The Hockey Show: Holy Lefts
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Hello everybody, welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. David Dwork for the Hockey News is here. So is Ethan. Rosie is somewhere with Lucy right now doing college football.

Because that never ends. It's hockey season for us, and that's a good thing because we get to do slap shots. We're going to start with our hot takes, and Dave, take it away. What's your hot take? My hot take is I've had enough with embellishment penalties. Enough. Yeah, it sounds like you had enough. Nobody likes this. It's not consistent. It's annoying.

We just saw on back-to-back nights how inconsistent it is. First, there was this Matthew Kachuk getting called for embellishment after he was tripped by Brett Pesci when literally all he's doing is falling on his face. Like, I'm sorry, am I supposed to put my hands behind my back when I'm falling on my face? And hitting the microphone with your face. No, well, because what are you supposed to do? You're falling...

So, alright, anyway, the next night, two nights later, we get another, can we roll that one, with Nico Mikula getting, he gets called for a penalty, watch Jack Hughes. He doesn't get touched, but he throws his head back like a friggin' Sports Illustrated swimsuit model in the ocean, and what happens? The call on Nico Mikula, no embellishment call that time, so the consistency is just rolling right along.

I'm tired of this rule. Yes, it did lead to PowerPoint gold. I'm over this. If we can't get a consistent rule, if we can't make it reviewable, then get it the bleep out of here because it does no good. It's never called on its own. It's always got to be with the penalty. And I got one more video just while I'm really pissed off. I've railed on this before. This is Nito Nitoronder hitting Tampa's Isimont. Isimont can't handle getting hit

Oh, I got hit really hard. My reaction has to be dropping the gloves immediately because this is hockey and you got to fight. If you get embarrassed a little bit, you can't just take a hit because it's hockey. I'm trying so hard not to drop an F-bomb right now. I know I can, but I'm trying to keep it civil. But when did hockey become such a whiny little bratty type of game? We've been seeing that a lot of clean hits now leading to fights, I guess, based on who's being hit. It's hockey. Yeah.

Grow a pair. Take it. All right. I've never seen you this angry, Jorky. Because it just keeps happening. And I feel like we're just moving in the wrong direction. And in a time where I feel like moving in the wrong direction might be a little sensitive to a decent amount of people around here.

Yeah, I'm a little sensitive. I mean, there's an unwritten rule, and I'm not saying that Eastmount is at that caliber, but you're not supposed to touch certain players on the team. He's not a certain player. Are you kidding me? No, he's not a rookie. And Nino Niederreiter isn't out there headhunting either. Like, come on. What are we doing? It's hockey. Lady Bing over here. This guy. My hot take is this is one of the most dangerous things you can do.

to yourself in the National Hockey League and in the sport of hockey itself, and that's playing without your equipment. And in this situation, Anthony Storlaars was in the crease, and he froze the puck by taking off his blocker.

Now, that's a bad situation because it was along the ice. And he's got a bare hand down there and a whole bunch of sharp knives skating around. And people are jamming their sticks looking for the puck. You're going to break a finger. I didn't know this was legal. I figured this would be an illegal play for you to just grab the puck with your hand. It was a goaltender.

Yeah, but still, that feels wrong. You can't do it on... Well, who is going to do that on... Who in their right mind is going to take their gloves off? This takes me back to Mike Richter, actually, in 1996. I remember there was a play where he was on his back, swimming through the crease, and both of his gloves came off, and he cleared the puck out with a bare hand. That's scary, dude. Yeah. As a goalie, no thank you. Yeah, that wrist is wide open to be slit. You can lose a finger...

based off the skates you can play what's wrong with us we i was not a goaltender we as the goaltending my position would be center not goaltender but yeah i mean stolar he was smiling too like an idiot i love it i love it he's like because he's out there having fun he's such a good guy like probably didn't think anything of it but that's scared me you have a hot take ethan

I do not. Dave, what's your win of the week? Oh, come on, man. I got plenty of hot takes. I just didn't get prepared for one, but now you're making me look bad. I'm going to treat you like Kenny Smith. I will come fired up next week. Don't worry. I'm going to treat you like Kenny Smith. I still think Jim Montgomery is going to be fired really soon. 7-2 last night. The Stars, we can kind of continue off of last week's hot take. Jim Montgomery, 7-2.

