[MUSIC] >> Fan Morning Show Sports Net 590, the fan, Ben and his friend, Gunning. Well, Florida Panthers avoid the biggest collapse in NHL history. As they win game seven two to one to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup, it was a wild winding road that we traveled down brand. But ultimately, Panthers are a deserving champion, not a surprising one either. If you go back to the beginning of the postseason, good morning. >> Yeah, good morning to you, but also like a somber. >> Good morning as the NHL season now weighs by by. But like we're right into silly season, it was an awesome game. Like let me just start there. There's so many different ways to look at this one and legacy and stakes. And what did it mean for XYZ and just about every player on the ice for standing on a bench last night, but let me just start there. I mean, shot out of a cannon to start that thing. What else do you expect in game seven of a Stanley Cup final? But I mean the dueling goals, the quick answer, what everybody had on their bingo card, an incredible stretch pass from Cody Cece, just an awesome game last night. So I just kind of want to honestly just quickly get to that because I feel like there's so much to take out of this. I just kind of wanted to start there quite honestly. >> Yeah, it was a great series. It didn't feel like it was going to be a great series after the first three games. Game one was great despite the fact that the Oilers were held off the score sheet. Sergey Podrowski was just so good and he was so good in game two. It's so good in game three. He thought, well, the the Oilers aren't a not deserving Stanley Cup finalist, but the Panthers are just clearly better battling all the way back. >> Yep. >> If nothing other than just giving us some entertainment value out of this series. Kudos to the Edmonton Oilers for that. But yeah, going back to yesterday's game seven. >> That was tooth and nail start to finish, lots of chances both ways. But I think ultimately for me, the difference in the hockey game is honestly the difference. I thought that we would see more often throughout the course of the series. And instead the last three games before game seven had gone the other ways honestly. And this is not Stewart Skinner wasn't bad. >> Sure. >> Are you going to argue whether he should have made the same in the Sam Reinhardt role. But yeah, Sergey Podrowski was just better. Sergey Podrowski was amazing and it should also be stated. >> Yep. >> But by the end of that hockey game, it looked like Conor and David and Leon Dreyseville were a gas. Like they to not generate a single shot on goal with the extra attacker. >> Nuts. >> Like they can barely hold on to the puck. It was, I thought for sure we'd have some dramatic save. Something similar to Mark Andre Flurry making the saving game seven against the Detroit Red Wings. I thought that's what it was going to take. And I just kept waiting for the Conor McDavid moment. And boy, there's going to be so much discourse. And that's what's so great about this game as well in this whole series. There's a lot of things that we can sink our teeth into. But yeah, it's just a great series, great game. It lived up to the moment. I'd like to think that there were some hockey fans bird who maybe were not inclined to normally tune into a hockey game that watched the 60 minutes yesterday. And thought, man, I do that again. That was awesome. >> Yeah, I, you know what, quickly on that point specifically. That's the beauty of, and, you know, no offense to the Blue Jays and the college world series. But that's the beauty of a standalone game like this. And I'm not, I understand how massive globally soccer is the World Cup, right? And I'm not going to sit here and tell you last night's game was as good as the World Cup final we saw between and I miss it. Okay, please Ben, I'm trying to be serious here, okay? But I'm not going to tell you that that was as good as the messy Mbappe dual in the World Cup final. But when something is so singular and it stands alone by itself and the stakes are so abundantly clear. Winner take all one team is on the verge of a choke one teams on the great. You just got a chance to the storylines are there to suck in people who are sports fans, but not hockey fans. Like, okay, this is, I know a little bit of like TV, you know, all Stephen A Smith was in the building last night, right? Like that's the type of what Stephen. Yeah, a huge, right? Don't roll your eyes at me. Okay. I mean, it's hilarious. He works for the broadcast. No, of course, right? No, he was in the building. Okay. But we wouldn't have been there if the NBA finals was still going on or if it was even two nights later in another city, there's no chance. If the NBA finals is still going on, there's a massive sub-sect of America that's just sitting there going, you're wondering what Jason Tatum's going to do last night. They're not taking that game in the same way because it's also not the last one of these we have. Love baseball. It's on every night. We're going to watch a ton of it, but until, I don't know, you know, like September, we're going to wait a while for a game with some stakes in that sport. So I just think that part of it as well is I do think there's a world where you got some new fans out of it. I think it was a kind of classic game seven and then it started out. I wouldn't go as far as say wide open, although you did have the two goals. Pretty quick succession, but then it kind of tightened up. The team started to kind of play more in their shell a little bit and it was your kind of classic game in that regard, but it started off with such a bang that yeah, I do think it kind of should have, I won't say one people over like, I don't know if somebody hadn't been a hockey fan. They watched that game last night. They go, I'm in, but I do think it had to kind of warm people up to it for sure at the very least. Yeah, I honestly, if you were the NHL and you were like, okay, this is our opportunity to sell the game and I don't know if one game does that and I don't know if the scenario that I painted exists even with one person in reality, honestly, it would have to be like the, and again, this game doesn't matter at all, but it'd have to be like the young guns game that the Leafs play every year where Mitch Marner has nine points in a, in a 13 to 15 comeback win or something like that actually is it. But yeah. Before we talk about the giant narratives that are added there right here, I'm looking at them in the