And we'll see you in a moment. >> Thank you. [MUSIC] >> Fan morning, Joe, Sportsnet 5.9 of the fan, Bananas, Brent Gunning. Game seven tonight from Sunrise, Florida on Sportsnet and CBC. Puck drop set for eight o'clock, but you can tune into Sportsnet starting at 7 p.m. for a special extended edition of Hockey Central Live from Sunrise, Florida. I was just checking out the old secondary ticket market for Game Seven tickets. >> Good job, I hadn't thought about that. >> Florida. >> And you still got time like hop on a bird. >> Hop on a bird, get down to South Florida. >> I can't, I got a coach T-ball tonight, unfortunately. >> Okay. >> I'll be home in time for the game though, just couldn't make the flag. >> Okay, let me, I'll just give you the get in price. And you tell me if this hits you one way or another, you can get in for the lowest price I can see $1,177 Canadian. >> Good job, people of Florida is my first take on that. >> To me, that seems low. >> Okay, like it is, but I would have hurt, like, I wouldn't have been shocked who have heard a number that didn't have four digits in it, so. >> That would have, no, that would have shocked me. >> That's the thing though, it's like, I just, I probably shouldn't, it's probably unfair. But I just have such little like respect for the hockey market that is down there, quite frankly, I don't know, like snowbirds, a plenty and Canadians and all that. But yeah, that was my first plus reaction is actually, good job. >> Yeah, I mean, we're talking about a game, even if you're a neutral, you know the Stanley Cup will be awarded and there's nothing better than seeing it. >> In this game, the Stanley Cup will be given a, it's like, it's not just like, well, they show it, it's like in the case and it's in the building. It's like, no, it's gonna be only ice, someone's gonna be hoisting it over their head. You're going to witness somebody's career culminate in the thing that they dreamt about as a child. And they're gonna do it in front of you, that's going to happen no matter the quality of the game or not. >> 100%. >> And if you're an oiler's fan in, hockey's in your blood, you're Canadian. You have a chance to see the greatest moment in what could be the greatest player's career. And the first, and nobody forgets their first, to me, that's, to put a price tag of, >> Yeah. >> I've only a $1,200, I mean, only. >> Yeah, no, of course. >> That's a huge number, I'm not, there's no millionaire. >> No. >> Okay, that's a huge amount of money. But considering the things I just said, and then plus the flat knee out of your head. I don't know, that seems pretty reasonable to me. >> I totally understand what you're driving at, this has always been the thing that holds me back, is I could just, if I'm spending that much money. I know I'm having a good time, or at least like that is the way I'm doing it. >> That's only half the price of what you're going to spend on booze and- >> No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm getting at. >> Are you saying, no, no. >> Yeah, let me pay where they include flights and everything. Let's play too grand to watch my team lose game seven of the Stanley Cup final. How fun. It's just the way I'm wired, I wish I wasn't, but that's why I could never pony up, I could never do it. >> Well, it's definitely a risk. >> If it was game four, and you had the chance, then I could very much be like, hey, only good could happen, or it's like they live tomorrow. But game seven, oh my god, I could never do it, never. >> Yeah, I mean- >> Someone gives me the tickets, I glad they go, but I could never pony up. >> Considering how resilient this Euler's team has been, going back to two nine and one, going back to down three, there's no score in this hockey game, outside of like, I guess seven nothing, where I would say that the Euler's are incapable of coming back from as well. All right, time now for our insider, brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online, and in the showroom, visit donvalleynorthlexus.com. Today's insider, Mark Spector, sports head Euler's reporter in Sunrise, Florida. How's it going, Mark? >> It's going pretty good, boys, what's happening up there? >> Well, we're just excited. As neutral observers, it's just fun to have no skin in the game and just watch the most important hockey game, maybe in the history of the National Hockey League. >> I just mentioned the secondary ticket market not being, it's outrageous, spending over $1,000 for a ticket to a sporting event is outrageous. I get it, but considering the historic stakes, and I know we'll find out when you get in the building, do you have any sense of the traveling contingent of Euler's fans down there today? >> Yeah, a great deal, apparently. I'm just kind of looking through Twitter, and I know some personal friends that are here, and there's lots of Edmontonians are chartering flights. I was just watching a global news piece on all the people at the end of the airport coming down, so they're sort of amazed that the different thing is a lot of the secondary ticket market was, there's tons and tons of people selling their Game 7 tickets in Florida, and if this was the Leafs or the Euler's, I'm sure there would be some type of a market, but I think there's more fans that have slugged it out in those cities for so long that they would not part with their Game 7 ticket at any cost, right? >> I'm not sure the market down here is quite as long-standing, perhaps, it would be up there. >> Yeah, I would agree with that, Speck. There's a lot from the game that I want to get into tonight, or why I want to talk to you about with this series, but first, just tell us what it's kind of been like, the roller coaster of this series. I can only imagine, well, I can't imagine in a cup final. I know what it's like when you feel like your team's walking to a death march after trailing a couple of games of a series. What is the yo-yoing of emotions of just kind of the city around the team been like over these two weeks of the series? >> Yeah, it was the thrill of making it to a cup for the fans, I'm sure. The fun of watching your team, for my perspective, get all the way this far and