7-2 loss to the Stars last night. The Bruins not getting their shit together at all. You Bruin haters. We could just have a thing every week. Is Jim Montgomery fired yet? The only thing that might... Every week. No. That's the answer. The only reason this take might not come true is because Mike Sullivan is doing his best to get fired. Mike Sullivan, he'll get hired like that. Yeah, he will.

Dave, your win of the week. My win of the week goes to a family. It's the Duchesne family. Matt Duchesne put video up on his Instagram from his in-home camera of his family watching him play earlier this week. He scored a goal like a minute into the game, and his son Bo just goes screaming through the house like, ah, daddy scored! It was so cool and sweet and wholesome. And I think we have the video if you want to put it up there. Yeah, here we go.

So the kids are up there watching him. Nice move to Shane. He shot scores!

He found a hole as it leaked through Blomqvist. And the stars on their first shot of the night. Speaking of the Penguins. Well, that was the game, wasn't it? That was the game where they were losing like 6-0 in the first period. Yeah, they gave up 6 in the first period. Oh, my God. But that was really cool. So Matthew Shane and his wife Ashley sharing that video with us of his son Bo and their daughter James playing.

Really cool. As a couple of dads, I thought we'd appreciate that. So definitely my win of the week.

Good on you, Dushane family. My winner of the week is something that the league is actually trying to take out. We mentioned it earlier, and that's fighting. But this one is actually not based on a hit, or at least I don't think it was based on a hit, but it was a couple of fights from back-to-back games between the Panthers and Devils. It was Jonah Gajewicz at the forefront of both of them. On Tuesday, this is the big one. I love this one. This is the one that brought us back to the late 80s, early 90s. No vision.

Jersey over his head, still just swinging. No strategy. Over, under. He was thinking it through, man. I think Freed said on 32 Thoughts this morning he threw 37 punches. Yeah, that's what ESPN said. They tabulated the punches, and that was the knockout blow on Brendan Dillon.

Bucci loved it. He absolutely did. On Thursday, Jonah Gajewicz fought Curtis McDermott, and it was basically the same thing. He was a big man. Yeah, I mean, those are big men. Those were two heavyweight fights that happened. On Thursday, this is the fight right here. This is scary. This is so good. This is so good. Them lining each other up. When there's like 10 seconds? Yeah.

Yeah, it's a set up. They got the square up. They got the set up. I thought the refs here are just going to step in and just call it. Like nobody's thrown a swing yet. And then all of a sudden they just start swinging. You want to jump in there at the wrong second and get one of those haymakers on the side of your head? The best part is I thought right around here-ish coming up that Gajewicz was done right here. I'm like, oh, he's going down. Yeah, punches back. And then, oh, he comes back swinging.

So good. He hit him square on the nose, probably the top of the visor, but that one knocked him down. So Jonah Gajewicz this week was basically the only winner that the Panthers had with those two big fight wins. Ethan, you have no one, do you? I do not, but I love this guy.

that took place the last two nights, and I would love to see seven games of this. It's a litmus test. I know we'll get to this later, but I would love to see seven games of the Devils and Panthers. That would be the conference final.

Well, unless one of them falls out of the... I doubt that. Most likely scenarios, it would be the Eastern Conference Final, and it would be a doozy. That'd be fun. Yeah. All right, loss of the week. Let's go to you, Dave. My loss of the week, it's also fight-related, Roy. Look at that. Hey. My loss of the week goes to Nathan Bastian of the aforementioned New Jersey Devils. They played the Calgary Flames and our old friend Ryan Lomberg this week, and Ryan Lomberg...

pummeled him to the point where he told his teammates after the game he actually felt bad at the last couple of punches. Go ahead, Ethan. Where's that animal? Where's the animal? I think he's trying to hurt my head. Hoobie. Hoobie. Hoobie. Hoobie. Hoobie. Hoobie. Hoobie.