corner. They're like, let me get on the mind. No, let's talk about the game. No, I want to. Yeah. In general terms. So I mentioned to me, the goal, I think the biggest difference, I was shocked to see three penalties called in the hockey game. Mm hmm. Florida. Yeah. One of them terrible, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. The tripping or whatever they call it. Yeah. Like what are we doing here? Yeah. I mean, it was a trip. I know. No, no, honestly. And that was the only time that it happened in the game. So it's a good thing. They got the riffles out. Who cares? They won. Who cares? But my God, what the odd, the audacity of it's like, Hey, it's like, Hey, it's like, prison rules out there, Gabe, seven baby. And a guy jumps over, Matthew, could chocolate trips and you go, I got to call that. Well, previous start getting away with murder in the first period. Just cross check after cross check after cross check. I think there was in quick succession, there was a potential goalie interference call that was not made and a chance that almost resulted in a goal and the referees were like, Well, we can't have that. Yeah. So the next thing's a penalty. Yeah. So we'll do that. Yeah. I did make note of exactly the time I thought that it was prison rules. It was about seven minutes ago in the second period, and it was like, Oh, it's anything goes. Yes. There's just nothing you can do to result in your team being short handed at this point. Yeah. I thought Conor McDavid was just like shockingly absent in the game. He had the one opportunity in front of the net that in real time, I was like, How did I not? And even in watching the replay, it was a little confused that he like, lose sight of the puck. He lost it in front of the net. The chance of the game for me, though, was the feed to dry sidle. That is like how many times have we seen that one timer from Austin Matthews spot. Same deal back in the net, probably 150 honestly, and you, you watch the replay got a lot of the four by six available for him to shoot at and misses the net. Yeah. And those two guys are going to be real focal point for Euler's fans is dry side will goes goalless throughout the entire series and Conor McDavid pointless in the final two games of the series. One of those games is a win, but yeah, pointless yesterday and shockingly not that much of a factor in the game. Yeah. And, you know, dry sidle and McDavid, I think they're slightly different. I think we all expect and, you know, I know dry saddle wouldn't say, well, that's an excuse. But I think we all expect to get the report, be it today, be it tomorrow that Leon dry sidle was like playing with a prosthetic leg or, you know, whatever harrowing injury that happens, but still need more from him in, in that moment. I mean, you mentioned that the goal tending was the, was the story of it and Barofsky was good. He made the saves he needed to. But the story to me is that what will the Euler's back in this series just wasn't there last night. I don't, I don't want to put this on Conor McDavid. It's not his fault. They wouldn't have even sniffed this game if he hadn't gone superhero earlier in the series with just his hair on fire. He's incredible. He's did things no one had ever done. Yeah. Two games span. Never. They cannot in good conscience sit here and say his fault, but they needed more from him last night. They flat out did that team is, we talk about this all the time, not to make everything about the Leafs. Talk about this all the time that, Hey, you can sit here and you can have your good bottom six contributor. You can have a goalie that makes, you know, the right amount of saves, doesn't do anything spectacular, doesn't kill you either. You have a good decor. All that's great. But when you pay a guy 12 and a half sheets a year, he's got to be that. And again, this isn't the way it was didn't lose this series because Conor McDavid was no good. That's not what happened. There's more from him last night. They just flat out did. And if he ran out of gas, he ran out of gas, like these things, it sounds like I'm just giving up on criticizing him, but he was so transcended through the first few games of the series. It's pretty hard. No, but it's, it's important context because all eyes were on him, right? And he was coming off. I mean, I, I said it. Multiple people said it. It's always a good thing for the Oilers that he was not just held without a point without a shot in game six and they've won the game because God forbid that's not happening to Conor McDavid in consecutive games and had two shots on goal, but it was only two men. It was only two. Now kudos to the Panthers who did a great job. Like that's their deal. Right? Yeah. It's limiting offensive opportunities. Sergey Babrowski made all the saves. He had to make. Holy cow. Did it feel like the Oilers, like all their offense was being generated from the blue line. Yeah. Like the forward, they couldn't even get the pucks to the forwards. They were just completely blanketed and it was Evan Buscher trying to wail away at the point and trying to create havoc in front of the net. And it didn't result in any offense. So you got to give credit to the Panthers for the way they were able to limit the Oilers forwards. But they're just, yeah, it was just shocking. Like there was just not that moment, that extra gear where Conor McDavid, you saw him a couple of times trying to wind up from his own zone too, right? Where the Oilers do this thing. They love to do the thing where they leave the puck for him behind the net. And it's just like, I create a goal. Go. And I tweeted out the thing that I'm sure so many people were thinking is like, all right. We're waiting for McDavid. We're waiting for this moment to one game going into the third period, game seven of the Stanley Cup final. Here we go. Or even minute and a half to go six on five. This is the Conor McDavid moment. That was to me the most shocking thing that we didn't get that moment at the end of the game that the Panthers were able to seal it up so so tightly by the end of it. We didn't ever got that moment. Yeah. I just ran on a gas. Like almost 26 minutes last night, you know, this is not the be all an end all. But I think this is a, this does go to fatigue a little bit, just three or 10 in the dot, like just not being competitive there. And part of that is, I mean, the Panthers have great centers who are good to face offs. I don't want to, I don't want to discount that ability there. But I think that does kind of play