Hockey Talk

The Pens need some help down the middle. Tommy Novak isn't going to cut it if they want to make a deep playoff run. They need to find some quality center depth somehow, someway. Avery Hayes looked great when he was called up and I was disappointed they didn't deploy him during the Philly series. I think a wrecking ball with endless energy would have matched up well with the likes of Zegras and Porter Martone. I hope he slots in on the fourth line with Dewar and Lizotte. That line would be lots of trouble for opponents. Soderblom shouldn't be a fourth liner after the flashes of brilliance he showed last year, even during the playoffs. Unfortunately, when your top six consist of the likes of Rust, Rakell, and Chinakov it's going to be difficult to slot him into the line up any higher than third. I can't see Kuzmenko being benched after getting a fairly pricey contract so who knows how the lineup will shake out this season. As long as Crosby and Malkin get close to 84 full games, the Pens have a shot of making it back to the dance.

The defense though. Oi, the defense. Letang and Karlsson will not be taken out of the lineup, leaving 4 slots to fight over. It's likely Korczak and TVR will both play considering their cap hits, so that leaves two open spots. Maybe Brunicke finally breaks through this season. Maybe there's another surprise like Ben Kindel on the back end this season.

Goaltending is probably solid, likely will be a Silovs/Murashov tandem to start the season. It will be interesting to see how Sergei handles a full NHL season after getting a cup of coffee last year in Europe. I like his enthusiasm and his movements are quick and precise. He's got a lot of upside and I hope he's able to bloom into something great this season. If not, there is always Blomqvist and D'Aigle to try their hand at backing up Silovs this season.

Division rivals... I don't know. I haven't paid much attention this offseason. The Flyers nearly got Leo Carlsson but Pat Verbeek kissed his job goodbye and signed Leo to the most lucrative NHL contract ever. The Capitals will probably be sniffing for a spot again this season along with the Flyers. The Islanders seem to be on a downhill trend and Columbus likes to fall apart at the last second. New Jersey may bounce back but that's been the narrative for a long time. The Rangers... fuck the Rangers. I hope they stay at the bottom of the cliff they fell off last season. I don't think Carolina will run away with the whole thing this season though. I have a feeling the Pens, Caps, Flyers, and Canes will be dominating the Metro this season.

I can't wait for hockey to start! It's going to be in September this year but they are adding 2 additional games to the season. so it's likely things will still end in early June (though I would really appreciate things winding down in May instead). I want to see Murashov blossom this season. I want to see Kindel take a big step and score 20 goals. Maybe he even scores 25. I want Avery Hayes on the fourth line. I want Harrison Brunicke to make the team. Last year was exciting, I want that excitement again this year. Bring it on hockey gods!

Anyone with eyes could see this coming from a mile away. After the drubbing they received in Game 3, Edmonton found a way to come back and win in dramatic fashion in Game 4. However, the magic ran out at this point. Games 5 and 6 felt like formalities at points. Edmonton wasn't getting out of the wet paper bag the Panthers had turned the neutral zone into in either game. There was no gas left in the tank for anyone on Edmonton in Game 6, and other than the first five minutes or so they looked defeated. Florida was too good. Too much depth, too much neutral zone control. The way they closed gaps was masterful. Bob was sparkling, improving steadily all playoffs long, his career culminating in these final two wins. The man, who had bounced between mediocre Philadephia and Columbus teams, was now a back to back Cup champ. Brad Marchand earned his second Cup ring. The Tkachuk family adds another to their mantle which is quickly expanding. Sam Bennett, of all people, won the Conn Smythe. Then he took it to a Broward County cat rescue to give the place some extra publicity which will hopefully aid in adopting out the kitties. Guys like Nate Schmidt and Seth Jones finally get their names etched into Lord Stanley to be remembered forever. It was quite the run, and love or hate the Panthers, they earned the win. Maurice was great at adjusting and shutting down Edmonton's two headed monster to help his team repeat.

