GAME NIGHT: Ducks win THRILLER, Ottawa EXPLODES in must win, Wild WASTE the weekend, Florida FADING

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The Eastern and Western conferences battled each other in four games tonight and in spirit

in a fifth though it was still Western conference teams, plus a battle between central division

disappointments.

And in honor of all the heavy travel today, we'll talk about our dream Stanley Cup scenarios

for this season.

All that and more coming up right here on Lockdown NHL game night.

When that final horn sounds you know it's time for Lockdown NHL game night, all the

post game reactions to every game of possibly every single night with insight only the host

at Lockdown can provide.

Prepare to experience game day reactions like ever before only on Lockdown NHL game night.

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I'm Alex Wheeder Spiel.

I am a professional play by play primarily in the college in high school scene and I write

about hockey for yard Barker host a sports radio show as well.

Mike Oste is with us tonight digital sports journalist covering WVU athletics and host

a show and serious XM and rights for yard Barker as well about a little bit of everything

including hockey.

What's up, man?

I'm doing, I'm doing well, man.

Just keep on keeping on and enjoying a little bit of the rare warm weather for this time

of year in Pittsburgh and hoping we keep it although it's not going to last.

The rumor rumor tells me we are going to dip in temperature but then get back again.

So we are finally feeling like spring and when you feel like spring, that means we're

inching closer to crowning a champion, delifting Lord Stanley Cup and you mentioned they were

the NCAA tournament in college basketball.

This could argue as the best time of the sports calendar.

Absolutely.

No, it most definitely is I will say I just got back from Jacksonville a couple days ago

and it was like it was like fantastic down there.

Yeah, 80 degrees.

I'm a fan of Dukeville County, I'm a fan of Jacksonville.

100% I've been all over Florida and while many may say this is kind of more of a Georgia

field than the rest of the state, I still absolutely love Jackson underrated.

Underrated.

Yeah, very underrated city.

I wish I had gotten to see more of it.

I spent a lot of time in the Jacksonville Iceman practice ring for what I was doing.

I was here.

There was one day, there was one day where we got in and did you get to a beach?

Did you get to a beach?

No, did not.

That's how much time.

One day where we got in at 11 a.m. and I did not see sunlight again the rest of the day.

That's how much hockey we had going on down there at the ACHA level, AAU level.

All right.

We're going to start.

We've got three games for you in the first segment, three games for you in the second

segment and then the third segment.

We're going to talk about our favorite potential East West matchups for the Stanley Cup and

not in terms of like, oh, best on best.

No, in terms of just like what would be the coolest to watch?

We'll save that though for the final segment, final minutes of the show.

Let's start in Montreal, Anaheim in their fourth game in Canada in a row.

This was a back and forth game.

This was quite exciting.

This was actually one of the games on the calendar that I guess technically very well could

be a Stanley Cup preview.

I don't think it will be between these two young upstart teams, but if we were to get

this game six, seven more times, boy, I'd be completely fine with that.

It's like this 100%.

Yeah.

This was wild, man.

So Leo Carlson opens the scoring.

He scores twice for Anaheim in this one.

Alex Newhook, Cole Caulfield, Nick Suzuki would then score the next three.

So Montreal took a three to lead and then Anaheim scores the last two Troy Terry who had a three

point game and Cutter Goatier with a terrific finish to give Anaheim the late lead in regulation

they would ultimately win this one.

Four to three.

Nice game from Lucas Dostol, 27 of 30.

He stops.

Jacob Fowler.

Not quite as strong.

Watching this game as much as I did, I felt like this was one of Anaheim's better games

in a while.

And like they for the most part played a pretty good game defensively, both of these teams

have some issues that are probably going to bite them in the playoffs.

If you go back and watch some of those goals, hold my those were those are most there were

more than a few dunks in this game.

Yeah.

And Anaheim tried to correct that weakness, bring in John Carlson, 17 years with Ovechkin

Ovechkin's saddest day was when he learned he was losing his long time teammate and that's

what he said Stanley Cup champion.

They brought a veteran in he had his debut in this game looked fine, but didn't change

the course of the defense by himself.

This is later in his career.

So he's more maybe a leader and still can do something for the offense defensive skills

have waned a little bit, but they tried to correct it and they brought in somebody that

knows about playoff hockey and playing defense in the postseason.

So that's at least a step in the right direction for the ducks and shows that they are all

in for this year because as we talked on past shows, they could have stayed pat and no

ducks fan would really complain already ahead of schedule and already above expectations

this year.