into the fatigue of it all. You mentioned the offense coming from the blue line, but so was the Panthers. They ran that great pack. And I think it was the second intermission of all the tips, the Verhage goal is on a tip. And honestly, not to make everything about the Leafs, but how many times we've seen that before, we go, Oh, they're kind of playing a similar game. Yeah, but they're getting to the inside, they being the opposition and the Oilers, you know, and it's like, Hey, Zach Hyman's made his living there and they have tons of guys that have been, that have been able to do that. I mean, Corey Perry, how many times in his career of and all these guys, but they just weren't able to get the traffic last night to get there was traffic, but they weren't able to get their sticks free. They weren't able to get a tip on it. And I honestly think that was just as much a part of it because the Panthers, I know they got the goal on the rush from Reinhardt there, but so many of their looks came from very similar setups. It's just they were able to have a guy to get a stick on it and make it a little more difficult, get a tip on it and make it harder on Skinner than it was on Bob. Okay. Anything else from the game? Or can we do narrative stuff? Yeah, no, narrative time, hot. So one last thing I mentioned it there of Evan Bouchard, just whaling away, cross check after cross check. Good job, young man. That was so encouraging for me to see and I'm not going to sit here and pretend I care so deeply about the fortunes of the Oilers going forward, but a very deeply here with the fortunes of hockey Canada and not that we're like hurting for D men here. But I think we all kind of have this view of Bouchard, especially as the playoffs when or I shouldn't say as they went along earlier in the playoffs, you go, this is great. He's racking up points. This is what he's supposed to do. He's a power play quarterback. He's playing with McDavid and dry side of it's how it's supposed to go and watching him develop a mean streak throughout the playoffs is, you know, there, there are no moral victories for the Oilers today, but that might be the biggest single thing they could take out of it is that they're young, silly, defense men that has a bomb of a shot has really developed that kind of nasty physical edge to him. And that is that is arguably like, obviously, resign dry saddle. You got to resign Bouchard as well. But that is they needed that pillar. We talk about it here all the time. If you don't have the D, it does not matter. And for all Morgan Riley, as much as I love him, he's never done that. He's been mean. He's been playoff. Mo is also the sizes that he is. And he is who he is as a player and just seeing that from Bouchard, that is that if you're an Oilers fan sitting here today saying, are we ever going to get back? That's the thing that should, I mean, McDavid, obviously, but they've had McDavid and dry saddle and they haven't been here before it didn't happen until that guy kind of took the strides he did. The Panthers have had Sasha Barkoff for a long time. They finally got there last year and maybe that's what it takes getting disappointed in a game seven of a Stanley Cup final before realizing the ultimate dream kind of like Sidney Crosby same deal against the Detroit Red Wings. All right. So the narratives. Oh my God. There were some great moments for the Panthers hoisting the cup over their heads at the end of the game. And man, I really did find it difficult to hate on Paul Maurice with his performance. You know me. I try. And even then I was like, God, to me, he was the star. The dad line. Oh my God. I'm looking right into the camera. Oh my God. I can. That'll get that'll get you when when you get somebody looking into the camera. That got I'm not that he wasn't already going in, but it's like that got him in the hall of fame right there. All the hockey men are like, first dad, amazing. I did feel a little bit wistful though because the narrative would have been that the stories would have been so much better with an Oilers win horse, right? Not all of the things that we said leading up to that game are are gone and lost to the sands of time. But a lot of it. So much. So many things that we could have talked about and could have lived on beyond this cup final. And there are some now. Yep. I think some of those will be short lived as well because I think Conor McDavid's going to get his. But the idea of this Panthers team being the all time choker team blowing the 3-0 series lead. Yeah, all that is it and the cup returning to Canada, whether you were rooting for the Oilers as a Canadian or not, I was also struck by that that like, yeah, and the building was loud. And yeah, they were, they were singing along to the Lannis as well as the Canadian fans that were in attendance and get that yeah, let's not compare the reaction that this is going to get in South Florida to what it would have meant in Northern Alberta. But yeah, it's good narratives. Nice. Juicy, but yeah, I did feel like there was something just a little bit missing, especially at the end. It was the exact scenario. We painted out where the Panthers were up and then they choked it away with an empty net goal. And then the Oilers come back like it was right sitting there for us, and especially with like McDavid or dry side, having been ghostish in that game. And then one of them may be comes through in the spot. Oh, the sweet, sweet narratives. The people of Edmonton who were there, I think they would have just like taken the cup from the team and just by foot marched it straight back to Edmonton. It was, it was remarkable to see here though. Let's go. And yeah, I let us all just like pour one out for what could have been if the Panthers had choke like dogs or cats. Yeah. They didn't though. And instead, Sam Reinhardt and Carter Verhage who could have been the faces of Chocatude who were very absent in the last three games before game seven, both score. Amazing. In the hockey game. Amazing. Yeah. And Sam Reinhardt headed into the biggest money making off season of his entire life. Yeah. And just point to that goal in every negotiation, not that. I mean, I know he also points to the hockey DB page where he had a cajillion goals in the regular season. I understand all of them. But yeah, I mean, you could not have picked a better dive to come through for that guy specifically. So I watched a game of my kid, mmm, lovely, stayed up to my kid to my, my mother's and she watched it with him. Yeah. Yeah. He