say, okay, well, let's see what's going to happen. And then, boom, it's over. It's three-nothing, and you're like, oh, man, this was what a letdown, right? What a bummer. I don't care that much that the team I cover wins, but covering your team, getting the hell beat out of them four-nothing's not a lot of fun. I'll admit that to you. You know, everyone's depressed and it's crappy and all of that. So that was kind of lousy. And then they win a game eight. Why don't you think, okay, well, whatever. Now they're dragging us back to Florida, and then they win here. I think it was five-three. And then they come home, and you're pretty sure they're going to win the game at Edmonton. Now, they win game six, five-one, and you're going, holy man, like all the things that made Florida good aren't that good anymore. The team I'm covering is on this role, the orders, and here we are, right? Like, I don't know. You know, my sports writing history tells me that now that everyone's waiting for them to make history and win this game, and you know, we can all have something that will remember the rest of our lives, the chances are that Florida wins and blows it all for us. So let's just let sports writers sort of mantra here, whatever's the most inconvenient for us. Selfish sports writers is what tends to happen. So let's see, man, I'm going to go to the rink tonight and see what happens. Yep. No, that was my, uh, it was my take last night, but I thought it would be the time like you already have the lead sketched out, though. So that's good. It leads back. Oh my God. I mean, I remember talking to you early in the, in the season, though, spec when, when the Oilers were off to that horrific two nine and one start and they made the coaching change and just how uphill the climb seemed for, for that team and they went on the incredible winning streak. And then, yeah, again, down three, oh, in this series come all the way back to force a game seven, we're going to talk about the Panthers. If they blow this thing is one of the biggest playoff choking dogs in NHL history, but can we not almost already talk about this Euler team is one of the most resilient in NHL history? Well, you can, but it will forget about them pretty quick. If they don't, you know, the beauty of the story is it has to end the right way. This Akaima said it, right? It's not a great story until you finish the story. Like, you know, there's no, no one's writing a book on the order's team that almost won the cup, you know, but if they win the cup, well, that's a whole different story. So, you know, it is, it's a hell of a story. I mean, Chris Knoblock said a few games that I've coached lots of teams. Every team says they believe he says they don't all believe, right? So this team has said they believe, and I've covered a million different teams and lots of sports and athletes and everyone believes, you know, it's a cliche almost. But this team has given itself like they've got examples of how they believed and they overcame. They have examples of being two nine and one, right? They can look back and say, American Thanksgiving, we were out of the playoff picture by three or four points, and that's that's usually death in the national hockey league, right? They look back and they say we were down to Vancouver in round two, three to two and one, two elimination games. And we were down to one to Dallas and it wasn't looking good. And we came back at one three straight. So, you know, these guys, they, they don't just believe they can actually look back at tangible examples where they overcame this stuff. And this is the biggest one for sure. But if this was your first time being in a hole, I'd say, oh, yeah, sure, you know, show me. But these guys have showed us, right? The orders have showed us they've done this a few times, not exactly this, but some version of this. And now we go to the rink tonight and see if they can pull off the big one. No, that's it's really well said by you spec, because I think most people go, well, of course, they believe they have Conor McDavid. And I know the two things are tied together. But the proof of concept of actually being able to do this a few times throughout the course of a season, like you mentioned, it has to bode bode well for them. I want to talk to you about not Euler's player, but the guy, the other guy you mentioned in their knob lock. I think I actually remember we talked to you around the time of his, of his hiring. And you know, there was a sentiment, albeit probably a wrong one that I was just being brought in because he's Connor's guy. I have been amazed by some of the calls he has made with lineup decisions. It seems like in this run, he, he has had the kind of magic touch. Do you feel like he's getting enough? I mean, I know if they win the cup, everyone's going to get their fair share credit. But in this run, it seems like we've just been so focused on McDavid and rightfully so. But I don't know that we talked enough about the job knob locks done in terms of putting the right guys in the lineup. And maybe it's playing a hunch. Maybe it's more than that. But it seems like he's just found the right button to push more times than not. Oh, yeah, like even the, you know, even the fastest F one car needs a driver, right? You know, you still need the mechanic. You can't just put the car in the track. It doesn't move unless someone's running it. So sure, he's got a really good team around, you know, for which to stand behind their bench. But, you know, that's everyone. There's lots of good teams, right? There's been a bunch of moves here. You know, you talk about pushing the right buttons. Like he was a year ago, they didn't have the guts to take Stu Skinner out when his game started to erode against Vegas. And they, you know, the coach then just left him in and stuck with them. And his game just kept eroding and they lost. You know, this guy puts in Calvin Pickers to play a couple of massive huge games in the second round. And he wins one and he plays good in both and gets Stu Skinner that reset and look how good he is now. You know, that's, it may be a small thing, but it's a really big thing, right? You're lost a little line up