
sure, and you know we allappreciate jackson blake.
It's nothing to do with that.
One of my concerns with jacksonblake is he's he's slight.
He does get pushed around a lotand you, you know the third and
fourth lines, particularly thefourth line of the Panthers.
That's what they do.

(56:04):
They're a heavy line.
We've talked a lot about thisin the past.
If you've looked at teams thathave done really well in the
playoffs, it's usually they'vegot a great fourth line as well.
Kokuniemi, to me, is he's anenigma.
Some games he looks good, othergames he's not so good in my
mind.
So it's just a question wherehe's going to be in this and he

(56:27):
needs to play a heavy game.
Okay, robinson, we know whatwe're going to get with Robinson
every 9-0, which is great.
But I think Kokuniemi's got tostep up.
He's got to play a heavy gameand you know, as you say,
blake's going to have to makesome of those plays.
You know that's what he reallydoes, that's where he shines,
and so, yeah, and if they canget time in the O zone, which is

(56:48):
really what you want them to do, make sure the you know the
opposing line is not getting alot of play in the Kane zone.
I think that's going to be key.
So we'll see how it plays out.
But, as I mentioned, I'd loveto see Mark Jankowski.
Anyway, I kind of like him.
I think he's a good player.
Okay, erin, what do you got?

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Well, my X factor is a pretty obvious one, perhaps,
but not as obvious asgoaltending or special teams.
I hope the Canes are the morerested team coming into this
series by a lot.
They finished the Capitalsseries in five games.
They've been resting since what?
Thursday, you know Thursdaynight.
So the Panthers are coming inafter really just one day off.

(57:32):
Yeah, and they had to travel,so it doesn't even count.
So this is going to give them alittle bit of an edge.
It's not going to be a hugeseries changing edge necessarily
, but if the Canes can takeadvantage, in game one
especially, of being the morerested team.

(57:53):
We have the old rest versus rustdebate.
We do not want to see rust.
We do not want to see theplayers coming in, you know,
looking like they've forgottenhow to hockey.
You know we want them to beready to go from puck drop.
If they can take advantage ofbeing the more rested team and
really bring that to thePanthers, who have not had a
chance to catch their breath, Ithink that's the kind of thing

(58:15):
that could be a series changer,in that it would set the tone
going forward that you knowwe're not going to sit back on
our heels and let you dictatethe game.
We're not going to wait aroundfor you to make moves and just
counter them.
We are going to take it to youand we're not.
You know we're not fighting abunch of injuries, we're not

(58:36):
dealing with, you know, oneplayer whose status is
questionable.
Take advantage of that.
I want to see that from them,because I know there have been
times when we've felt like theCanes had that advantage and
we're talking regular season.
It's not the same thing.
But when they've had a coupledays off and they come in and we
think, oh gosh, they're goingto get this because they've.
And then they come in and theyjust don't seem like they

(58:56):
remember what a puck is or whatto do with it.
So they can't afford that inthe playoffs and they especially
can't afford that against theFlorida Panthers.
So that, to me, is my X factor.
Come in like you have thisadvantage.
You know Rod keeps saying thatin the playoffs, rest is a

(59:17):
weapon.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Well, that's a weapon in your arsenal and I want to
see them use it just running thepanthers into the ground I
would piggyback on that, that Iwant to see that that initiative
that you're talking about gohand in glove with plenty of the
physicality we saw at thebeginning of the washington game
.
Smart hits absolutely reallystart wearing the Panthers down.

(59:40):
They're already going to betired.
They're already worn down froma seven game series.
Don't give them a chance tokind of get their muscles warm
and get into the game.
Start hitting them literallyand figuratively, right away.
We want the puck possession, wewant the pressure in the zone,
but we also want the physicalgame.
We want them to be looking overtheir shoulders and wondering

(01:00:04):
who's coming at them next andcausing turnovers that way, or
making the other team rush theirpasses and creating more
opportunities for the Canes.
So, like you said, we've got tostart on time, we've got to
bring it to them, but pair thatwith the physicality so that
it's us in their heads and notthe other way around.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
And Will Carrier is going to be a huge player for
that, and he's going to be.
He is one of these players.
When you talk about thedifferent matchups and the teams
being so close, we did not haveWill Carrier the last time
these two teams met in anEastern Conference final and he
is an incredibly physical player.
This is going to be the kind ofplayer that you might look back
at the end of the series andsay, yeah, he was the difference

(01:00:46):
maker.
So I'm hoping to see that fromCarrier.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
He also didn't have Svetch and he's one of our more
physical players as well,absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
And you can add Eric Robinson to that list, because
he's a hit leader as well andCarrier, you know, the last
couple of games we've seen himstart to get a little bit more
comfortable out there.
He's starting to make some ofthose plays where he goes behind
the net that's his patentedplay and gets it out front and
boy, there were a couple ofopportunities that the puck just
, you know, flip past people.