was horizontal by the end of it. But his eyes were open. Good. Okay. He watched the thing. So yeah, it was struck. Good luck with get up for school this morning, by the way. Yeah, I don't know. He was a wife's problem in a couple hours. So that's, for me, that's what struck me the most. It was, I mean, we talked about Paul Marie's talking directly to his dad and talking about his last name being on the cup. And it was the Kachuk family and Matthew winning the first for his family, dad Keith and brother Brady there, like it is, you understand not that I needed explaining why the family traveled to Edmonton for game four, why they wish they could have traveled for game six and why they didn't, but why Euler's families traveled to sunrise, Florida for game seven. That's, that's just such a calm, a culmination of, of so, so much effort, so much time that has been consumed by this one thing that takes an incredible amount of effort to have everybody celebrate that with you. And really that, that gets me every time we see the cup hoisted over people's heads. It's so funny. It is, I become just the biggest schmuck every time the cup gets handed out. The, they're just like random moments from this of celebrations gone by that are burned into my brain. I remember Tyler Tofoli, like I don't know why whatever reason his dad wasn't there. He's talking to him on the phone and Scott Oaks interviewing him. He's just like, sorry, Oak, I got to talk to dad. And it's like, yeah, all of this stuff is amazing. Obviously the more famous siblings are going to get like more camera time or parents or whatever, like kachok and our Keith and Brady there. But the ones that I feel so elated for are, you know, some younger siblings, some older sibling, how many time, how much time did they spend? Let's be honest, bored out of their skull, running around a hockey rink. Well, older brother, younger brother was practicing, was playing a game. Like the amount of time they had spent, I mean, like your, your parent, you do it. I'm like getting there when it's time, the amount of car rides you spent there driving your kid and talking about the game and talking about their game, but also just talking about the love of the game. Like, yeah, there was so much of the work to get there, but so much of it is also just instilling the love of it. And they wouldn't have been able to get to that spot if they didn't have that to begin with. So I am a complete sentimental, like mush bucket when it comes to that stuff. I can't help it. I, a lot of times when it comes to the stuff and sports go, Oh, come on, grow up. It's a game. The Stanley Cup just does it to me. There's something about it. It's all the families on the ice. It feels so different than because the Super Bowl, there's just so many guys on the team. It feels so spread out. There's a handful of guys on a podium and everyone else is just standing somewhere. You know, with the NBA, it's the complete opposite. It's a very like tight-knit group. There's just something about the cup celebration and the way it goes and the clearest day order early on in it of, okay, this person gets it than this person. And then it's like, yeah, free for all whoever gets it gets it at this point in time. I, I love it. It is there's a lot of things that make me love hockey the way I do truly. And so much of it has nothing to do with the NHL. It's like playing it growing up or playing with my kid now. But there is just something about that that we talk about is the greatest trophy in sports and I know it's other agreed. And when you see it and when you see the guys looking at it, it's just, it's impossible not to get wishful. It is. I'm sorry. And Aaron Eckblatt almost dropping the whole damn thing in the middle of his hoisting celebration. Oh, is Paul Maurice, you can't make fun of him anymore like any of the stuff that you find maybe corny or over the top or, you know, yeah, he likes reaching to sound like like he's a deep thinker, which like he did a bit of not the deep thinking part, but it's like he did reach for like the Winnipeg line last night is even in the greatest moment ever. He's like, I've still got to throw it. Like a Toronto. Yeah, I don't. It's weird. Just is. He's not from there. He's from Susamari. I know. It's just weird. I know. Anyways, but no, he's he's a cup champion, man. He's never lost in a game seven either, which is like that's pretty good record. Yeah. When you're going to play him one day, second all time in games, coach in the regular season, now you have a cup, your fourth and wins in the regular season, you are second and losses are first and losses. Sorry. And now you've got a cup to solidify it. I do think like in the immediacy, he feels like a Hall of Famer now and he's not done. He's not even 60 yet. No, I think that that is there when when it comes to a player, the guy just plays for, you know, a real 20 year career and he has some moments, but it's mostly, you know, it's a up and down career. We don't look at it that way, but in coaching, it does matter. The longevity does matter. The ability to continue to get cracks at it, to want teams to invest in you to be the leader of their program. Think the longevity of it all does matter and the cup does kind of solidify it. I honestly think it would have been the exact opposite that if they lost, that would have kind of been a career defining moment to which you could quite frankly not put them in the hall in my opinion. But yeah, you look at the track record, you look at the amount of games he's coached and it's a dumb thing to say, but that speech, like if there was a single person that was sitting there going, I don't know, yeah, there's no voter of the hockey Hall of Fame that hears that and does that in him ripping off all the names and dad, your name's on there with all your, there, there is not, oh, you'd have to be a cool not to be touched by that in some little way. And I don't think that's what puts him in. But if somebody, and again, we don't even like know who these people are, it's the white puff of smoke that comes out of the hockey Hall of Fame. And one day we have a new class or whatever, but how can you not be touched by that? And how can that not tip the scales for a guy who is probably pretty close? And then you throw in unlike players, coaches get to be these hockey lifers. And he's true one. Like he started his coaching career so young, I think to respect that all the people who, again, who knows who they are, but I think I know what they respect and it feels like Paul Marisa's resume. Thank you to Chris Cuthbert for alerting us to that. The fact that that Evan Rodriguez interview was taped and that he wasn't missing the picture with the Stanley Cup, like I, I don't know if you had the same feeling. I did. I thought the exact same thing. Usually, because I've been watching these my whole life, usually when that happens live Yeah, the, the player will cut the interview on and say, I got to get in this and everybody's obviously very understand. Or somebody's calling over them to tell them to get in because that's a once in a lifetime thing that you're obviously going to put over your mantle or your office. Where are you in the picture? I was talking to Kyle Bukoska. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, I know. Great guy. Oh, that gave me heart palpitations. So when it was over and Chris Cuthbert told us that that was taped that we didn't miss it. Roberta Luongo hoisting the cup over his head, like, good, good for you. Roberta and he said it was kind of similar player, executive, whatever he knows. That's fine. Like, honestly, good for him, but he knows. One other thing we were on, we were on vigilant watch for this. And I don't know if Aaron Eckblad was just too quick with it. We got our effing out of the way right away and he heard word out of the gate just and then a media. I'm sorry for swearing. I was shocked. He added in them. So ever since the Jonathan Taves at the World Juniors, that is like ingrained of like, although he didn't do the Jonathan Taves where he swore well apologizing for swearing, which is my personal favorite. But yeah, we were we were on effing watch and we got one real early. So and in this, in this country, when it comes to media, there's some things that we don't get. And it's sometimes I feel jealous of our neighbors to the south as watching some of the clips from the ESPN covers. Yeah. They believed it out. Yeah. What's up with that? I don't think so land of the free. I don't think so. Apparently not. Anyways. Thanks. Biden. Well, why don't we take a break and do the Oilers narratives and Conor McDavid winning the consmith trophy. You don't talk J's? J is ecstatic that game seven of the Stanley Kavana was being played. Yeah. Like can they play one every night? We have a game seven every night. Yeah, unfortunately for them, that's it. Yeah. And they have the spotlight tonight. It's talking about Conor McDavid winning the consmith trophy despite having zero points and only two shots in the final two games of the series and whether he should have been on the ice, data McDavid probably thought he was coming out on the ice because he had the camera ready. Anyways, that and more next is the fan warning show continues. Ben N is Brent Gunning sports F5, 90 the fan diving deep into leaps, rafters, J's and NFL. The JD bunk is podcast, subscribe and download the show on Apple spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show sports F5, 90 the fan, Ben N is Brian Gunning boy and Vincent sports radio is going to be elected today. I have to get in on that. It's just sad feels like just a hair of an understatement on dry saddles part there. Like, you know, I'm sad if I like forget a coffee at home or something actually that I'm like destitute. That's that's far. But maybe heartbreak or like, you know, on the verge of a break that is like sad, a little bit of an understatement from dry saddles part of it. Yeah. Great, great observation. Yeah. Thanks Leon. So, hey, listen, if we're just we're just talking facts here. Not for bust. Yeah. Bust. Big old bus. Yeah. There's one winner there. 31 losers. Yeah. Boilers. Same as the Leafs. Really? Yeah. How many cups does Conor McDavid have? Zero. Yeah. Same as awesome Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Neelander. What's even the difference between those guys in Trevor Zegris who could say that's me. Yes. We we joke. Yeah, of course. Alright. It's a Conor McDavid. Yeah. That's my trophy. So, it was obviously in the bag for him no matter what happened in game six, right? Although, did you see the line move before the or like, you know, different books, different lines? But I'd saw a few people tweeting out a few different lines that the line for McDavid is like whatever it was like 3000 or plus or minus 3000 heading into the game. And by the heading into the third period, it was like minus 380 or something. Yeah, which was curious. Obviously, it didn't mean anything. I don't think it's a horrible pick. So obviously, when you set the all time assist record in a postseason run, that's very good. Yep. I do think it's a little interesting to wrap up this series with zero points in game six and seven and specifically the way game seven played out and to have the second favorite to win the cons might be the guy that single handedly is responsible the most for shutting you down in those two games. I think the way game seven played out. It would have been hard for me not to give it to Sasha Barkov frankly. Yeah, I think I think there's definitely an argument to be to be made there. Barkov was incredible. I think the problem from a voters perspective is, you know, we do this all the time with the regular season MVP of like, is it MVP is it best player? And I think it's so however you feel about the last two games and I am right there in the camp who says pretty hard for me to give the playoff MVP to a guy who got shut out in two do or die games, including game seven. I understand that element of it, but I do think that if you're just looking at it on face value and that doesn't mean I think he should have got the cons might, but if you're just looking at it on face value, McDavid was the best player in the playoff. So I don't have it. I don't have an issue with it. Would he have been my pick? No, because quite frankly, especially for this award, we can we can talk about if narratives should matter for regular season awards. I'm sorry, they won trillion percent matter for that award specifically. So I, I agree with everybody here who's saying, I'm sorry, shut out in the last two games. You win playoff MVP in a, in a game, your series loss when the whole thing you are as a player, not that you haven't made strides in the other parts is the points producer. I get that argument, but I do still think he was the best player in the playoffs. So the last guy to win it from a losing team is obviously J.S. Gary against the Devils in trigger with a, you know, three and also a game seven of the Cup final perform admirably