changes along the way, like just little tweaks and they all seem to work. And, you know, listen, we're never going to remember this team, you know, if it goes well for them tonight, for the head coach, we're just not. But this guy's running the ship, man. He's steering it and he's doing every time he makes a call. You know, I mean, he's the right one. It's the right one. And we shouldn't forget that. He's doing a hell of a job and we'll, you know, don't worry, he'll get paid for it one day. Yeah. Yeah, we could have predicted that Conor McDavid would have the post season that he's having. I don't know if we could have predicted the Oilers penalty kill doing what it's done all post season, but specifically in this Cup final, as the Panthers won for 19 with the man advantage, they were 15th in the NHL and penalty kill percentage during the regular season. What happened? Yeah, good question. So I'm not necessarily sure what happened, but if it doesn't happen, you don't win. Like the best teams, you know, we always look at the orders. They've got this, this history, right? It's Wayne Gretzky. It's 200 points, you know, for Wayne Gretzky. It's 400 goals for the orders back in the day. And now it's Conor McDavid, Leon Dreyseville, Mr. 50 goal, 100 point guy, Dreyseville. They're all about offense. Every, you think of the orders historically or even now, and you think about all the guys that filled in that. And you've never really thought about keeping the puck out of your net, right? You've never thought about a penalty kill. You never, you know, even the goalie is back in the day, Grant. You're always led in five, but the other guy scored six for him. So they figured out here in 2024, they've got a team that could play defense. They got a team that can hold you to a goal some nights. And you know, you just have to have that to win. You know, I'm talking to people in Toronto here. And, and, you know, they don't, they've never quite got that defensive posture so that when the big boys don't score four, they can win hockey. And Edmonton's figured that out. They found it. They've got some defensemen here. They've got a defensive posture here. They've got a goalie all of a sudden, Stu Skinner. No one thought Stu Skinner was going to be this good, but he is. And, you know, now when the lights go a little bit dark on offense, if they have to beat you to one, they can. And I don't think you get to this point. If you don't have that ability every now and again to pull out one of those games where they outshoot you 35 to 20, but you still win. You don't lose that game. And that's really the biggest difference in this team from teams past. Yeah, so much of the conversation around this Oilers team. I mean, obviously starts and kind of finishes with McDavid, but Hyman and dry side all seem to be the three guys, at least from kind of this market's perspective that have been getting a lot of the buzz. Who do you feel has been a massive part of this story that may be or sorry, I should also lump Bouchard in there as well. Who do you feel has been kind of a massive part of this that maybe isn't getting a do some bottom six guy or somebody on, you know, a different pair than Bouchard? Do you feel like there's a player that's kind of getting cult hero status in Edmonton and maybe it hasn't quite reached a fervor elsewhere? That's a good question. I would say to you that there's a couple guys in, you know, the depth wingers in Matiasian, Mark and Connor Brown, who you know, well out there. Yes, we do. Those two guys have been absolutely massive, you know. All the great playoff teams from history talk about the new hero every night, right? There's a new hero. It's always some guy named Travis Moen or, you know, freaking Sammy Paulson or some guy that you never, your kid would never want an autograph from. And on this team, right? On this team, it's this well-traveled, sweet, Matiasian, Mark is just the gutiest, hardest player he ever saw here. He's killing penalties. He's scoring shorties, you know, Connor Brown has been, you know, just there was a time in his life when he was a top six player. I don't think he's that anymore, but he's just a, he's a dog in a bone, man. He's giving all those ships when he's on the ice, you win them. And you know, listen, you're going to win the ships when the gave us on the ice more often than not. And you're probably going to win the ships when dry throws on the ice more often than not. If you've got another line, those two guys are playing with Adam Henry. If they're winning all their ships, well, now you're winning three out every four shifts, right? And now you're winning three out every four hockey games. So those guys are, you know, they're, like you said, they're probably not getting a ton of love. But when the game's over and you'll win and you look back at the tape, those guys are winning their shifts, like all white law. Before that you go, Speck, I wonder from a personal standpoint, you've had a long and great career. I mean, where does this stand this game tonight in regards to the highlights, most anticipated games that you've ever covered? I mean, just looking back at this whole postseason series, like where does this fit into your own personal career and thoughts thinking over all the things that you've written about and covered? Marl, that's a good question. Hey, we were sitting around at dinner table last night. It was one of the guys birthdays. I was through you guys with no Chris Johnston was around that table. Pierre LeBrun was around the table, Daniel Nugent-Bolman, a bunch of guys myself, Luke Fox from Sportsnet, and we were sort of having that conversation, right? This, you know, a bunch of guys who probably, well, who have covered between us, you know, likely around 100 Stanley Cups, we were saying the same thing, right? This is one that no one's ever covered. No one's, no one was working in 1942. You know, when the Leafs did this, this is, you know, we've all covered some pretty cool things over the years. I mean, some of us covered some game 7s. I was at in 87 when the orders beat the Flyers. I remember when Max Talbot had that big game in Detroit back in whatever that was. Was it '09 maybe? You know, there's been lots of cool games. Boston and St. Louis just the other year went to 7, but somehow this is different, right? Somehow this is a little bit, it's a Canadian team and it's Conor McDavid's first cup, you know, and it's coming back from '03. This isn't a coming to the rink tonight, boy. This isn't just an everyday game. It's the last game of the season, and this is something that none of us have seen, right? And I dare say, unless you're 80 years old and you're listening to this radio program, you haven't seen it either. So to TV tonight, this is a, this is, you know, I think, and the last thing I'll say I'll let you go is you now, tonight, you get to see a guy like Conor McDavid, who's the best player on the planet, probably played the most, well, for sure play the most important game he's ever played and very likely play as well as he's ever played. And that alone, if you're a hockey fan and you're not looking forward to watching that, I question what you're doing if you're watching the NCAA World Series tonight or something. No, I think if you're a sports fan, you got a tune in tonight, 8 o'clock on sports that brought people Florida might disagree, though, I don't know, just saying spec, the people that gave up their games, have tickets. Yeah, maybe they do have an investment in the college world series. I respect. Thanks for doing this. Enjoy what should be a historic game tonight. Yeah. All right, boy, thanks for the call. Mark Specter, Sportsnet Oilers reporter, our insider brought to you by Don Valley, North Lexus, where you can expect excellence online and in the showroom, visit Don Valley North Lexus.com. He may very well play in another game seven of a Stanley Cup final, Conor McDavid. Yeah, I thought you were gonna say Mark Specter for a second. I'm like, wow, you think? He may very well play in another game seven of a Stanley Cup final. I would wager that he's going to appear in another Stanley Cup final. Yes, side of this one. Yes. But even if he appears in another Stanley Cup final and it's another game seven, none will be as important as this one. The first one and coming back from three. Oh, this is literally impossible to have higher stakes. It's the first one and he's got a chance to do something nobody alive has ever done before. And that's come back from down three. Oh, in a Stanley Cup final, there is, I mean, what is the scenario that he plays in a more important national hockey league game? So like the NHL is going back to the Olympics. So maybe you can separate a potential gold medal game from the proceedings, but how is Conor McDavid going to play in a more important game in the rest of his career? Well, okay. Are you ready for this? Okay, paint the scenario. What if he has a chance to score his 70th goal of the regular season in game 82? What if that Ben, like, what if what if he had that carrot dangling in front of him? Part with honestly, it's so it's an, it's apples, oranges. Like he can't compare. No, you can't. Because it's not. No, there's nothing that I, the, the scenario and I actually think it has to be a particular one. Conor McDavid playing in a gold medal game against Sweden or Finland or like Czechia or it's even after like we won on home ice 2010, but I think they're okay. You know what? I think I've found it's not an NHL game. But if, if Canada loses to the states in this four nation space off and then the Olympics and its Canada states and they have got the last laugh, not at, not more important, but as I think you could make the case, but there will never be an NHL game and it's because it's the first and it's because of the comeback. It's both. If this was just the first one, you could say, well, you know, like you said, everyone remembers the first time, but then when you look at the, when you look at the way this one is played out, I guarantee it. He also hopes he never has a chance to, to do this again. Like he wants to win a cup. Yeah. He's good on coming back from three. Oh, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I guess you could argue that the pressure ratchets up if he doesn't win this one in the next cup final that he appears in. If it's another game seven and he could drop down like Oh, and two and I guess, but is any what would how poorly would McDavid have to perform tonight to where people are laying this at his feet, right? You can't. And I know it's a yeah, he'd have to, you'd have to go out there with two left skates in the wrong handed stick. Yeah. And then still, guess what? He's probably fine the way because he's gone or freaking with David. Yeah, I don't expect it. But like sports are so weird. Mm hmm. Like the weirdest. Can you imagine a scenario where like it's like Connor McDavid is responsible for like putting the puck in his own, own net or like a brutal giveaway that ends up in a game tying or game winning goal for the Florida Panthers after this post season. He's like Steve Smith. Yeah, shooting it off of his goal. He's a yeah, or he or maybe he goes full puck over the glass maybe. I don't know. Why are you putting this out there? I mean, anything's possible. That's what's so amazing about this game tonight. Yeah. Do you think? Do you think of after he wins, he'll go, we did it. Probably not. Yeah. I highly doubt he has a scripted line ready. A couple other things from spec that I wanted to just quickly touch on. The Stanley Cup final is truly a great competition. There is nothing better than game seven, but I dare say the greatest competition we have in this country right now is guys trying not to be too heavy handed about it, but take as many shots as possible at the Florida market. spec did it. I do it all the time. Daymo. I feel like I'm the least you got a Toronto dig in there too. Yeah. Oh, he both of us were like, Aaron, let's just leave that alone. Yeah. No, we'll just ignore the fact that it's the Leafs inability to score. That's booted them. But it is the that will, if the Panthers win this game tonight, that will be the true national competition. That should be a sport in the Summer Olympics just for us of complaining about the Panthers. And he mentioned Connor Brown. It's like, Oh, there's