You could argue the same thing for Montreal, but yet Anaheim decided, hey, we're going

to go all in right now.

We have a Stanley Cup champion three times overhead coach.

Let's try to do this thing.

And this was a big statement victory, getting a win the way they did against a nice contender,

a team that doesn't have much playoff experience outside of Carlson and the head coach of course

in Quinville.

This is a big deal victory for the ducks and Alex.

I feel like it's almost a broken record for us unlocking any show game night because every

single time we talk about a ducks game, we are more often than not talking about a statement

win for the young upstart ducks that are now squarely in the race.

So I wouldn't predict them to lift the cup.

I wouldn't predict them to come out of the West.

I wouldn't predict Montreal to do it either, but it's so wide open in both conferences

if this would occur.

It wouldn't blow me over.

They certainly are shown they can be to anybody and maybe they have to go through a loss

in a postseason series first before they really hit the ground running maybe next year.

But these two franchises both have a lot of rhodor room and a lot of runway for years

to come.

If you're Montreal, there's a lot of concern here as well.

So Kirby Doc got injured in this game and I know he hasn't always been available.

He hasn't always been the player that he was drafted to be by Chicago.

That's why he's on his second team already, but we are now post trade deadline and this

is where your depth starts kind of getting tested.

One thing I wanted to note.

I have depth.

But not as much star power too and some of their recent wins they've been pulling out

an overtime or having to have come back.

They lose this one and don't really have the luck at the end of this.

So maybe shows they're eventually going to get exposed as we could closer to the postseason.

Well, and I say this, I'm not a Montreal believer, but I think to me, like, it depends on what

you're believing in.

Yeah, whatever Habs fans want to believe in, I guess for me, like I think a good season

for Montreal is doing exactly what they've done.

If they wind up finishing better than the eighth playoff spot and more specifically, if

they are comfortably in, because I had them on the fringe is sort of like the ninth team,

you know, the last lap first team out, I guess, to use some NCAA tournament parlay, Lingo,

but and then for Anaheim, I had them as the Pacific three spots.

So I thought they were going to get in.

If they win the division, I don't care what they do in the playoffs.

That's a step.

Huge team.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you could argue that they're also benefiting from Edmonton and other teams.

Vegas kind of having disappointing seasons and drama and injuries and underachieving, etc.

So the ducks are able to propel almost by default.

It's not like if you put them and say the Eastern Conference, they would be dominating

and be in the position they're in right now.

But nonetheless, but taking advantage, they're again ahead of schedule for me.

I could have seen them as a fringe team.

I don't know if I thought they would get in or not.

I don't remember my predictions, but they're surprising me that they're doing this throughout

the whole year.

I don't believe in them in terms of making a deep run, but I think if you're being fair

and you want, if you're a Montreal fan, maybe you're not, because you look at the history

of the franchise and you kind of want that to reboot itself and it hasn't for 30 years.

But this feels like a Montreal team that maybe could do what happened a few years back

when they made this surprising run to a cup final led by a gold tender.

This is more of a deeper team, more of an overall team.

If they get in, who knows, but I think basically to do what they've done so far and to get

in and be a playoff team that competes in that first round series, that is a success

for your based on just what should have been expected this year.

And then we'll see what they do in the off season.

I think they're one forward away.

I think they're one piece away from really having a chance, but this roster right now isn't

that for me.

Yeah, I think it's the goalie.

But we'll see.

It could be Jacob Fowler.

It could be Jacob Fowler.

It's plausible that he's a young gold tender.

It was actually funny because Cutter Goethe was where they were teammates in college.

So a little bit of a little bit of a bragging rights for Cutter Goethe.

Let's move on to Ottawa and San Jose.

There's one that the sharks actually, this is one that both of these teams really needed.

We don't often talk about East West as being kind of a must win.

But when you look at the way the standings are breaking down right now, San Jose is in

an absolute dogfight with Seattle to get potentially the last playoff spot in the Western

Conference.

Seattle, of course, won today against a very banged up Florida team.

We'll talk more about that coming up a little bit later.

And then for Ottawa, look, they are in maybe the toughest division, potentially, in terms

of depth, they might be in the toughest division in the NHL where Detroit right now by points

percentage, they're on pace for 97 points.

They're not in as of today, despite being on pace for 97.

That does not happen very often.

Only 97 is enough to get you in.

And Ottawa is five points back of Detroit.

I'm not sure how many games in hand they have at the moment, but they get the way or they

were five points coming back coming into tonight.

