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Florida Panthers vs. Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup Final | THW 2024 NHL Playoff Preview Show
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Jun 7, 2024
In the final 2024 NHL Playoff Preview show, host Matthew Zator welcomes in Jacob Billington and Joey Ganzi to set up the 2024 Stanley Cup Final between the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. 0:00 Intro 1:46 Oilers' Journey to the Stanley Cup Final 3:48 Panthers' Journey to the Stanley Cup Final 5:26 Aleksander Barkov vs. Connor McDavid 8:46 Gustav Forsling vs. Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl 11:29 Gustav Forsling vs. Evan Bouchard 13:03 Zach Hyman vs. Sam Reinhart 16:29 Who will win the special teams battle? 19:48 Matthew Tkachuk & Sam Bennett's Impact on the Series 23:37 Stuart Skinner vs. Sergei Bobrovsky 26:32 Series MVP 27:58 Predictions For The Series Stanley Cup Final Hub - https://thehockeywriters.com/2024-stanley-cup-final-hub/ Subscribe to The Hockey Writers Substack - https://thehockeywriters.substack.com/subscribe Follow The Hockey Writers:
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0:00
Hello, everybody, and welcome into our final preview here at the Hockey Writers Stanley
0:07
Cup Final. We're right at the end here. It's been almost a week since we've had hockey
0:12
though. It's a big layoff between the Western and Eastern Conference Finals to the Stanley
0:19
Cup Final. But I've got Jacob Billington and Joey Gansey here with me talking Edmonton
0:24
Oilers and Florida Panthers. Joey, you're here again. The Panthers were in the final
0:28
last year. You were there from the beginning to the end. But welcome back. I know your
0:34
last couple of previews we haven't been able to join us, but thanks for joining us here
0:38
I appreciate you having me on. I do apologize for not being able to come on. A lot of stuff
0:43
going on in my personal life. I haven't had a chance really to settle down and try to do one of these things. But just like last year, I am super stoked to be here again
0:51
Yeah, well, we'll see if there's a better result this time for the Panthers. Jacob
0:58
thanks for coming on again and covering Edmonton Oilers. First time the Canadian team has been
1:03
in the final since the Montreal Canadiens back in the bubble. So, yeah, it's been a
1:08
long time coming. We'll see if a Canadian team can actually win it this time. And that's
1:13
almost, what is it, 30 years since they've won, since Canadian teams won the cup. But
1:19
thanks for joining us. Yeah, absolutely. It's nice to talk about the playoffs. Not gonna
1:22
do it with Audemars. So this should be a fun, fun series. We're going to go through
1:28
and talk a bit about a bunch of matchups, bunch of storylines. There's plenty of them
1:34
that have already come out and such a big gap between series. We're talking, we've talked
1:39
about probably every one of them and different articles around, around. So we're going to
1:44
we're going to just dive in here. Jacob, I'll start with you talking about the Oilers and
1:48
their journey to the Stanley Cup final. A bit of an up and down. I mean, they started
1:52
with the LA Kings, got through them. Vancouver Canucks was, was a pretty good, really good
1:58
series that they almost didn't get through. Talk about their journey so far here. Well
2:04
it's kind of weird because the Edmonton Oilers have four of the best players in the playoffs right now. Like just looking at the points alone and it feels like they've been the underdog
2:13
for their last two series. Now this one again, and it's, it's bizarre, but everybody expected
2:18
them to roll over the Kings that, and that's exactly what happened. And then everybody
2:22
said that the Vancouver Canucks, their depth was going to be too much for the Oilers. And
2:29
that proved to be incorrect. And then people said the same thing about the Stars and yeah
2:33
the Stars and Canucks are both very deep teams, but people don't appreciate the Edmonton Oilers
2:37
for how deep they truly are. And it's just really interesting to see that they are at
2:41
a point now where people are still saying the same thing. And now it's been, this will
2:45
be three series in a row that people are saying that they just don't have the depth to match their opponent. And I think that that's completely, completely false. I just
2:53
think that people don't appreciate the Adam Henricks, the Derek Ryans, the, all like all
3:02
these depth pieces that the, Matthias Janmark especially, they've all been really good
3:07
And so people just underrate them and don't give them the light of the day they really deserve
3:12
For sure. I mean, there are a lot of the, there was a lot of talk, they're very top
3:16
heavy. And I mean, to the extent they kind of are, but you know, some of their depth
3:22
guys have come to play. Like you mentioned Janmark, Dylan Holloway has gotten a few really
3:27
good games where he's scored some goals. You're getting some guys just stepping up and Corey
3:33
Perry hasn't factored into it yet. And I feel like he's probably going to be a guy that
3:38