He didn't? Where have you been? The last couple, I actually did feel a little bad, too. You should. I wasn't going to stop. Here's my favorite thing about Ryan Lomberg, and I noticed this in the documentary that ESPN did about the Panthers' cup

cup run he doesn't wear a shirt on the ice under his jersey everybody kind of wears like one of those long sleeves i imagine to protect against cold and also add a little bit of padding that dude's out there shirtless under his jersey it that says everything you need to know about ryan lomberg lombie's a real one i think we have footage of the fight from the glass actually of lombie unrailing unloading on him railing this guy if you can there it is

Oh my god. This was, I mean, look. We know Lambie's a tough dude, even though he's not the biggest guy. Well, he's not the tallest guy, but he's

chiseled out of the side of a mountain. The guy is so strong, but holy cow. Man, I miss that guy. I miss him so much. I miss him as well. Fortified on the fourth line, man. He brought the energy on the ice, and that brought the energy to the team. Yeah, he was big for the past few seasons for the Panthers, but we wish him well in Calgary. My fail of the week, the L, goes to whoever put the ads on the boards. Ha ha ha!

In Washington, because Ryan Reeves ended up with a portion of a Lexus advertisement on the back of his jersey, and it looked like he had toilet paper on his shoe. He's more of like a Range Rover guy to me, I think. Yeah, and he's a big truck. Yeah. You know, Hummer. Yeah. One of those, I don't know. Yeah, one of those big cars. You brought it up. I'm looking at the screen right now. It's a doggone GMC Hummer.

This is just big brother listening to us, I guess. Around the what? Your hand is up. You got something? Say something. I was going to lead us into what we were going to talk about next here. No, go ahead. Segway away. Yeah, I don't have. I guess you could say my winning week is for Connor McDavid because what a week it was for Connor McDavid. What a night it was for Connor McDavid last night. Right. And Roy, I'll let you set up the rest.

Thanks, Ethan. I appreciate you. The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Predators 3-2 last night in Edmonton, and Conor McDavid ended up scoring a goal. That goal was his 1,000th point of his career. That is an accomplishment that actually makes him the fourth fastest to that achievement. The fourth fastest? The fourth fastest. So Wayne is obviously...

On that list? Yeah. Is Lemieux on that list? I believe so. And who would be third on that list? Solani, maybe? Maybe. Or maybe we're going further back here. Maybe it's like Gordie Howe or something. Yeah, so I can tell you right now. Mike Bossy was the third fastest. It was Gretzky, Lemieux, and Mike Bossy. Okay, two out of three.

I'll take it. Yeah. 55 players scored goals on his assists that led him to 1,000 points in his career. 55 players. Yeah. That's it. Wow. And 192 of those goals belonged to Leon Dreisaitl. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually the fourth most in NHL history goals scored by

This guy's just 27 years old, Conor McDavid. Yeah. Gold score from one player on assist from another player. Yeah. So, yeah, that's fourth most in NHL history. In second place is Nick Bastrom's gold total when Alex Ovechkin had an assist.

So, yeah, that's an interesting set right there. Did you guys see what else McDavid did last night on the OT winner? First of all, I love that all his teammates came out to celebrate his 1,000th point with him, kind of gave a longer celebration where they could kind of acknowledge the moment and his teammates all poured out on the ice. But I think his best moment of the night was this pass he made on the overtime winner. I think we have the video.

where he they're on a breakaway it's Dreisaitl and McDavid in overtime and McDavid makes this sick pass to Darnell Nurse no look pass behind the back Nurse was caught off guard like oh my god I can't believe I'm playing with this guy nobody's more surprised that he scored the game winning goal in overtime than Darnell Nurse but that pass you know Sarah Sivian's happy though yeah yeah so is Sarah Sarah Nurse is also happy about that yeah the two Sarahs his cousin yeah there was a trade this week

Laws Eller was traded back to the Washington Capitals. The Penguins ended up getting a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick. It's a reunion for Laws Eller in the Washington area for him. That's actually heartwarming. But what I want to get to right now to end this segment is the Hall of Fame. All right. So the inductees this year, this happened this week.