They're three back now after getting a seven to four win.

This was another one that felt a little drunk at times.

San Jose opened the scoring, very back and forth.

But Ottawa went on a bit of a run late.

So one quick San Jose, no, we are going to hear from JD Young in a moment.

Michael Misa scores his seventh goal, the second overall pick from last year, starting

to heat up a little bit here in his last 15 games or so.

And then in the third period is where Ottawa really took this game over.

Once it was tied at four, they scored three unanswered Drake Batherson, Dylan Cousins,

and Brady Kachuck with the empty netter.

So Ottawa finishes strong.

They get a decent performance from Linus Olmark, not great.

He stops 19 of 23, but it's enough.

And Laurent Brasaud, we're swan, his first start of the season.

By the way, you'd put a gun to my head and asked me what organization Laurent Brasaud was

in.

I had no idea that he was with San Jose at this point.

And he is and he was, he's actually had a pretty good year for the Barracuda apparently.

But this was his first start for the sharks.

So Ottawa gets the win.

They needed that.

They really did 100% because of the log jam.

The East is so jammed up that you mentioned Ottawa trying to fight to get in there and

maybe, you know, crawl up the standings and they've been a team that I would imagine and

actually said this on the last show I was on here on Wednesday night with TJ, that I

feel like they are the most under the radar team.

And the casual fan probably is not aware of how hot they've actually been since the calendar

flipped to 1026 before and after the Olympics.

They had a loss the other night.

And that regulation loss was their first regulation loss in over a month.

They've been able, and this is how you get into this log jam, Alex.

You've talked about this before.

It's not so much wins and losses in the NHL.

It's about how many points you stack up and they've been able to, even if they lose,

get that thing in OT.

So they're getting a point out of those games and it's better than obviously losing in

regulation.

So they may be able to stack enough of those to be in the race right now.

Do I think that roster is deep enough?

Do I think they have enough?

Do I think they have anyone that can carry carry the day?

Ready to get chuck is for me is more of like an undercard robbing to someone else's Batman

if that would be a championship team.

But at the end of the day, if they keep on doing this, they could squeeze in.

And if they were out west, they certainly would be sitting pretty with a better record

right now than the shark.

So we'll see what they do if they keep this up.

And they've certainly put a lot of pressure on a lot of these other Eastern teams.

You mentioned Detroit, the penguins, whoever else to stay in there and to realize every

single game matters.

And Alex, I'll add this to an Ottawa.

And this is kind of the theme we've talked about with even Montreal and Anaheim and you

could connect to San Jose here, who I think is playing above expectation, playing with

house money.

So it brings very young didn't score in this game, but he could be the face of the league

coming up.

So they're going to be fine for the future, regardless where they get him this year.

But say, for example, you're comparing the teams on the bubble for called basketball

termion selections on day on who was more pressure, I mean, it's clear Detroit needs to get

in or it's unsuccessful, doesn't matter what went on.

They have to get in.

They hear, hey, marquee franchise, they're on a long drought.

They have a hall of them executive that has the pressure.

They made moves at the deadline.

They have to somehow get in.

Does not matter how they got to get there or their fans are going to freak out and just

just do really based on what's going on in recent years.

Ottawa doesn't have anywhere near that pressure.

Maybe it's benefiting now them now.

No one discussing them.

They are totally under the radar.

They're not even discussed that much in Canada comparison to the other teams.

And if they would even get close as above expectations.

So they're able to kind of play with this free sailing no pressure mindset and it's benefiting

them because now there is hot as anybody else and turning the corner and maybe going to

be a playoff team.

That's kind of amazing.

But if you also tell me who has the best chance to go anywhere if they get in on these

bubble teams, I don't know if I think they're going to go anywhere.

This seven go output by the standards, by the way, I believe is only their third such

game of the season.

And their last seven goal was back in January.

They had one eight goal game.

Otherwise they don't normally put these kind of goals up.

By the way, I will save a friend of their show.

I actually think there's a lot of pressure on Ottawa, but we'll save that for another

another another.

In the Ottawa market.

That would be not.

Certainly not comparison Detroit.

We'll talk about that more in a little bit.

I want to finish up the segment here with JD Young of locked on San Jose Sharks.

Give him the word on San Jose.

The combination of bad luck, poor defensive decision and sub part goal ten year too much

for the center.

They sharks to overcome as they lose seven to four to the Ottawa centers.

Sharks put themselves in a bad position, say, a multiple occasions with sloppy play

in their own zone that led to Laurent Persuabi and under siege at times and having to make

difficult saves.