Edmonton experienced some bad injury luck that exposed how lopsided their lineup was. It was noticeable the instant Hyman got injured that the team stood little chance of winning. Hyman added much to the team that could not be replaced. Edmonton just could not match Florida's depth. At any given point Florida had what amounted to two first lines and a second line that could also be considered a first line. It reminded me of the Penguins in 2016. Scoring by committee, with the HBK line being good enough to be seen as equal to the Crosby line. Hagelin and Bonino really got the most out of Phil during that run. You keep those kinds of players, you repeat, as the Penguins, Lightning, and Panthers have all recently shown us. Edmonton is going to have a difficult time in the offseason. Connor McDavid's contract is up at the end of the 2026 season and it seems there has been little movement from his camp. They are a team built similarly to the Maple Leafs, having a ton of money locked up in just a handful of forwards. Perhaps McDavid will take a discount, as Crosby has his entire career, to keep his team competitive. Perhaps he will move on. The best player in the world can find work in any market he moves to. Personally, I don't see him leaving as he probably wants to finish out his career with Draisaitl on his wing and the prestige of being an Edmonton Oiler. If he surprises us all I could see him trying his hand in another Canadian market, likely the Leafs or the Jets.

What a memorable finals. So much talent on display, so much skill, speed, dazzling stick work, and so many windmill dekes and slapshot goals. So much violence, so many fights, so much beautiful brutality. The men (and women) that play this sport are quite clearly crazy-people, but I respect and admire them. They fight through so much adversity for a chance to win the hardest trophy in sports to win, and only the very, very best are able to repeat that feat two seasons in a row. Here's to the Panthers winning another (unless of course the Pens make a return to the playoffs next season), and here's wondering if they will be considered a dynasty come this time next year.

Before I lose steam with this whole updating the website kick I'm currently on I want to share a few thoughts on the games I've seen in this series so far. First, McDavid is a demon, a man possessed, striving every shift to finally get that sixteenth win and hoist the Cup. Draisaitl isn't far behind, their one-two punch being favorably compared to the two-headed monster that still is Crosby and Malkin by this Penguins fan. Rantanen has been nearly invisible, though I'm happy to see Jason Robertson scoring as I've been somewhat disappointed by his run to this point. Hintz clearly wasn't at 100% when he returned to the playoffs and that was mercilessly exploited by Edmonton. Nurse viciously slashed Hintz in the laces and likely aggrivated whatever was ailing him prior to his return, making him ineffective so far in this series. Johnston too has been quieted by Edmonton, a team, who, on paper, don't look like much of a threat outside of their superstars but who find ways to win, often in stunning fashion.

I don't know what to expect tonight but Utree's utterance of "You don't win Cups with Pete DeBoer" is always bouncing around in the back of my mind any time Pete's face pops up on the TV. It's looking like this will be another winless season for old Pete, unless Dallas figures out how to win three in a row against a stacked Edmonton team real soon. What should the Stars do if they lose tonight? Do they stick with DeBoer and tweak other parts of the lineup? Jim Nill is going to have some difficult decisions during this offseason. The team SEEMS so, so close. They have depth, they have goaltending, they have solid defense. The only thing they don't have is a superstar of McDavid's caliber which, let's face it, could only happen if the man were cloned. Rantanen, Hintz, Johnston, and Robertson are all capable of scoring in bunches but nobody else in the world is Connor McDavid.

If I feel like it maybe I'll write up a post-game summary with my thoughts on the game itself, my thoughts on a rematch in the Final assuming Edmonton wins tonight, and what Dallas should do in the offseason. I want Dallas to make a series of it so The Hockey Guy has at least one of his teams left to root for.

I popped in and out of viewing the game through this evening. I saw the three-nothing drubbing that Edmonton administered in the first period and realized I could safely walk away without much worry of things changing drastically. And I was right. Edmonton kept a lead the entire game. Any time Dallas scored, Edmonton answered. This game was more open than Game 4 with Dallas having lots of quality scoring chances and their forecheck looking like in Colorado. Robertson showed up but too little, too late. And you expect more than ONE assist from Rantanen. This is still a good team with great depth but Hintz playing injured and Rantanen getting shut down really sunk their chances. Sometimes them's the breaks in the playoffs. The Penguins had multiple years where Crosby, Malkin, or both were injured before the playoffs started and fell out early because of it. It wasn't until both learned to play a less risky style of hockey and were surrounded by fast, skilled depth players that the Cup wins came. Sometimes guys just get unlucky and there's not much that can be done about it. The playoffs are about depth, depth, and more depth. The Finalists both have depth that rivals the Mariana Trench. It's going to be another bloody war of attrition and I have no idea who will come out on top this year.