Shane Weber, Jeremy Roenick, Pavel Dasuk, Natalie Dalwood, Chrissy Wendell-Pole, Colin Campbell, and David Paye. All worthy nominees there who were just inducted into the Hall of Fame. Good for them. Brings back our memories. Two years ago, we were there. Yeah. Yeah. Lou getting his shine. Getting inducted. It was cold that weekend. It was cold. So next year.

It's the first ballot for these players, all right? Listen up. Joe Thornton, Duncan Keefe, Carey Price, Zidane O'Chara, Ryan Getzlaff, Tuka Rask, Dustin Brown, and Eric Stoll. Those are first ballot. Those who've had second ballots or more...

Jennifer Botterill, Rod Brendamore, Megan Dugan, Patrick Elias, Sergey Gonchar, Curtis Joseph, Patrick Marlow, Ryan Miller, Alexander Mogulny, Pekka Rinne, Keef Kachuk, Justin Williams, and Hendrick Zetterberg. Now, Alexander Mogulny. This is why we need to find out about public voting for the Hall of Fame, because there's absolutely no reason why Alexander Mogulny should not be in the Hall of Fame.

I don't know if I want to open it up to public voting, or maybe you can have an element where like the public votes in that vote acts is like one vote and is weighted in with other vote. Like there maybe should be some input because obviously this has been something that we've talked about a lot over the years now is Alex Modigliani and is not being in the hall of fame. And look, there's arguments both ways. And I get that. But like at the end of the day, it just feels like this is a man who based on his hockey deserves to be in there. I just don't know about what you're talking about is a slippery slope.

So if you're going to do something like that and you're going to change the voting, you've got to do it right. Well, baseball did it. Yeah, okay. Baseball has the worst Hall of Fame voting ever. I don't want to hear about baseball's Hall of Fame voting. I didn't want to go there, but I'm like, I feel like we're bitching about baseball every year. It's subjective, though. I mean, if you talk about gripes against players when it comes to the media, that's the sport that has the most gripes.

But there's also like the most polarization, I think, between some of the players. Like in hockey, there's not that much drama and intrigue. Right. Like Alex Modilny is basically it. Yeah. In baseball, there's a whole, you know, the whole steroid era element is like really, I don't want to say screwing things up, but really kind of making it murky waters. How do we get talking about baseball? Because, I mean, that was each his own. So of the first ballot guys, Thornton, Keith, Price, Chara, Getzlaff, Rask, Brown, Stahl.

Who's getting in? Definitely Chara and Price. Definitely getting in. Eric Stahl probably as well. I was listening to a pod the other day that says Joe Thornton is all but a guarantee. First ballot? Yeah. He hasn't won a cup. I don't know first ballot. Neither did Price for that matter. No, I think definitely Chara for sure. We can all agree on that. Probably Getzlaff, I would think too. Canadian, Stanley Cup winner. Is this Keith Kachuk's year finally? It better be.

Do you think his boys are helping his case at all? Do you think the fact that he's back in the spotlight because of his kids? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Absolutely. Absolutely it helps. Yeah, so hopefully Walt gets in there. Coming up next, we've got Doug Plagans from the Florida Panthers Radio Network. We're going to talk about the week that was. Coming up next.

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When you head to rhone.com and use code DLS, it's time to embody your most confident self. Okay, joining us now is Doug Plagans of the Florida Panthers Radio Network. He does play-by-play, and we've seen the Panthers take back-to-back losses from the New Jersey Devils after having a seven-game winning streak.

Yeah, that was pretty deflating what happened this week against New Jersey. Yeah, it's the first time the Panthers have lost back-to-back games since the second and third games of the season. It was into the Senators and Sabres. Doug, what happened? Well, first, thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, of course. I think if we're looking at that...