And then sometimes the Persuabi is not able to make the saves that he needed today.

Sharks also just unlucky with some of the goals they gave up as they give up two points

here in a crucial playoff race.

So I'll break down this game.

I mean, next episode of locked on Sharks.

All right.

Much appreciated JD.

We will check back in with you.

I'm sure later this week, we're going to talk about Toronto Minnesota in the next segment.

The oiler season getting a little ridiculous at this point.

That team has a combination of bad juju and bad luck.

The Panthers are fading away.

And the central division all disappointment pole ends in surprise disappointment for somebody.

All that and more coming up on locked on NHL game night.

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All right, let's chat about that Toronto Minnesota game.

The leaves.

It's been a mess and then now they're starting to win a game or two, you're in there with

time.

Yeah.

And again, like, there's nothing that needs to be said about the leaves playoff chances

like they're done.

They're cooked.

It would require a historic finish.

They do win this one for two.

I think where I'm going where I am with this one is I'm probably at this point more concerned

about Minnesota than I have anything to say about Toronto because Minnesota walked out

of this weekend with two very winnable games and they lost to the New York Rangers and

the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Now, look, the Rangers are what six, one and two since the Olympic break up.

Okay, I don't I don't know what's going on there.

Toronto on the other hand was what they did finally get a win a couple days ago, but they

have been awful coming out of the Olympic break and they're down Austin, Matthews.

If anything, you know, you would have said before the season, this was what they call

a schedule loss, right?

And then you look at it, you go, this is no schedule loss.

This should be an easy one for Minnesota.

They walk out of this weekend with no points and obviously I think I think the reality is

going to be setting in here if it hasn't already that this is the challenge of this playoff

format.

Minnesota is very likely going to be the road dog in their first series.

Yeah.

And Billy Garen's already let us know how unfair that is and I don't disagree.

I do think we do need to revisit the format.

I do think that having the top teams in a conference that are the top teams in hockey

meet so early and guaranteeing that you're not going to have some of the best teams advance

on and lose them early in your postseason round.

I do think that's kind of unfortunate.

It hurts the fans.

It hurts the games.

It's not even fair, really.

But that's just not going to be changed.

I mean, Gary Vettmann's made it clear.

He loves this format.

So he doesn't want to change it.

So we're in this this year, we're always of the future.

And Minnesota is a team.

We just talked about expectations and whether it's fair or not and playing with house money

or not.

And Minnesota is a team that I thought they could be good.

I didn't think they'd be this good in terms of where they are on the standings entering

the season.

They are another team that you could argue really maybe is one superstar way from really

hitting the ground running.

But they're going for this year.

They made it clear.

They're going for this year.

They've acted as if they're going for this year and bring in Quinn Hughes, for example.

But yeah, as of late, it does give you some concern, especially because they're going

to have a very difficult path to have a deep run and they're not going to be favorite.

They don't have the play of experience.

They don't have the recent success behind them.

So you imagine that they're very vulnerable for an early exit and when you lose a Toronto

a team that is without their star that is dealing with drama that always has expectations

and certainly is not near achieving any of those that has a media market that is a fish

bowl for just negativity all around the team that their players are vocally annoyed with.

You would think that that team would fade.

They'd want the season to be over with.

They would not really care about any of these games.

Minnesota trying to get themselves in a better playoff spot and to try to have their best

postseason run maybe ever would really care.

And that's not what you saw in this game.

So we'll see.

It's only one night.

Obviously, Minnesota could turn it around and I kind of hope they do.

I think it's a cool story to have them around.

But a rough go having this result against that team.

Almost any team I could tell you you don't want to lose to right now is the Maple Leafs.

They're done.

They shouldn't even care.

And oddly, they do.

Minnesota has not want to play off series since spring of 2015.

They have not been to the conference finals since spring of 2003.

They're third year as a franchise.

This is.

And even if you go back to when the Minnesota North stars were there, the Stanley Cup

that was won was in Dallas.

The Minnesota North Star did appear in a cup final, but they didn't win it there.

So the dog walked by the penguins if I recall correctly.

Correct.

The point is the people that live there now, your older brother, your father, your grandfather

have not seen much playoff success in the city.

And this could be that team that does it, but the format may bite them.

And I don't think they're good enough to overcome the format based on what we're seeing.

I think and I know wild fans are probably sick of hearing about it too.

But I mean, I'm sorry because like under a normal circumstance, you know, we're talking

about what are they?

Are they probably?