(01:01:16):
They weren't quite there, butyeah, definitely that line, I
think, is starting to come onand it's great to see Stahl get
a goal.
So that was kind of fun.
One last comment on that too wasyou know you talked about the
rest factor.
I think this is one of thelearnings for Coach Brindamore.
He has been really deliberateabout giving the players lots of

(01:01:36):
rest when he can, and I thinkthat's something that he kind of
realized that you know, maybein the past he wasn't doing as
much of that.
I think he's done aconcentrated effort this time
and I think it's going to payoff.
The Canes should be well-rested.
I mean they got through NewJersey in five games.
They got through the Caps infive games.
I mean, you know, it couldn'tbe any better than that.

(01:01:58):
I don't think you couldn'texpect it.
So now on my side you know Italked a little bit about the
you know the Panthers top guys.
They're okay.
They're not kind of shininglike they usually do.
We've got the same situationwith Sebastian Ajo, and he's a
guy that I bring up as my Xfactor.
He's playing okay.

(01:02:19):
And he's a guy that I bring upas my X factor.
He's playing okay.
Definitely.
He's doing a good job in theface-off dot.
He's got a 54% face-off winpercentage in the playoffs.
He's playing almost 21 minutesa game, so he's the top forward
in ice time on the Canes.
He's the big dog for theHurricanes but you know, last
series he only had eight shots.

(01:02:44):
I mean he's not, you know, again, he's doing some good work, but
you just don't see him beingthe Sebastian Ajo that we have
seen in the past.
I mean, we've seen him dominatein series and I think he's got
another level to go.
I think he can take it up anotch and if he could and he
could help, you know, kind ofthe top guys or the Canes
outshine their top guys, and wetalked a little bit about Seth

(01:03:05):
Jarvis.
He certainly is.
You know he's done some goodwork, but he can do more too,
and Svets has been carrying thatline to a large extent.
So I think certainly Ajo is theguy that I'm looking forward to
taking his game up a notch hereand really making a difference.
And if he gets flying like hecan boy, he is really something.

(01:03:26):
So let's hope that Sebastiancan find that magic.
A quick second on the oddssituation for this series.
It's kind of nice, I'm going tosay this, that the Canes aren't
at the top of the list.
So the odds makers, basically,are picking the Panthers and if

(01:03:47):
you look at the odds makers forthe Cup and the Canes were near
the top or at the top for a longtime, they're now on the bottom
of the remaining teams.
So this is good.
I like it.
I like to be a little bit downthe list and we can quietly go
about our business instead ofpeople thinking, yeah, you

(01:04:09):
should be winning the cup.
We can just go about and win itand take our cup and have some
fun with it.
So, yeah, interesting situation.
I'm not sure how that's changed, because we came out of this
past series.
You know five games against theCaps, so I'm a little bit
surprised that the odds makershave moved us down the list, but
that's okay.

(01:04:31):
If we take a look at, you know,this series and our closing
thoughts, what's on our mind?
Katie?

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Ooh are you looking for a prediction, or yeah, for
sure yeah, we always do aprediction I.
Oh, it is so hard because, as Ihave reiterated over and over
again, this series is on an edge.
It really could be anybody'sseries, but it seems like a
cop-out to say this team inseven or that team in seven.

(01:05:00):
It's basically saying it's acoin flip and I'm going to pick
the Canes because I like theCanes and I want the Canes to
win.
So I'm going to be a littlebolder than that.
I think this series is going tobe tougher than the ones before
.
So they won the previous twoseries in five.
And man, it is tempting to sayCanes in five, that things are
going to go the Canes way.
And they are because they'reable to start off at home and

(01:05:20):
get that rhythm going and makethe Panthers be the ones who are
having to chase rather than usbeing the ones to chase.
But there's always bumps in theroad, there's always a few
struggles.
So I'm going to go ahead andsay Canes in six.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
Oh, okay, and what do you think?
What are you expecting in theseries?
Just, it's going to be a hardseries, it's going to be tough,
and are you expecting?