Couple of things, couple of different points to bring up in relation to the Panthers-Devils games this week. First of all, New Jersey, plain and simple, is a good team. There's no doubt about it. They're a team that came into this season having identified a few shortcomings with

their roster last year. They shored up the goaltending. They have two reliable veterans now, including one who's a workhorse who's going to play the lion's share of the games in Jacob Markstrom. All their young guys are a year older, and you can see that experience. And they also shored up their back end a bit too. So it's really a balanced roster, and Sheldon Keefe's a good coach. So it's

It's a good hockey team over there on the New Jersey side, and that's a team that's going to be in the contending mix in the Eastern Conference, probably not just this year, but for a number of years to come. And we're going to see some good battles between the Panthers and Devils, I think, in the years to come. So, first of all, it's a good team. The other thing to keep in mind is, you know, before we...

overanalyzed two midweek games. I know they were two Panthers losses, but at the same time, let's not forget the Panthers were on a seven-game win streak leading up to these couple of games. So big picture at the time that we're having this chat right now, the Panthers are still in the top spot in the Atlantic Division. They had a really grueling month of October.

and took care of business for most of that month of October and into November, put themselves in a good spot and put themselves in a spot where you can handle taking a couple of losses should that come around and still find yourself in a good position, which is where they are. But I think if you look at

The game on Tuesday night, part one of this little back-to-back, that's the other thing is it was kind of a scheduling quirk here, but the back-to-back on Tuesday night, that was just a hard-fought game. Paul Maurice said as much. That was just a hard-fought game between two really good teams. New Jersey came out on top. The game on Thursday night, the second part of the back-to-back, and Bill Lindsey and I talked about this postgame.

It seemed like in that one, I know the final score was 6-2, but it didn't feel like it was necessarily a runaway win for New Jersey. They were really opportunistic on a few occasions. They scored some power play goals and not once but twice they scored in the waning seconds of a period. Late in first, late in the second. Those can be tough to overcome.

You know, you went from a situation where, you know, when New Jersey took that 4-2 lead late in the second period, you know, not long before that, the Panthers had opportunities to get the game tied up. And who knows how things could have, you know, transpired if that had taken place. So, I think it's a good thing.

Again, I think closer than it looked, but New Jersey's a good hockey team. Credit to them. They went in and had two big wins and responded from a tough loss in their last home game prior to coming down to Sunrise. And I don't think at the end of the day it's too much to overanalyze. Like I said, I think big picture, you have to look at the Panthers have beaten a lot of good teams. They put themselves into a good spot. And at the time that we're having this conversation, even though the Panthers have lost back-to-back games, they still find themselves atop the Atlantic Division.

Doug, Paul Maurice said the other day that he thinks this Panthers forward group is actually better than last year's. It's deeper. Uh,

He kind of pushed Anton Lundell in his kind of next step. Kind of a two-part question. Do you believe that this is a deeper, better club than they were last year when they won the Stanley Cup? And at what point does Bill Zito get a statue for putting this team together and just making it better year over year? Well, to touch on the second part of your question there, as far as Bill Zito goes, the fact that he hasn't won at least one General Manager of the Year award at this point is bullshit. Bullshit! Bullshit!

It's beyond me. It's beyond me. He should have at least one, if not a couple of those on his mantle here at this point in time. But I think I have to guess there's going to be one in his future, probably multiple GM of the Year awards in his future at some point. And it's going to be long overdue when that happens.

As far as this forward group goes, it's really deep. It's really diverse. They have a lot of different skill sets. And I think it goes back, Dave, to something that I know going into the season and throughout the offseason, something that I was really pushing. I thought way too much was made.

Again, obviously the guys that were a part of the Stanley Cup championship team last year, they're going to be a part of not only Panthers lore, but South Florida lore for a long time and South Florida sports lore. And they were special guys, great guys, and guys that we're always going to enjoy crossing paths with down the road. But I thought way too much was made over the players that weren't going to be here anymore. And not enough was made over two things.

the continuity on this team and the guys that Bill Zito and the hockey operations department identified and brought in. I think if you look at the continuity that this team had going from last year into this year, they returned their eight leading scores. They returned their top three defense. They returned, obviously, Sergei Bobrovsky is still going to get the lion's share of starts in net. Paul Maurice is still the head coach. This is a team that has...