Yeah, they're the number three seed if you go back to the prior format.

It affects them more than anybody else.

Right.

Yeah.

Right now, look at who they'd be, who they'd be realistically playing, right?

Like they'd be playing now.

Okay.

They'd be playing either Utah or probably Edmonton in the first round, but like they'd be

favorite in both.

I mean, Edmonton Edmonton is fading, I don't, yeah, I don't think Edmonton is as good

as they were.

Like I'm not, I know we, it's funny.

We talked about this what a week and a half ago about how maybe is Edmonton in that sort

of Florida Tampa mode from the last couple of years where they're not really, they don't

really give a crap on the regular season.

I'm not really buying that with you.

No, I told you then they're just not as good and we'll get that later in the show.

They're just not as good and gold tending is really the issue.

I don't care whether it's Ingram or Jari, they're just not good enough.

That's a good, that's a, that's a pro segway right there because Edmonton Edmonton is next

on the, on the docket here.

They beat Nashville tonight.

They do get the win.

Conor McDavid has three assists and is league, league leading up to 104.

When they score, he assists the goal.

Yeah.

So they want three to one in this one.

Connor Ingram, by the way, like I wish we don't, we have a week.

Could you do it entire show?

I'm sure it's rare as has all the Edmonton bolts and your situation, but Connor Ingram,

the new number one.

He's the starter.

He has been anointed around the starter, he is the starter.

Yes.

A little confidence in Connor Ingram.

He stopped 26 at 27.

I don't like their odds with Connor Ingram and net, but he stops 26.

Well, no one told us he's not going to start every game though.

He said he's the starter.

He's the number one.

But even though we only have, even though we only have one more back to back,

we're still not going to have him start every night.

And you're thinking yourself, you can't afford to lose too many games by guy.

I understand you want to rest the gold tender here, but you wouldn't even be in

if this was Eastern Conference.

And if they're, if you're saying there's only one back to back, then maybe you do need

to air Ingram out there.

He of course played better than anything we've seen from Jari as of later.

I don't think he's even played well enough to argue being the backup based on his

performance.

Of course he is, but he's almost a guarantee loss.

At least Ingram gives you a chance.

Right now the story is, of course, dry side will getting hurt though, because as much

as Edmonton could be a team like they have in recent years, no one thought they'd

get back to the cup final last year.

I don't think they're, you know, having enough on defense or gold tain to go ahead and

win a cup.

They didn't do it the last couple of years with better defense and gold tending.

But this offensive firepower, if they click, could run through the West.

We've seen it before.

However, I do think maybe they're out of gas.

I do think their star players are starting to get upset about what's going on there because

they believe they're not going to win again next year already.

They look at the roster.

I mean, dry side who left this game with an injury and we don't know how long he might

be out.

It sounds like from their media he's going to miss games.

He's vocally basically said he doesn't feel the roster is good enough and it sounds like

he, you know, he's doing everything in his, in his being to stop himself from verbally,

you know, chastising his players and his team.

So it's kind of a mess there despite being a back-to-back Stanley Cup final representative.

Yeah, I don't think they're going to go anywhere.

But as I've said before on past shows, my last point in Edmonton, I think it might even

be better for the future of the franchise, lose early, take a break, mentally take a

break and hit the ground running to drag through a playoff run, have no offseason break

with a roster that's going to be flawed again.

Probably going to have you have a slow start next year.

So we'll see what happens here.

They have to win every game to really be in a better spot, playoff position and they

finally get one.

This is the best they've played in a while.

But if they lose dry side off for any period of time, they're in trouble and they could

drop out of it altogether.

We're going to take one more quick break.

When we come back, we're going to wrap up our final two games in this one.

Seattle Florida, Winnipeg, St. Louis and we're going to talk about ideal Stanley Cup matchups

just purely from what we want to watch.

What would be cool to us?

That's coming up next right here on Lockdown NHL game night.

This is a vacation with Chase Sapphire Reserve, the butler who knows your name.

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All right, couple of games to get to here, Seattle and Florida and man, the Panthers are there

there to stick a fork and a man, that's the analysis, cooked, cooked, cooked for a while

here.

Seattle wins this one, 62, Coco, Coco, three point night, Berkeley cat and gets the game

winner.

Some young Seattle players starting to come around.

Coco needed a big night.

He had been slumping lately and he's actually seen his playing time diminish a little bit

the last couple of weeks.

So they have got to get, you know, this is a crack in team that does not necessarily

have an elite winger.