guys who nobody want their autograph. Just tell him a redheaded guy named Connor, who plays for the Oilers gave you an autograph. He scores big goals. There you go. Done. Don't spare to Connor Brown. Not that he was. He was like saying good things about him, but quick power rankings. It's scary how high Connor Brown would it's like he might be the person I'm third happiest for at the Oilers win tonight. Do you think Connor Brown brings? Well, he's going to bring that up to Toronto. Yeah. Yeah. I think that also will Conor McDavid. Yeah. Obviously. They had a watch market. They had a watch party at like the new market town square. Yeah. Although for some reason, Jamal Murray, like wasn't allowed to have a party with the Larry O'Brien. I hope that's not the case. Something tells me they'd open it up for Conor McDavid. Although Jordan bidding to one like that, because right now it's like, I think there's like a sign of like Jordan bidding tin because he won the cup and he brought it down the main street in the new market there. And then Connor McDavid might supersede that if he does it. We'll see lots on the line tonight. Let's talk to Devin Dubnick, NHL network analyst, former Oilers, goaltender, Nexus. The fan morning show continues. Ben and his friend, Gunning, Sportsnet 590, the fan dive deep into Toronto sports and the NFL. The J.D. Bunk is podcast. Subscribe and download the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fan morning show, Sportsnet 590, the fan, Ben and his friend, Gunning, I think the key difference in a situation like tonight between a professional athlete and let's say myself, is that a professional athlete might be closer. So I want to hear what you have to say. A professional athlete, any participants in tonight's game seven at the Stanley Cup final are probably not thinking too far ahead. They're not thinking about, oh my god, what if I screw up? Oh, what if I score? Or what is it going to feel like? Or, you know, like one game at a time. You just put one skate on at a time. And then I play one shift at a time. And then it's one period at a time. And it's only one game. And like, yeah, okay, it's not like the other games, but like you stay compartmentalized. But for me, I couldn't help but think about, hey, what happened? What if I'm the guy that scores the goal? Or, I mean, before that would be, what if I'm the guy that blows it for everybody? And like all this hard work and all the games that we played since October, leading to this 160 minute hockey game. What if I'm the guy that screwed up and no more guy could be potentially in that situation than either goalie. Totally. Totally. I don't know how you would do it. I don't know how you could be related to either Stuart Skinner or Sir Gabe Abrowski and watch tonight's game. I just, I don't know how you could do it. Yeah, I'd be anguished. He is definitely a certain way to put it. There's two things that immediately jump to mind. One, not to compare myself to a professional athlete, but if I vehemently remember sitting on the bench in an overtime championship game, my very poor hockey career, and I was next out thinking somebody better score here and shout out to my boy, Alan, he did and I didn't have to go out there. And we won. And the other thing is that you with parenting bud, we talk about this all the time. I'm like, I'm like, I overthink everything. And you're like, yeah, you're just like, you know, you're a human. Be smart about it. So I envy you. You're the professional athlete of parents, who I'm trying to say. Thank you. I appreciate that. But yeah, now you've put in my mind, like, what if a child of mine, I don't think like knock on words that they don't become a high level athlete. I have to put myself through the tortures of watching them compete in a Stanley Cup final. God forbid. Anyways, let's talk to Devin Dubnick, NHL network analyst, former NHL All-Star goalie, including with the Edmonton Oilers, who joins us now. How's it going, Devin? Good. Good. Thanks for having me. Devin, you've been in some high pressured situations, played in some playoff games. Can you imagine what's going through the heads of these two goalies going into game seven of a Stanley Cup final with one team trying to avoid blowing a three oh series lead? Well, it's definitely two different pressures. You know, it's been interesting series that way. All the momentum is with Edmonton, but yeah, there's there's two different things. I mean, Stuart Skinner is feeling great to put himself in a situation with a Stanley Cup and Bob's in a situation that we really engaged up right now. And I don't think yeah, I think there's been unfair scrutiny on both of them, to be honest. I mean, Skinner's taken so much this entire playoffs and he stepped it up at the right time every time, including now. And then yeah, Mabrowski, who's everyone's asking what's wrong with Bob? And if you watch the games, there's nothing wrong with Bob is getting backdoor tapping left, right and center. That's interesting to kind of look at it from from that perspective. You know, we talk a lot about the idea of the pressure or, you know, we just talked about it there, the idea that your professional athlete, of course, you have belief in yourself from the Oilers. I can only imagine how belief has kind of built with every single win. I mean, it starts with the eight one in game four. And then it just kind of builds from that moment on from the Panthers, how hard from their perspective, how hard do you think it would be right now to kind of keep doubt from creeping into their minds? Because again, like you're only human. You've lost three straight. Superman is playing on the other team. I would imagine it's only natural for some of that to kind of creep in how hard do you think it would be to kind of not keep your confidence up? Because I'd imagine they're still confident. But how can you not have a little doubt in your mind? Well, they have to for sure. And it's the way, it's not just that. It's the way things gone. I mean, it's just been it's been dominant by Edmonton. And so it's not, it's not like a squeezing a couple out of overtime and barely made it by, I mean, it's eight one