in that game is team scored. No goals. They're trying to three nothing. He was the, the number one reason they were in that situation, but in game seven, he wasn't bad. No, three goals is team scored none. Um, yeah, Reggie Leach, like he didn't his team got swept in the cup final, but he literally set the record for most goals in a postseason run. Seems good. I guess you can make the comparison that McDavid, you know, he set the record for assists in a postseason run. And he was only five behind the all time points record held by Wayne Gretzky in a postseason run. But man, with it in front of him, with him just needing to register a point, it turns out to get that thing to overtime, he couldn't do it. And beyond that didn't really threaten to do it outside of the nice pass to Leon Drey Sible, who couldn't finish. And then the opportunity in front of the net that went wayward, I, to me, that's a tough one. That is that to me, the one game that means everything to everybody and cements everybody's legacy to come up. And this is not a description or an indicator of where Conor McDavid's career is going beyond that. But in the biggest game of his life and his career to this point, he came up small, he frankly came up small. Yeah, no, you're not wrong about it. And that's why, like, I, I have a steadfast opinion that I would have given the consmith to bark off. That is what I would have done. But I can't sit here and say it's the wrong opinion and give it to McDavid. It's a, it, we, this is not the NBA finals where we just give it to the best player in one series. But if we were doing it for that, there's still a world where you could make the argument. It was McDavid. So I just, I look at the body of work. I will say if we're doing the narrative thing of this, I think even if dr, let's just flip, let's just flip the production. It was dry cycle that had this exact run. He does not win the consmith. That's interesting. Yeah. But do you think I'm wrong? Well, I mean, we were so, we were, we were so ready to anoint him. So if that's the case and Conor McDavid doesn't score in the series, like dry cycle is, I think the number one guy, if you're, if you're an Euler fan, you're like, well, what, what does this series look like? If he's any totally reasonable facsimile of his best self, if, if that's the series Conor McDavid had, then we are going into an off season of what happened here. 100% until, well, it's so hard to do this because nobody wants to make injury excuses. But you have to look at dry side of him and say, there's just no, like he was a shell of himself as a player. He didn't, he didn't stop playing, he didn't stop trying, he certainly didn't stop caring. So what stopped him? If it's a, if it's not an injury and it's like a fatigue issue, then it's like, Hey, okay. Get in the gym. I don't know. I'm not going to tell the undress at all how to do it. But clearly somebody out there could tell you how to have more endurance like, but I don't think it was a, he ran out of gas issue. I think, and there's a lot of players who are in this spot, but clearly he was more hampered than others. That's why I look at it. But if you, I keep going back to it. If you just flipped the production, I think we were so ready to anoint McDavid and like, we've been waiting to do this forever to anoint McDavid as the one. And we've already done it. But then he finally was about to have the team's success. I think that's why he's your cons, my winner is because he's Conor McDavid. I think if any other player had this exact same playoff with the exception of sitting Crosby, honestly, and well, no one here, but like Boston Matthews did it, we probably would have had a similar discussion as well. Yeah, I think, you know, you can view this the way I view suspension discipline that is needed out. What is the decision that makes the least amount of people upset? And I think there would have been more people upset if Barkoff had won it. Yep. Considering the, the run that McDavid had all postseason long as opposed to the opposite way. And part of that is because nobody in South Florida cares at all that Sasha Barkoff didn't win the conspies. No, they were, they were very excited to boo. They were like, oh, right. We're supposed to boo that they forgot to boo the commissioner. Like the oiler fans were there were doing it. They forgot to. And they're like, oh, right. Boo him, boo him now for this. I think the other part that makes this all complicated is that because it's a playoff long award heading into this, I'm not going to say nobody, but who had Sasha Barkoff number one on their conspite ballot, even from the Panthers perspective, nobody, it was Bob, right? So I think that's the other part of this that complicates is that the two front runners that you had heading into this, a Bob and McDavid, one of those guys took himself out of the running and then Barkoff jumps in there and it's just, you know, it's only human nature that you've been sitting there for and not the writers or not the people who vote on this or, or, you know, right or pick in their, their person ahead of time here, but you've been sitting there going, okay, like it's going to be Bob, it's going to be McDavid and then all of a sudden, well, it's definitely not Bob. And so how do you just jump to Barkoff all of a sudden? You could've given it to Bob, I wouldn't have considering how bad he was in those three games. It's tough. He was very good in game seven. Okay, but this is the problem. It's like, was that, was he worse than McDavid was in the last two games and their game six and seven? This is why sports is this, like honestly right there, it's just a Rubik's Cube. Every time I think I've solved it, it's like, ah, there's a green. What is it doing there? Hey, okay, I wonder how much of a discussion this is going to be. So we, I know how much of a discussion will be on this show, but I just mean like in an overall sense, will this be a real talking heads discussion that Conor McDavid was not on the ice to accept the cons might trophy. So we do have an image of jazz, you're Gary sheepish sleigh, but the cons might so sad. Like not just next to the cons, like he's holding it with like, it's part of it in his trapper and like he's, he doesn't know what to do with his face. Honestly, he looks like somebody who doesn't have a kid and someone's like, you hold this baby for me? And he's like, I, is this how am I going to draw, is it going to throw up on me? So I mean, for that reason alone, I would have loved to have seen what he had done. Of course. Obviously, daddy McDavid was okay with the idea of his son in a losing effort coming out onto the ice to accept what is the most prestigious award, honestly, individual award. There's nothing more prestigious than the cons might. Yeah. Like heart trophies. Great. Right? Not the lady bing. Yes, not the lady bing. Okay. I'm sorry. It's not the Mark Messier leadership. It's not. No. No. It's the thing that we talk about when the Leafs go out and get like a rhino Riley, he's like, oh, they got the cons might winner. And then he's like, God, there's so much pressure here coming to hell out of this place. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, it's the most prestigious individual award that we have and no doubt when things have cooled down for Conor McDavid, he will have a moment of self reflection, where he's like, I'm proud of the performance I put forth here through four rounds of the postseason. Did he need to be on the ice to accept it? No, he's allowed to be a human. I actually have zero problem with it. If there's anybody who's going to give me a maybe this is a little too like high and mighty, but I think people will go there. I just can't think of another way to phrase it of like, he needs to grow the game. He needs to sell the game. There's only one thing he could have done yesterday that would have truly sold not even sell the game, but just make this an actual talking point as opposed to a two second shitty event out there. Shouldn't it be an out there in America is what I joked about him doing is if he would have gone out there and just like smashed it to smithereens on the ice or thrown it into the crowd. But he's allowed to be a human. He's allowed to have a motion about this thing. He doesn't need to stay in there. Take his loser picture. Yeah. Okay. Like he, he was a big boy. He waited. He shook hands with all the Panthers. He would seem incredibly gracious and defeat. He led his team off the ice. He's allowed to be human, man. I don't begrudge him one second for this. I also don't think of it as some poor sportsmanship thing I kind of saw. This is a classic, like, you know, like some people are saying it a little bit of a strong man. Some people are saying, I don't know, like, if this is going to become a bigger story. I think this is a like, we joke about this and like, God love you, my mom, but all the people who were there like, this is Canada's team. I feel like there's a Venn diagram that's just a circle of people who will go. Well, he should have been out there to take the picture because that's what you do if you're a good sport. I do think there's going to be some segment of that, but I think like, you know, real like hockey fans and stuff for people who have like competed and lost games before they go. Yeah, I get it. I mean, we all remember, was it Lias Anderson or whoever the Rangers prospect was whipped a silver medal into the world juniors and there were some people who went, oh, that's poor. I thought that was awesome. Yeah. Great. The guy wants to win. So does McDavid. I can't congratulate you. Did I want to see the picture? Of course. Of course. This wouldn't have become something like you would have taken a picture. It would have been sad. We would have made a meme about it. Now would have been it. This is actually quite honestly more interesting. Yeah, it's more interesting. It's better for him. Like, I'm sure there wasn't as much thought as I'm putting into it or anyone today will be putting into it, but until he wins, and I still think he's going to win there. There's just such a precious little history of guys that could that don't well and there's such a breadth of history of guys getting there, almost winning and then winning. Like, honestly, in consecutive years, like we just saw with the Panthers, like we saw it was Sidney Crosby and the Penguins over the Red Wings and eventually getting back. And if Leon Drey said he'll even play is in more than one game, imagine how good they'll be. Yeah, that'd be cool. But until that happens, we could have used that picture of him with the cons might trophy as a ha ha like it would have just been it would have been the image of well, okay, what have you done? Yeah, right. It would have been the image of, yeah, great, you accumulated a bunch of points in a losing effort. What have you done? What has this team built around you? And obviously that's not fair. They got to the game seven and they came all the way back from down three oh, but it would have been the avatar for sure for failure for a team that said copper bus. I don't know if anyone's done this. I like to see it if we could take Connor McDavid from that picture with the parents and the Edmonton airport and Photoshop that version of him next to the cons might just like free idea for anyone on the internet. I feel like you can get some some likes out of that or or whatever it is. I think there is an element to that. It is kind of good for his brand. I guarantee you to your point, he didn't think about it that way for one second. But yeah, this is what you want out of your guys is that you don't want them to be sitting there going, Oh boy, isn't it great that I won the one the cons might. I think that and again, I think it's more interesting that he didn't go out there. I loved his dad's reaction. It was just so funny of that. Okay, never mind. Let's get out of here. This is this is my hell. It's a bunch of Panthers fans. You found out hockey was six minutes ago. We need to leave. Yeah. It was great. So now it's the off season to my point about the McDavid of it all. I'm of the belief that he's going to win. This is generally the way it goes, the history of the national hockey league. How do you feel about the Oilers and him in particular going forward to next season's beyond? And of course, there's contract with issues, but yeah, land rice handles under contract for one more year. So it's at least back in Edmonton for one more year. And we did have the Frank Servelli report that he's going to he's in conversation with the Oilers on a long term extension. How do you feel about the Oilers going forward after that heartbreak of a game seven? Defeat. Just saying it was copper bus and coming all the way back from down three Oh, I think they're in so much in a much, much better spot than just about any team that would find themselves in that if this was a team that was built, I mean, quite honestly, if it was the Panthers, if it was a team like the Blues that went on the run