Feels like, guys, more continuity, especially for a championship team in a salary cap league, more continuity from year to year than you usually see for a championship team. Teams that have sustained success, it's kind of the nature of the situation. When teams are good year over year and they make the playoffs for a number of consecutive years,

In a salary cap league, you're going to run into situations where obviously you can't pay everybody. Guys are going to get raises and get additional opportunities elsewhere, and you're going to lose players because of that. The continuity that this team has had, especially going from a championship season into the following season where they're still very much a contender and will be in the mix and will be for a number of years to come, I believe, I think it's unusual. And that's just, again, a huge credit and

A lot of credit goes to Bill Zito and the Hockey Operations Department for the decisions that have been made, the players who've been extended, and that's allowed the Panthers to be able to really keep this thing rolling. So I think as far as the forward group goes, it's incredibly deep.

You know, you look at the way that the options are now on the fourth line. I think that's a big part of it, not just on the fourth line, but really up and down the lineup. Jesper Boquist has shown an ability to play the wing, play in the middle, play up and down the lineup. He's got speed and a skill set that lends itself to playing a lot of different roles. And I think you look at the way this, for example, fourth line has fallen into place. Tomasz Nosek is an outstanding face-off man. A.J.

career, Jonah Gajevic, two tough customers that have offensive instinct as well. We've seen Mackie Samuskevich, who let's not forget, first of all, led an AHL team in points as a 21-year-old. That's no easy task as a first year, first full pro season for him last year did that and didn't have a training camp this year. He was injured during training camp, had one preseason game. That was that last preseason game.

And you can tell that there's a confidence and you can tell there's been a lot of growth in Mackie's game now in his second full season at the pro level. So this team is deep. And I think there might not be any other anywhere else that's a bigger example of how deep the forward group is, guys, than the options that Paul Maurice has when it comes time to kill penalties. I mean, we know Barkov and Reinhardt are all workaholics.

world penalty killers. And we know Lundell and Luos Torino have great chemistry and are great in that part of the game. But even going to guys like Jesper Boquist, like A.J. Greer, these guys can kill penalties. And that's allowed the Panthers a ton of flexibility. And over the course of 82 games, it's going to allow the Panthers to keep going

you know, keep a few minutes off the plate of guys like Barkov, like Reinhardt, who I mentioned because the penalty killing depth that this team has. And when you have a lot of forwards who can kill penalties, that means you have a lot of responsible forwards who are trustworthy at all ends of the ice. And,

Like I said, I think that's one of the biggest illustrations of how deep this forward group is, how many options Paul Maurice has when it comes to time for the penalty kill. Doug, I want to ask you real quick about a guy you just mentioned who's leading that forward group, and that is Samson Reinhardt. He has really taken his game to the next level this year. I'm going to ask everybody about him until somebody finally just gives him the credit he deserves. What have you seen from Reinhardt that has...

most impressed you in terms of the way he's taken his game up from last year where he scored 57 goals to this year where you could argue he might be the best forward on the team right now well at the moment we're having this conversation I don't think he's flying under anybody's radar anymore uh

At the moment we're having this conversation, he's leading the National Hockey League in goals. That was his 13th last season. And the thing with Sam Reinhardt is he's doing it in so many different ways. He's got a great shot. He can score off the rush. On Tuesday night, Bill Lindsay and I were talking about it on the broadcast yesterday.

An area of his game that we don't talk about enough is how good he is in front of the net on deflections. We know how good he is in that bumper spot on the power play right out in front of the net. We know he can score from pretty much anywhere on the ice, but...

The way that he's able to deflect pucks out in front of the net, maybe that's an area of his game we don't talk about or appreciate enough. And I think what it all boils down to, guys, he's got three shorthanded goals, I believe, at this moment. That, here in this early stage of the NHL season, still leads the NHL. He's got more shorthanded goals than he does power play goals at this moment. Like I said, he's leading the league in goals.

He's an all-world two-way forward. He's incredibly responsible defensively. As I mentioned, he kills penalties too. There is nothing that... There's no hole to his game whatsoever. He can do anything and he can contribute anywhere and...

As time's gone on, the things that we've learned about, you know, as far as Sam Reinhart goes, we know Paul Maurice has given him a ton of praise for his hockey IQ. He's one of the smartest players out there, and he's compared him to Ron Francis in terms of, you know, the smartest and highest hockey IQ, highest hockey sense players that he's ever had the chance to coach.