five one. I realize that everyone is three to two, but it's not a good feeling because they, you know, fear them right now. They don't really, they haven't really shown an answer. They haven't shown a ton of pushback and they are a great team. And I think the only thing you can try to grab on tools in fact, and this is just one game. And so it doesn't matter that they were up three now. I think it doesn't matter that they, that they blew that lead and they're in game seven right now. The simple fact is they're in game seven and they have an opportunity to finish on hockey games when they stand up and they're good enough team to do it. Like we can't, we can't forget the four Panthers are a great hockey team. And players that grade that PM do one, they've got the best boy in the world behind them. So they, the best you can do, which becomes more difficult because they do three, how they believe you just have to realize you're still, you still put yourself in a position of one hockey game and a little standing tough. And I think that's just what they have to try to grab on to. Yeah, we forget everything that happened preceding tonight, sort of kind of, but yeah, it becomes secondary to the result of tonight's hockey game, including Friday's win in game six in Edmonton for the Oilers forcing tonight's game seven, a game in which Conor McDavid not only had no points, had no shots on goal and still a game that they dominated the Panthers. I understand there's a goal called back yada yada yada. They dominated the Panthers up until that point and continued to dominate them beyond that. I mean, is that proof of concept? If you're an Oilers fan that you can win with McDavid being bottled up, or are you encouraged if you're a Panthers fan that okay, maybe this guy isn't just going to put four pastas every night? No, he, I would, I would be very concerned that that's that if I was a Panthers fan, the fact that they just beat you five to one economy, even at zero points would be very concerning to me because that's not going to happen again. We're used to, we're used to them having three, four points a night and there's a reason for that because he was basically unstoppable. So I would be concerned about that stat if I was a Panthers fan for sure and that's that's true to us today. I have donors because that's kind of been what's gotten their way in the past is that we know they have a great offensive team in order to best offensive players in the playoffs. And that's always been there. But it's the depth which kind of check them from proceeding to this point as far as we want to go. And this year's not the case. You have these guys stepping up. You have these depth guys stepping up. One, it matters when they need it. And Connor doesn't have any points. You've got the depth guys covered up in these. These depth guys are extremely good occupiers. So I think Edmonton has done a good job of building 19. You can see the defense is starting to have some more confidence. That was another thing throughout the playoffs. They were getting beat up on pretty bad. You know, guardable nurses getting shredded for the entire playoffs. He started to play better. 20 CC's back in the lineup. He started to play better. So I think it's a great thing for the owners that they're able to win games when it's not just Connor may be able to be on dry settle. And now you got to, you know, their goal is shining right now. And they got a ton of confidence and things. I'm sure you got a ton of confidence themselves. So they kind of put the whole package together and they're one minute away from the cap. The last time we had a game seven of a Stanley Cup final. It wasn't a hundred years ago. It was five. There was one penalty called in that game and they didn't really call it. They were more forced into doing it because it was for delay a game puck over the glass. I imagine the game gets called pretty similarly tonight. Do you think the Panthers will kind of lean into what their MO has been throughout? Not just this run, but kind of the two years and kind of really kind of try to fight fire with, I don't know, muscles at anger. It seems like that's the best course for them to go about. It just kind of really lean into the physicality. How do you think the officiating tonight kind of plays into the game one way or another? I mean, to be completely honest, there's no way to know. I mean, it can certainly go that way. It can go the other way. We've seen it throughout the playoffs. You don't really know how the game is going to be called before. It certainly plays into Florida's hand. If there are limited penalties, you don't know. Sometimes they've certainly been calling a lot more throughout the playoffs, and that goes in damage in favor because their P.K. is absolutely incredible, and then you go out on their power play. But Florida has to regardless because that's you watch them throughout the playoffs, and that's one thing that makes it great and that makes them hard to play against is that relentless physicality. Again, you know, we watch, it's like they play every game, and they haven't the last few. But if you're on the playoffs, you look at the dance series and all the way through, they play every game. You know, every team, when the fuck drops in game one, everyone's hitting everything that moves. But that kind of tails off and calms down as the series go on or the playoffs go on. Florida doesn't do that. Florida plays every game like the fuck just dropping the game one of the series one, and that's one thing that wears you down. It's tough to play against when you're just, it's constant. Every time you touch the fuck, somebody's taking a run at you, and that's, that's their aim all, and they have to find a way to do it, which I'll take the channel to use, which is usually a pretty good app. So they, they really have to get to that game. But I don't know, I think we will see a few penalties in this game. They're obviously going to call it tight. They both want to decide the standing cup based off 50-50 call. So my guess is they'll leave the other way. If it's if they're unsure, but I still think we're going to see a few power points in this game. Maybe