to win, if it was a team like the Hurricanes where it's a true team and the strength of it is the 18 skaters in the lineup, but all the black aces and all the depth you have, then I would think you would sit there going in. Man, like it all kind of came together for us. When's this going to happen again? The not that there weren't a million other great stories from this playoff run, but you know what came together for them? Zach Hyman score in a million goals and Conor McDavid being transcend and Evan Bouchard finding out that he's really, really good at being in NHL defenseman and Zach Hyman, okay, like, you know, 32 years old, just turned that. But you know, I think it's fair to say you have a few more runs of him before there's potentially a kind of dip off there, but I think because it's McDavid, you have to sit there and go, yeah, let's find like we're going to, you're as fine with it as you possibly could be because you go, well, that guy's here. And I think if you're an Edmonton fan, I think you're probably confident. I think this loss only emboldens him to want to stick around and finish the job and yada yada that I think because you have those pillars in place, you have to feel great about it. This isn't some, some of the part or, you know, the some of the parts is greater than each individual piece. That's not why the Oilers are great, they're great because they got dry saddle, they got McDavid and Bouchard certainly thrown himself into that mix and none of those things are going to change. I mean, dry saddle is going to get paid and that's going to affect the rest of the roster. But dry saddle is not going to be a worse hockey player when he gets paid. I mean, eventually there'll be a decline there. But yeah, just so long as quite frankly, it's those three guys for me in Bouchard, McDavid and dry saddle. I'm very much looking forward to a the story that is not just Jason Bookel, but that many people have relayed the one that we've heard a million times about Wayne Gretzky and the dressing room after being swept by the Islanders in 83 and him being emboldened to win the Stanley Cup in 84 and the starting of that Oilers dynasty that maybe now we'll have something to replace that if Connor McDavid comes back and wins next year or the year beyond that he sat on the ice in South Florida and watched Matthew Kichok and Sasha Barkov and Sergei Babrowski hoist the cup over their head and understanding that there was a little bit more he could have done, although I don't know necessarily what that was other than picking up a point. Yeah, you know what we're not going to do is the there's two stories that we hear all the time. It's that one. And then this is usually regarding Austin Matthews. We won't be hearing this one of you know what it needs to do. Have a good solid 92 point season like Stevie Why did when he finally won his cup like it is funny. Those are the two hobby horses of like benchmark moments and yeah, it's definitely going to be the Oilers and learning from the, you know, the screaming and the Yahoo's and whatever else going on in the Panthers room. Yeah, God, I can, I can only imagine like we talk a lot about the ecstasy of winning and the agony of defeat and God, it's so tough in the moment. Can you imagine sitting there and just being unable to escape the sound of the guys who just beat you live in your dream? Yeah. Like the sitting with that is close to it, God sitting and yeah, it's one thing you lose in five and you're like, all right, well, we didn't have a chance. You got it all the way back to game seven, like I just keep games like this, like there's so many stakes or so many narratives, because you can go back to the human element of it all like I can just only, you know, I remember Super Bowl's past of, you know, I think it was Cam Newton's like answering questions and you hear a keep to leave and Von Miller like going nuts in the background after they won the Super Bowl and it's just God, I can only imagine the gut punch that that is and how long it sits with you. One other thing on the McDavid cons, Mike, we are going to get a picture with it. They're going to make them take one at the NHL awards. I'm fairly certain of that. They always do, right? They wheel out the trophies at the table. It's like he's going to be in a suit. It's going to be five days later. But don't worry, he'll have a, he'll have a good scowl on his face looking at that. All right. I will be smiling. No. Yeah. And it is just a footnote for him that he was pointless in the last two games in the series. Like it's important. Well, as long as he wins one, right? Like, and I, I'm of the opinion, he will, but man, but okay, sure, but I mean, in this regard, it's not like he's going back to Edmonton. They're like, I don't know. Can Connor McDavid get it done? No, of course. Of course. But for Leon Drey's title, I think it's a little bit more than that that he didn't score and you're right. Every stop, like I, I'm sure something will come out and he doesn't 100% but that's notable. The guy with the second most goals in the postseason doesn't score a single one during the Stanley Cup final after you, you exploded for a bunch of goals and he had a big assist in game six to start the game, so it wasn't completely absent from the series. Yeah, he's supposed to put the puck in the back of the net. Yeah. I don't think, I don't think anybody, you know, thinks of apathy for anybody at this point in time. But I think the thing that helps dry side in that regard in terms of the perception is that like nobody seems more pissy and angry about how things are going at all time. There's no world where you go like, Oh, could you just give a little more, Leon? I don't think anybody ever questions him giving a little more, right? There have been times where we've done that with players where you go, God, could you get back? I mean, not to not to make everything about the least, but look at the Marner discourse on that very last goal, the Pasternak score to finish the season, right? We do these things. Anybody's doing that with dry side over there, go, Oh, come on, you got to bear down. It's just, you got to score. You got to, you got to produce. Yeah, and he didn't do that in an incredible series. And a very deserving champion are the Florida Panthers. All right, more on game seven with a cup final coming up next, including a conversation with our good power court, Stella. As the fan, Morning Show continues, Ben and his friend, Gunning Sports at 590 to fan. [MUSIC PLAYING]