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
I don't think that there's going to be many games
decided by more than two goals.
Okay, like you know, thePanthers had two different games
where they won what?
Six to one against the Leafs.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
They did two of them I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
You know, unless something awful happens.
I don't want to speak intoexistence.
You know, because of the waythe Panthers are known, how to
play.
Unless something like thathappens, I just don't see any of
the games getting out of handin favor of either team.
I don't see the Canes drubbingthe Panthers in any particular

(01:06:19):
game and I don't see thePanthers running up the score
against the Canes.
So I think it's going to bevery close.
It's going to be very hard,hard fought and if Freddie
continues to play the way he hasand the defense continues to be
as effective and limitingchances against Florida the same

(01:06:39):
way that they did with NewJersey and Washington, advantage
Canes, and therefore Canes insix.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Beauty Karen.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
Well, I'm going to be boring because I'm going to
agree with Katie.
I've been thinking Canes in sixall along.
Somebody actually put this in areally succinct way that I
think makes sense.
If the Canes are going to winthis series, they are going to
do it in six games, because ifthe series gets pushed to seven,
uh, I don't think maurice hasever been defeated in a seven

(01:07:11):
game series.
I don't think he's ever lost.
His teams have never lost in aseven, in a game seven, um.
So whatever tricks they have uptheir sleeve for that, you know
, or however they would bepushing to get that.
But I also think the reason thatI've I was thinking Kings and
six is because of what I said.
My X factor is if they can takeadvantage of being the more
rested team, if they can putaway the first two games at home

(01:07:34):
.
I don't know how easy it wouldbe for them to steal a game on
the road, but I'm thinking thatthey're going to try very hard
whether it is game three or gamefour or whether it would be
game six.
You know, I mean it's just it'shard to say.
I don't know how that allshakes out as far as which games

(01:07:57):
would they win?
Which games would they lose?
You know, could they do it infive?
Could they actually do it infive?
That would depend on, I think,some of those factors Katie says
we don't want to talk about,because they have some guys that
are pretty banged up too.
Our team does not play a stylewhere they're trying to win a
war of attrition, where they'retrying to injure guys or break
guys down, but sometimes, whenyou're already at that point,

(01:08:20):
you know an ordinary gardeningvariety hit would be enough to
take a player out of a series ifthey're in that state.
So, all things considered, ifit gets to seven, I think that
we're going to be kind ofholding our hands folded and
praying for a good outcome,because we know perfectly well
what their history is in gamesevens and I just don't see us

(01:08:42):
wanting that outcome.
So Canes in 6, if they can takeadvantage of being the
well-rested team which I thinkthat they should.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Well, listen, I'm going to be the happiest person
in the room if it's Canes in 6.
I'm saying Canes in 7, and thereason I am is because of that
home ice advantage which, forthe Canes, is massive.
Now, having said that, Torontodid go into Florida and win
their game, just to extend theirseries, of course.
And as far as Paul Mauricewinning all the time is

(01:09:12):
concerned, I guess it's time forhim to lose one of these.
So 8-7, I think it's going tobe, I agree with everything
you're saying, ladies, it'sgoing to be a tough series.
This is going to be much harder.
You know we could be surprised,as you say, the Canes might
come out and shock them, and ateam on the run is something

(01:09:34):
that could be a differentsituation too.
And there's one other thing wehaven't really talked a lot
about.
You know the Panthers playedtill late last year, like they
won the Cups, so they played aslate as you could play and then
they came right back after avery short summer and here they
are, you know, well into theseason again.

(01:09:57):
This is tough stuff for theseguys, for sure.
And you know the Canes have anadvantage.
They didn't go through that andthey've got a number of players
who, in fact some who didn'teven play in the playoffs last
year.
So they've got a bunch of folkwho should be in better
situation.
The injury situation on theCanes is good.
We don't know much about theinjury situation on the Panthers

(01:10:20):
, but I think the signs are goodfor the Canes.
You know you start to thinkcould this be the year of the
Canes?
Well, let's see how they kickit off.
I think the first two homegames are going to be critical
in this series.
So kicking it off tomorrow nightand very quickly right after
that they're coming right back,you know, for game two.

(01:10:43):
So we're going to have some funwith this over the next two or
three days as things reallystart to pick up.
Once again, you know, lots ofexcitement with the Canes.
What a couple of great seriesso far, and that's the other
thing I was thinking as we kindof wrap up here.

(01:11:03):
It's been great.
They've won two series.
We're into the finals.
A lot of folks at the start ofthe year certainly didn't expect
the Canes to be there.
So all good stuff.
For those of you who've beenlistening or watching with us
today, we really appreciate it.
If you like this episode,please press the like button.

(01:11:24):
If you have any comments orsome things to say about the
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As always, aaron, katie and Ithank you so much for spending

(01:11:45):
time with us and we look forwardto getting together with you
real soon, right here on StarTrek.