But with Sam Reinhardt's game, like I said, plain and simple, there just are no holes in his game whatsoever. And the other thing that's come out, you know, as we've gotten to know him since coming in from Buffalo and you see the way he plays every night, this is a guy who has all-world skill in so many areas, but...

all-world competitiveness and work ethic too. And that fits in so well with this Panthers team because it's a high character group. It's a group that collectively has a ton of hockey sense and plays a really smart game. But it's a group that brings the lunch pail every night too. And Sam Reinhart fits that mold exactly. He's a smooth player. He does so many things well.

but you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody with more of a competitive edge than Sam Reinhardt has night to night. Like I said, this is a team that's just loaded with really special players, and Sam Reinhardt's one of those guys. The Panthers are now going to play back-to-back games against the Winnipeg Jets, and you can hear Doug Plagans give the blow-by-blow on both of those games. Dougie, thank you for joining us. Thanks so much.

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Okay, we talked about the week that was with Doug Plagans. Let's talk about what's coming up with the Florida Panthers. They have a home-and-home against the Winnipeg Jets. I hate the Jets. Oh, wait. No, that's the— Not those Jets. That's a different sport. The best team in the league currently, and they got the Vezina winner in Connor Hellebuck. What do you see happening with this home-and-home?

Hopefully some good hockey. I mean, the Panthers usually rise to the level of their competition. Lately, they've been at that level every game, basically. They're coming off two very tough games against a Devils team, and they really didn't look good in either game. Like, Paul Maurice said, there's shifts here and there that he liked, but certainly not at the level that they're used to playing. And this is a Panthers team that corrects their mistakes rather quickly. It almost reminded me, the last week reminded me a little bit of the Stanley Cup final in the middle there, where they just kind of couldn't get to their game. Their zone exits were very sloppy. Well...

I say that as if it's their fault. Edmondson did a great job in the final, and Jersey did a really good job of gumming up the neutral zone, of getting on Florida at their own blue line and stopping them from getting any momentum coming out. So I think the Panthers are going to have their hands full against a very good, strictly defensive playing type, excuse me,

man, I'm just having a hard time coming up with the words right now. Tight is pretty good. Well, no, like they play a very smart, methodical game. They're positioned well. I just couldn't come up with the right words. Oh, you're a writer. I know. God bless spellcheck and all that stuff. But no, like I'm excited to see it. As you mentioned, they've got a great goaltender in Connor Hellebutt. AI. Yeah.

No, I will not. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Sam Bennett missed the first game against the Devils. He came back for the second game.

He didn't look right. He might still be injured. How do you think he's going to look coming up against Winnipeg? I would think that they wouldn't have played him against the Devils on Thursday night if he wasn't there just because they've been very good about being cautious and taking their time with the injured guys. But yeah, I mean, if there's something wrong with Sam Bennett, you've got to keep him out for as long as it takes. Fortunately, the Panthers are a very deep team right now, and they've got a lot of guys that can play down the middle.

Hopefully Bennett's okay though because you're going to need him against Winnipeg. As I said, they're a heavy team. They play very tight on defensively. You knocked yourself into the microphone already. I'm a mess today. What is going on here? Bennett is so important to this team. Whether you want to talk about how he is in the top six, how he plays a role on special teams...

This year particularly, he's at a point-per-game pace. You don't talk about it with Sam Bennett that much, but if he's producing on both ends like that, he's a key player. We've mentioned that they need to re-sign him. Hopefully they get that done at some point during the season, but I'm just excited to see how these next two games are going to play out, Roy. Sorry, Ethan, but just to say that we've already seen how this team looks without Sam Bennett. We saw that last season. We saw that during the playoffs, and we've seen it here. And a fully healthy Sam Bennett

would absolutely change the dynamic of this team, especially considering that this second line, the chemistry between him and Matthew Kachuk is so palpable that it seems like every shift...