And we know that because they were in on the Artemi Artemi Pinaran situation.

They were, I think they might wind up being the team that acquires Jordan Kairu, but

it's not going to happen now till the off season.

But if they can get a little bit of scoring depth, this is a Seattle team that might be

able to push it over to the finish line.

And I don't say this about every team, but it is critical in my mind for this Seattle

franchise.

You know, most teams would say, who cares about just getting in?

I think Seattle would be good for them to get in.

Is it still a relatively young group between Maddie Beniers and Shane Wright, whether he

continues playing there or not?

But guys like Berkeley cat and like those guys need to get playoff experience.

Yeah, the reason why there's such a great fan base in Las Vegas for the NHL because right

away, cup final appearance a few years later, Stanley Cup championship, very abnormal for

an expansion franchise.

But the way the NHL was set up, the recent expansion franchises say, unlike when Columbus

entered the league or Nashville, enter the league or even Florida further back, when

they entered the league, Alex, it was very difficult to get anything going.

And most of them had a rough road for while Florida did make that one cup final in 96 and

then took a long time to have the recent dynasty.

But for Seattle, like Vegas, they've been set up for success.

The NHL wants them to have success early.

So like you're saying, you can get a fan base together.

You can get some excitement, no matter how much people like hockey or not.

If you have a championship contender, you're going to rally around.

I'm not saying they'd be a championship contender if they would get in.

But if you taste play off hockey, you're then going to be able to market it for the future

and help them.

But if they would miss this year, I don't think it's the end of the world because yeah,

there's moves made in the off season, they have cap space to do it.

They're set up more than maybe most expansion franchise aside from Vegas.

They are still very, very early, most reasonable fans will give them time.

And the next year, they could be a sexy pick for some.

And then yeah, Florida is very, very much done.

And I also think kind of like Edmonton, but on the flip because they have the rings.

And there's no pressure there.

I think Matthew Cuchuck, for example, now with a goal met all the two cops.

He probably in the back of his mind is thinking, all right, I'll take a vacation.

Like give me a vacation once.

Like I finally get a vacation here.

That could be, I mean, if you get barcov healthy and you replace the gold tender,

probably losing Biberowski and letting him go to retirement or another team.

But if you get a better gold tender, if you get an improvement there,

a younger gold tender for the future, there's still an ability to be good for years

to come with a wide open conference.

And yeah, barcov being the main factor, they're getting him healthy,

but they're not doing it this year.

So we're going to likely have two new Stanley Cup final representatives

and definitely a new champion.

Let's give Armando Vales of Lockdown Florida Panthers the final word on Florida.

It was a lack of finishing for the Florida Panthers in their six to two loss

to begin their road trip in Seattle.

And the Panthers were without Sam Reinhardt who's not going to be on the trip.

Sam Bennett is day to day and Brad Margin who has been out for more than a week

and likely out for the season.

The Panthers have to find some type of scoring for them as they control the play

in the beginning, but it was the bottom two lines for the Seattle Kraken

who were able to cash in and the Panthers of five on three with an opportunity

to at least cut it to a two gold deficit.

And then the Seattle Kraken just continued to take over from there.

Danil Terraceoff did as much as he could before the levy broke

as the Seattle Kraken were able to get to the net front quite often,

especially on second chance opportunities.

We're going to break all this down on the next edition of the Lockdown Florida Panthers

podcast, your team every day.

All right, let's move on to the final game of the night.

Winnipeg, St. Louis, the Jets, the Jets, again, you would think,

you know, with the way that this series would be nice to have been in

Hellabuck in a rematch.

Yeah, right.

And especially with the way that the first round series went last year in the playoffs,

and you would just would have liked these to be competitive to have a little more juice.

Winnipeg never trailed in this game.

They win three two surprise, surprise, two of the three goals scored by Mark Schifley

and Kyle Conner, each scoring their 31st of the season.

Final score in this one three to two.

One quick note on Bennington, because as Mike mentioned,

Hellabuck did not play in this game.

Comedy, pretty good.

Eric Comedy stops 29 of 31.

Jordan Bennington stopped 13 of 16.

Yeah, 10, 19 and six on the season.

Yeah, I mean, he had a solid Olympic run,

but he's had a really rough season for sure.

He's not been elite for years after winning the Stanley Cup,

maybe aside from the Olympic run with a great stack team in front of him,

and they didn't even win gold.

And Hellabuck, of course, has had his worst season a long time after being

MVP last year, but does win gold.

So at least as that forum didn't play in this game, as you said.