yeah, it would be tough if I was officiating. I don't want people knowing my name after tonight's game. So this is, I think, pretty universally regarded as the most significant Stanley Cup final game, maybe in the history of the National Hockey League. I see people, I mean, maybe Twitter is a bad way to judge this, but I see people that don't normally tweet about hockey, tweeting about this game, excited about this game. You're an American now, Devon. You're back in the land of the free right now. Is this, is this series and this game is a breaking throw? I mean, part of it is the NBA finals is so far in a review, rear view mirror. And I guess there's the college baseball world series is happening. But like, how much beyond like the normal Canadian hockey market is this, is this game and this series breaking through? Well, I don't, I don't get a fair look at taxes every minute. So it's the Canada and the US. So I know everyone here is very, very, very excited for this game tonight. So, but I think it is, I think it's transcending in the different places where people, you know, it's dropping off. You know, you have the two days between the game for, for times for people to be talking about it. And it's exciting. It's not just the fact that it's the game seven. It's the way that it came about. You know, the fact that Florida was there last year and then we have Edmonton and everyone started to hear, you know, so the great thing with social media and everyone gets to see the story that Edmonton has written for this point. But coming back from three now thing and having the best players player in the world and just being able, I think people want to tune in. They want to see it. It's a, it's a new special situation to be going into this game seven. Florida's got to be thankful that it's not an Edmonton because I'll tell you what, I think intersection, it was, it was the whole other planet that you were on. It was just from the second we arrived, the entire city. And I mean, I knew that I was going to see, but it's so fun to be there and see it. It's a, you have, I think you have an entire country in Canada that's fallen from the world. But there's a lot of eyes on them. It's exciting. It's great for the game because it gets people that maybe don't watch hockey. That's C8. This is kind of a crazy story in the game seven. And I, you should tune in and watch and they're going to see how, how exciting hockey is and how great the product is. Yeah, it'd be cool if it's like a five, four quintuple overtime game. That'd be neat. That'd be down with that. Also, we have to wake up. I'm sure you would. Yeah. Devin, appreciate the time. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. Devin Dubnick, NHL network analyst and former NHL all star goalies. So game seven, come final tonight sportsnet, CBC, put drop set for eight, but you tune in to sportsnet starting at seven for a special extended edition of hockey central live from sunrise, Florida. He said, Oh, game six. So what an atmosphere. I'm sure it won't be like that tonight. I'm not sure because of all the other fans. I man, the number of tickets that I saw available. And again, the price, which is exorbitant if you're just like judging it against normal. Yeah, maybe not a bad example. I did. And reports are that lots of people are jumping on a plane to go out of the sunrise. Love it. Love it. Love it. Game seven tonight. Just for context, though, the home team is 12 and five in Cup final game sevens in NHL history. Boo. Yeah, I had, I do not think, yeah, and first of all, I don't think the Panthers have like some inordinate home ice advantage to begin with. Yeah, but I would be surprised, honestly, if it's not overwhelmingly not like just, I don't think oilers fans are going to be the majority of the fans in attendance, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was surprised if they're making their presence more known in tonight's game than they have previously in this Stanley Cup final. Yeah, I think let's say the split is 60 40 or 65 35 or whatever. The oilers contingent, like, how can they not be infinitely louder? Right? Like they literally flew on them. Like, they're willing to, you know, I suppose there's like the odd snowbird, but I feel like, like, don't know bird to snowbirds. Like, aren't they? Like, there's all the people, right? Yeah. So, it's like not even it's not like a troll. Again, not, but there's leaf fans everywhere. They play the Cup final on Mars and all the Martians would be like, and we love Matthews. But there'd be a massive contingent down there, but this is all people who have made the trip. You don't make the trip to just go, I'm going to sit here nervously and not cheer. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to be nervous. You don't do that for that. You could, you could sit on your couch and be nervous at home all you want for free 99. So yeah, no chance that they're going to be sitting on their hands down there. I, uh, I'm just, I'm, I'm floored at how excited I am for this game. Cop in the building. It's going to get handed out. It's going to be on the ice. You mentioned something and I, it's not like it's a unique thought, but you brought up the idea of someone lifting it above their head and just have it burned into my brain. So many of the images of guys went in their first one. Like you see Nate a couple of years ago just going nuts, insane lifting at the first one with Crosby sticks out in such a big way. I mean, I remember sack kick. I remember Eisermann and the way I would feel watching Sasha Barkov collect it versus Conor McDavid. They're not two places on earth. I could, I could describe the distance between how I would feel of that. Like there, there's just such a chasm of, you see it from Barkov, obviously he, guess what, would be just as related as Conor McDavid to win the cup. Like we can sit here about wanting that Sasha Barkov wants the cup incredibly bad. But would I get a lot of mileage out of that? No, not as much. I just want to, I want to speak directly to the sensors right now. And maybe the people at, at sports that it's like this cup is going to be awarded after like 11 o'clock in the