After Game 4 I had real hope that Carolina would come back to make it a series. They started out strong once again in Game 5 but then Florida pots three goals in quick succession and the rest is history. When it was four to three and Carolina went on the power play I had hope for them again but they just... well, I'll just type what I said out-loud. They just weren't good enough. They had a six on four for over a minute and pelted Bob with everything they had but nothing would go in. When they missed the net during the beginning of that power play I had a suspicion they weren't gonna get anything past Bob. And they didn't. Two empty netters made it five to three and Florida put the series to bed. Seth Jarvis looked like his cheek got hit with a hammer. The rest of the team didn't look much better. They made a valiant stand, but ultimately they had an easier path to the Conference Final than Florida and it may have hurt their flow having so much time off. The Panthers came off a Game 7 win totally ready to go and shut Carolina down. Even when they looked unstructured, they found ways to create offense anyhow. Barkov is a masterful passer and incredible at keeping the puck away from the opposition. Marchand was a PERFECT addition to an already stacked Florida team. There's no reason the Panthers can't repeat this year.

That being said, these playoffs have been somewhat disappointing due to their predictability. Washington trounced Montreal, Carolina flattened the Devils, Toronto bested Ottawa yet again, and most disappointing of all was the Florida-Tampa series that only went FIVE GAMES. I picked Tampa to be in the Final this season and they got blasted onto the golf course in record time.

Out west, Edmonton sidestepped the Kings as they tripped and fell off a cliff into a bottomless pit for an embarrassing FOURTH playoffs in a row. The Avs-Stars series lived up to the hype, with Rantanen's revenge tour being an especially compelling storyline with the play to back it. The Knights predictably dispatched the hapless Wild who mercifully will be free of the shackles this off-season of the Suter and Parise buyout penalties from over a decade ago. Thankfully, the Blues added some spice to this somewhat beige picture by taking Winnipeg all the way to Game 7 OT. This was easily the most exciting series so far during these playoffs as a game typing goal in the dying second of the third period of a Game 7 is THE. MOST. EXCITING. THING. in hockey. It was truly magical, and I'm still stinging from the Jets being eliminated in Round 2 by Dallas. I picked them as the winner this season, and I knew it was an optimistic choice, but I thought Hellebyuck would finally figure out how to play in the Playoffs. He did somewhat, but Dallas still got past him. The team just couldn't hold it together on the road.

It looks a sure bet that Edmonton is going to bounce Dallas in Game 5 tomorrow so the rematch will arrive in a matter of time. Question is, will McDavid and Draisaitl hoist the cup this time or will it return to hands of Barkov this year? Even if the Conference Finals series were duds at least the Final should be a good one this year. Florida and Edmonton are evenly matched and both have the will to win that is necessary to finish the quest for the Cup. The Stanley Cup, by the way, is the definition of a magical item, if those things actually existed. Think of all the hands that have touched it, how many journeys it's been on, how much blood, sweat, and tears are expended winning it, how joyous to their very souls the winners are... it will forever be the best trophy in sports.

There's a persistent epidemic of rumor mongering during the NHL off-season that feels even more cacophanous than years prior. Part of this may be due to myself paying more attention to this and thus being more emotionally affected by it that in years past, but regardless there are many outlets that take the smallest crumb of a story and completely run away with it. Various YouTubers make videos many minutes long going over Twitter rumors that were likely posted by an aggregator account that doesn't even correctly cite the primary source of the information. It's often just a single sentence uttered in passing that gets blown up. A recent swath of videos were posted showcasing this exact phenomenon, wherein the creators say Johnathan Huberdeau made "embarrassing comments" regarding his former team, the Florida Panthers. When reading the actual quote from Hubie, nothing about what he said was embarrassing. Taken from this article in French (which I have to assume was translated properly, yet ANOTHER hurdle to overcome when doing this kind of reporting), Huberdeau said:

"It's hard to see the guys lift the cup. You tell yourself: I was there for 10 years, during difficult times. But that's how you build a team. When you're young, you don't care, you just want to build your career. Now, I'm back in this situation, but a little older."

The man has been in the NHL for a decade now. He used to play in Florida. Nothing about what he is saying is embarassing. The goal of nearly every NHL player is to get their name engraved on Lord Stanley's hallowed Cup and he feels bummed because he was traded away from the team who ended up winning the ultimate prize.

Now I don't really feel bad for the guy as he is making $10.5 million a year for 8 more years in Calgary so he's financially set. His style of play has NOT meshed well with Calgary's system however and he has regressed stupendously so he's getting this money for being a bad player on a mediocre team. Thing is, he's still young enough to potentially get traded to a winner. Either that or Calgary rebuilds around him and wins themselves a Cup of their own. And regardless of all that, it's not embarrassing to be emotional about not winning the Cup with a team you spent the majority of your career with.