But it's very likely both of these two gold tenders aren't on their same team

at this point next year or in this coming off season.

Maybe Winnipeg keeps Hellabuck because he's just a staple there forever.

But Bennington and Florida or Bennington and St. Louis are very likely parting ways

as the Blues go through a long rebuild back to their future.

And Bennington maybe becomes that maybe that gold tender that Florida

coverage, if they move on from Nebraska or Edmonton finally says,

hey, come aboard here because we desperately need another gold tender.

These franchises that need a gold tender, I'm not saying Bennington is that guy

that he was in 2019, but maybe they say to themselves,

we can get him cheaper now.

We have the play of experience, the Olympic experience.

Maybe we can get something to turn on from him because better than what we got.

Like if I'm Edmonton, I'd give him a call in the summer.

You got to upgrade what you have now.

And St. Louis, I imagine we'll be fine parting ways at this point.

I would think so worth noting that Joel Hofer has been a lot better.

Bennington's been around an 870, say, percentage, which is like,

that would be bad in the 80s, right?

That would be bad in the 80s.

And Joel Hofer's been like a 906 and they've played basically the equal number of games.

And I'm not saying that's like a complete exact science,

but generally speaking, if the other goalie is a 906 in the same exact system,

you have some issues.

That's a massive difference.

Imagine if Jordan Bennington were league average,

St. Louis is fighting for a playoff spot right now in the West.

And I still don't think St. Louis is that great of a team.

No, I was going to say if they were more of a contender,

this might be a bigger dealer.

Maybe they would have had to do something at the deadline.

I think they know in their heart of heart, this is the wasted year.

So let's just play this out and then go to the summer.

I don't think, regardless, yeah, they might squeak in because mostly

because Edmonton and other teams are underachieving and it's pretty,

it's pretty rough at the back end of the Western conference playoff picture.

But at the end of the day, it'll be better for their future,

draft pick wise future for Bennington.

Maybe it'll be a nice offseason story and what happens with him to not get in.

But it has been a really rough road for him.

And he has not been able to handle anything post-Olympics

that would have even been close to adding any momentum from that,

you know, a stronger play than what he's been doing in the NHL season.

They are in Italy.

All right, Mike.

We're going to wrap the show with what I promised folks.

We're going to pick our ideal Stanley Cup finals,

which guarantees they probably won't happen because that's the way the NHL works.

Right.

So so I will give you option.

Either you go first or you have right of first refusal.

If you want me to go first, number one pick for you.

Most entertaining, whatever doesn't matter with the quality.

Number one, Stanley Cup final that Mike Oste would want to watch this season.

Well, we just discussed this is a little bit off the air.

So I could let you go first.

I'm not going to steal it where I think you're going anyway.

But I appreciate that.

Yeah, so this is one that I'm going to throw out there just off of,

we talked about it, historic nature of it.

And wanting to see a franchise or a city or location that

has hockey interests.

It is a hockey hotbed that makes sense to have hockey.

And despite losing one franchise,

gets another one and it's great for that city to have this be the case.

And stay forever.

And that's the Minnesota Wild.

I'd like to see the Minnesota Wildmaker run.

Do I think it's going to happen based on what we said earlier,

based on the format, based on being an underdog,

based on not having the talent over the other teams that are higher up

in the standings and are better than you.

And the format having the top teams play so early and

maybe lacking the star power and playing rough as of late.

No, I think Minnesota is going to probably be a first round exit.

But I would love to see them make a deep run.

It'd be great for that city.

It'd be great for Minnesota to have a North Star type revival

with Minnesota Wild because Alex, even for France,

if you even want to connect the dots and be an historic nerd,

the Stanley Cup, the Dallas Stars one is for the stars franchise,

which starts with the Minnesota North Star,

Minnesota Wilder expansion.

They can't even really claim that Stanley Cup.

I'm assuming you stay on as a Minnesota fan and don't dip it

and become a Dallas fan years ago if you're a Minnesota person.

So I'd love to see the Minnesota Wildmaker run.

I don't think it'll be happening.

And if they do make a run, I'd love to see an historic situation,

an undercard, an underdog for the franchise,

for the team face off against Tampa Bay,

that maybe restarts a new dynasty.

They've been so, so much of a juggernaut.

Kutraub is there playing at his best in a historic run,

that I don't think we talk about enough in terms of what he's putting up.

We always talk about McDavid's point total and how historic that is.

Look at Kutraub's is right there with him.

So I'd love to see Tampa Bay just because it's a quality,

dynastic, star-power team.