night. Like we, it's all right. F and I, it's like we can hear the F and right. You said your kids are going to be up, but like most people's won't. Yeah. And my kid, he's heard that word before. Oh yeah. What? You're home. He understands he's not supposed to say it. Yeah. Well, I mean, daddy, don't say it very often. Occasionally one will slip out, but he knows the context. I had a little F and rights. Like it's, are you an F and rights or an F and right person? F and A. Oh, F and A? Yeah. I like, I like F and rights. Because I'm just like the biggest hoser. Honestly, like you asked me, it's like, oh, I guess I've done that. But F and A. Yeah, that's my favorite one. Yeah. I love it. I feel like the cup funnel. I think you're going to hear more F and right and F and rights than F and A. Oh, you know what else you're going to get? F. Yeah. Yeah. F. Yeah. A lot of that. I know a lot of this one. I have to step back from the mic for this one. Just a lot of a lot of those ones. That's which is the best. Like it just primal sports scream. Yeah. The best. That's good. I hope I backed up far enough away from the mic. I pretty much went to the wall for that one. That's fine. I'm glad that Devon also views the McDavid thing on Friday. And I don't know if there's really another way to view it as like, oh, that's horrible for the Panthers. It's like, not only did he not have a point, no shots, but the Oilers dominated the game. Yeah. Okay. There's like a little hairy moment down or up three one and the third, I suppose, but like, come on, they dominated the first half of that totally game, totally, totally. And he was completely absent offensively. Yeah. So one, they can already win that way. Yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest they try to do that again. But they won't have to, because guess what happens? Conor McDavid doesn't have multiple games where he's off the score sheet like that. Yeah. The same way the Oilers, when they lost three in a row, we all said, well, every time they've done this this year, they've snapped off a massive streak since they've had no block as the coach. Yeah. That's kind of mid McDavid's whole life. Generally speaking, doesn't have back to back quiet games ever. You know, another thing I was thinking about is, you know, should the Oilers win this? And they get to, they get to accept Lord Stanley's mug, you know, obviously amazing moment for a ton of players. I also like to think of the cup as like a quasi sentient being and he sees Paul coffee and he's like, Paul, I haven't seen you forever. Oh my God. So good to see you. Like it's just that, that'd be, I mean, again, it's like, as far as interesting storylines, it's pretty far down on the pecking order. But like, Frig, I like Paul coffee. I can only imagine like what it's like to be in this in another light and, you know, like no one's going to sit here and say he's the reason. But I mean, talk about coaching changes and guys coming in. He's had a massive impact on that group. And it's just this is what you want from franchises, right? You want to have, if you had, you know, I say this as a leaf fan who has it, but it's like, if you have great moments in your franchise's history, you want there to be throughlines of the generations. And, you know, it's why still love like Wendell Clark, still getting mobbed in the city and all that. You want that and coffee, like, you know, he won cups in Edmonton. It's just, that's what you love to see a franchise is of like the throughlines of it, of it all. And like on the panther side, they, they got Jovanoski. Like, I know he didn't win, but they were part of the 97 run and all that. That's what you want. Yeah. But what I want is for the Panthers to be the laughing stock of the leaf. So bad. Because I mean, you can talk about, Hey, there's not enough passion for that team in that city for it to matter. It'll matter to everybody else. Like, it doesn't matter if it doesn't matter in sunrise Florida. I think it kind of does though. If you make fun of somebody about something and they're like, yeah, okay, true. No, no, you're right. I guess. Like, when somebody's like, hey, nice gut guns, I'm like, agreed. They're just like, okay, like, what are you, what are you gonna do with that? You can't be hurt. Yeah. Well, I mean, like, don't, I won't tell you where. Yeah, like, you can get me. But you know what? Like, if somebody immediately makes the joke beforehand, you can't. Like, the reason we love the rivalries with even during the, I know no one else cared about it, but the Canadian division is like, those people all care. They're all invested. And you get to, I was gonna say stick a finger out, but I'll say poke a finger in their eye instead, okay? Like, that's what you get to do. And that's why it matters. It'll be awesome. We will have them as the greatest chokers that ever choked. But it's not the same as if, and like, I wouldn't have wished this on the Oilers, but if they had done it, if this was completely inverse, you get a scarlet letter forever. For sure. Until you win. For sure. It's just new Kuchak, Sasha Barkov. It's just there. Those guys are going to skate around for the rest of their careers unless they win a cop is like, Oh, you guys, the faces of the biggest collapse in pro sports history. Yeah, no, we remember you. And all the people wearing the scarlet a the Panthers fans like, why do we have so many assistant captains? Because they don't know. They don't understand. They probably don't even know what an assistant captain is. They probably think it's assistant instead of alternate, which it actually is. You know, I don't know. Just just me. Anyways, I this is the greatest spot you can be in as a sports fan headed towards something that you've anticipated all day for. And it almost doesn't matter what the result is. Like, it'll be disappointing if it's but it doesn't matter. It that the result will be informative. The history of this league forever and ever and ever and ever. Anyways, that sounds exciting. It does. And I'm excited for it. I'm excited to do tomorrow's show. Me too. This has been the fan morning show. Ben and his friend, Gunning sports and 5.9 fan. Good morning.