With them, ending play ends up in a scrum. Yeah, my takeaway from that first game was just how important Sam Bennett is to this team because they clearly lacked an edge in that game. But then he came back for the second game and they clearly lacked an edge in that game too. And like Doug said, you know, he was saying that, oh, that game wasn't that...

far off from being competitive. No, that was not a competitive game. The Panthers made a ton of mistakes. They gave away two bad penalties in the offensive zone at the end of both periods that led to goals with less than 10 seconds left. And don't forget the breakaways that they gave up. One second left, they gave away a bunch of breakaways. Bob had a softie. That was not the Florida Panthers we've been seeing. And last week, we talked about how

in Finland, they matched up with the Stars and coming up that New Jersey would be a big measuring stick for them. They did not measure up with New Jersey, and New Jersey looks like a team that kind of might be their kryptonite in the regular season this year. We'll see what happens in the playoffs. All bets are off once the Florida Panthers get into the playoffs, right? But I just think that New Jersey looks like a team that's going to be really tough on the Panthers in the regular season.

That'll be a really fun playoff series if we see that in the playoffs. And coming up with Winnipeg, you kind of want to see them look definitely more competitive than they did the last two nights. And Winnipeg's 16-2. They're coming off a loss to Tampa. You would like to see the Panthers win at least one of these games to kind of make you feel better about winning.

okay, that New Jersey series was just kind of a, you know, write those off, burn the tape, throw those away, because we get back to Florida Panther hockey where we're playing very well against one of the best teams in the league. I have to wonder, when we talk about Sam Bennett and how that line looked a little bit off against the Devils on Thursday, they had a new winger. It was the first time that Jesper Boquist was playing with them. Usually it's going to be Carter Verheide or Evan Rodriguez, and there's a lot of familiarity there from the last two seasons. And yes, they scored. Yeah.

He did score. So I'm just saying, like, if we're looking for something that's a little off, perhaps, you know, getting that continuity with a new guy on the line, it could be why. Real quick on Jesper, he looks like a guy kind of like Erod last year, where you thought, okay, Erod's going to come in, he's going to be maybe a

bottom six, middle six kind of guy. He's been plug and play. Right. He's been up and down the lineup. He was on the first line. He was obviously great in the Stanley Cup final last year. And then Boquist kind of looks like the same guy where you kind of thought maybe he's a bottom six forward. All of a sudden, now he's playing on the second line with Kachuk and Bennett. And he's been awesome. I mean, that goal last night he scored was beautiful. So definitely a big guy to add to the lineup and looks like a guy that...

him and Erod kind of be plug and play, put them wherever, and they're going to produce. Finally, before we get out of here, a stat rolled across my timeline from Matt Locke in a daily face-off. The NHL's average save percentage has dipped to 90%. That is the lowest mark in 29 years. And currently, Sergey Bobrovsky's save percentage is at 89%, and Spencer Knight is at 90%. So what are we seeing here? What's going on with the goaltenders?

the scores must be that much better because the goalies can't be getting worse. The equipment's not getting smaller. The net's not getting bigger. So, no, I think... I do like to say, like, early in the season, I feel like scoring's a little bit up. I've noticed in the last few years since I've gotten more into betting that I feel like the overs hit more early in the season than they don't. And I think this is probably something that's going to even out after a while. But, yeah, I mean, as a goaltender, it's a little...

Interesting, disheartening. I don't know what the right word is to say that overall. The save percentage is, the average save percentage is at 900. I mean, that's usually like the watermark for like whether you're kind of having a good year or having a not good year. So it's a little alarming, I think.

I'm not worried about Sergei Bobrovsky. He'll be there in the playoffs. That's all that matters. Until then, I don't care about anything until the playoffs. Coming up next week, we have Linda Cohn of the Kraken Hockey Network. She's up in Seattle now doing, I guess, what? Anchor work right now. ESPN also. And she's still at ESPN as well. So Linda Cohn will join us next week. Until then, goodbye.

Season's greetings, podcast audience. It's Mike Ryan. And now is that time of year where you start hosting your family gatherings, be it Thanksgiving, be it the upcoming holiday season. You're going to have some folks in town. You're going to be doing some entertaining. So why don't you make your family time a Miller time? It's the first thing that I roll out when I got guests over at the house, an ice cold bucket filled with that beautiful white can. See, Miller time makes family time all the more special because for one thing,

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