I want to see that against an underdog,

pretty much, that could be a first for a city.

That would be really, really cool to see.

And yeah, you could throw a football as well.

Buffalo Minnesota would do that together.

The Kutraub Capri-Soft dynamic would be a lot of fun.

Right. That too.

Startle hockey as well.

Yeah, the maybe the two best Russian players on planet earth

playing against each other.

All right, so mine is I want to see a rematch

of a Stanley Cup final from the 90s.

I want to see Buffalo and Dallas.

And not only would it be cool because of obviously the call backs,

the way that series ended in six games,

the skate in the crease, not in the crease.

Yes, of course.

Yeah, Buffalo claims it's still didn't finish.

They literally still did not legitimize the Stanley Cup.

But on top of that, Lindy Ruff has coached

for both of these franchises.

So I think there's a, as a play by play guy,

I'm a sucker for that.

Oh, you can add so much the story.

The storybook nature would be there.

I couldn't steal yours.

That really would be the greatest storyline.

I will also say if you want pressure,

you could argue that Dallas would have a lot of pressure

because they've been so great for 25 years

since the 99 Cup.

They've been arguably the best franchise in North American sports

without actually winning another championship.

They've been right there.

Yet the pressure would clearly be on Buffalo.

The franchise hasn't done it.

They got there in 99.

They lost.

The foot was in the crease.

The rule was then changed.

Buffalo deals with the bills and the four straight losses

who knows of Josh Allen's taking them there.

Like, yes, some people there are Yankee fans,

but in terms of those two Buffalo sports,

they're pretty cursed.

And you mentioned Lindy Ruff.

If he who has coached Dallas that far,

lost with Buffalo to Dallas.

If he then would coach Buffalo and lose the Dallas again,

I am going to say he is a cursed individual.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think that's fair.

And also, you know, what better way?

Cause this was a guy who people were much like Paul Marisa

a couple of years ago.

And I'm as guilty of it as anybody else.

People were writing Lindy Ruff off as a legitimate head coach.

They thought that higher was bizarre.

I thought that higher was bizarre.

He's also over.

This isn't Lindy Ruff 20 years ago.

I kind of thought maybe it passed him by, yeah, 100%.

And I, you know, as much as he's clearly proving he has years

left in the tank, he could keep on doing this.

If he would win his first Stanley Cup in that fashion over

that franchise that he coached for Buffalo

and their first ever, he should retire.

That would be the best way to ever end a career.

And if you look at the overall win total and Zobo resume,

he's probably an argument for the Hall of Fame anyway.

That would really cement him.

I think then he's there's no way to end it better.

There's no back to back for Buffalo to lucky.

It would be doing this like he would then need to retire.

But that would be, if you're Lindy Ruff,

he have the most, we have the most pressure on him

than I think any coach has ever had going into a cup final

if you really want to get historic.

But that would be really, really cool for sure.

Saber fans are ready to murder me

for putting it out into the world.

So you might have first the whole thing.

And I'm just, I'm just, you might have cursed me.

But the thing is is that so like I have to make amends

for how much I trashed Buffalo early in the season.

All right, we thank you and I do want to ask you

as we end the show, would you have Bret Hall

and Dominic Austin drop the opening, the opening book?

Oh, I think that'd be, I, how could you not, right?

You have to, right?

What do you think?

I mean, that would be fantastic.

You have to, yeah, that would be, I think it'd be great.

Thanks for tuning in to Lockdown at HL Game Night folks.

We are going to be back tomorrow night.

It'll be me with TJ Shilot.

I'm on social media as the radio spiel.

Mike, where can folks interact with you on, on puck matters?

And social media at my gosh, the 11.

If you want complete coverage of your favorite NHL team,

there is a Lockdown NHL team pod and YouTube show for you.

We have one for every NHL team.

This show locked on NHL Game Night is here for you each

and every night of the regular season and playoffs,

wrapping up the night in the NHL.

Now, don't forget to like and subscribe to this show.

If you're watching on YouTube as we want to see your thoughts

as well on tonight's games in the comment section,

outside of your own team, who would you want to watch?

Who would you actively get excited for?

Let us know in the comments in a Stanley Cup final.

We can actually start thinking about it is.

The playoffs are basically a month away.

That'll do it for tonight's episode of Lockdown NHL Game Night

for Mike Ostea, I'm Alex Wiedersfield.

Thanks again for listening and watching Lockdown NHL Game Night

part of the Lockdown podcast network.

Your teams, every day.

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