in the final here to try to break that curse that he seems to have on getting to the final
3:44
but not winning it. We'll see if that that's something. Joey, the Panthers, they're not
3:49
the underdog this time. They are the favorites. Last year, obviously were the underdogs, barely
3:54
squeaking into the playoffs. This time, not the case. Very dominant. They've had some
4:00
question marks throughout the playoffs here, but talk about their journey so far
4:06
Their journey is they, this team has taken what they learned from the cup final and done
4:12
a complete one 80. They have bought into Paul Maurice's system and you've seen it all season
4:18
and in the playoffs they've shown, we don't care how good you are. We don't care how good
4:22
your goaltending is. We're going to beat you. We're going to grind you out and we're going
4:25
to advance. They've beaten a gauntlet of goaltenders. You're starting with that's Alasky, a very
4:34
streaky swayman and Egor's just stark and that's, that's rough. So I think they know
4:44
what's at stake. I think they understand what it takes to win. The top guys are finally
4:48
starting to get rolling. Barkov is having one of the greatest seasons he's had in a while. Verhage is still doing his clutch stuff. Bennett's having, having fun in the playoffs
4:57
as he always has. And Lundell is really coming into his own after ever since being drafted
5:02
a few years ago and everyone's buying in and they're looking to try to finally get
5:08
this over with and bring the very first Stanley Cup to Sunrise, Florida
5:12
Yeah, they're a very dominant team, very deep, really good goaltending, really good defense
5:18
I mean, there's not a lot of weaknesses that they got. Like you said, they've learned from
5:21
the past and we'll see if they can do it against the Oilers. Right. Speaking of Barkov, this
5:27
is a great jumping off point here. Barkov won the selfie trophy and he's going to be
5:32
probably playing a lot against Conor McDavid, trying to shut him down. But there is the
5:38
case of being that is going to be matching up, trying to shut him down and then take
5:42
away his offense, which there's always that danger. I know back in 2011, Ryan Kessler
5:48
was always against guys. His offense was basically basically negated, even though he negated
5:53
the other guy. So, I mean, do you want that for for Barkov? I don't know. I'll start
6:00
We'll start with you, Joey, on Barkov versus McDavid. What do you think this of this matchup
6:05
Who's going to win it? I mean, it could just saw off and they're both going to just shut
6:10
each other down, I guess. I mean, this is something that's going to be that this feels
6:15
like Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul almost with how hype this thing is. You have arguably
6:22
the most complete player in the NHL versus arguably the best player in the NHL right
6:27
now. But I don't think Barkov is scared of the challenge. He's gone against some of the
6:33
toughest in the NHL forwards. The point leader, Kucherov. I don't think he had a single point
6:39
this play this past, but I don't know if he scored a goal or a point. I don't remember. I do apologize. David Pasternak. I know he scored, but for the most part, he shut him
6:46
down and Panarin was left off the scoreboard until the end of the series. He has really
6:52
stepped up in a huge, huge way, taking away a lot of options for these top players. And
6:57
he's he's been dominant. And it's only fitting that the final test is Connor McDavid. Yeah
7:05
Oh, 100 percent. And that that's like McDavid's been otherworldly again. How he's been throughout
7:13
every playoffs he's been in. He's been really good. He's not scoring as much. I mean, he's
7:17
a lot of his points are assists, but he has been really good. Jacob, what do you think
7:23
about McDavid going against Barkov? Is he going to be able to overcome this guy? I mean
7:27
he's well, he's a selfie trophy winner for a reason. Yeah, I'm a little upset because
7:32
Joey took my stat there, but I have the specifics. I have the specifics here. But so Barkov between
7:41
the first three rounds played just shy of an hour and a half against Kucherov, Panarin
7:46
and Pasternak. And the only one of those players to score a goal with him on the ice was David
7:52
Pasternak, who scored one in an hour and a half against the top player on each of the
7:56
three teams. That is absolutely insane. Now, do I expect that number to go up when you
8:00
look at McDavid? Yes, I think so. Or well, might not be McDavid scoring the goals, but
8:06
the number will go up for goals against. But I do think that he's going to be incredible
8:11
And I love the way you put it, Joey, with kind of like he's going through the gauntlet right now. He's gone through the first three and now he's up against the final boss. And
8:18
that's it. And it's very fitting because I mean, he just won the selkie and he's showing
8:22
that he can do it in the playoffs too. I think with this matchup between McDavid and Barkov
8:27
we're looking at the two front runners for the cell or the consulate trophy. There's
8:32
another thing, right? That they're going to be battling for that too. And yeah, pretty
8:36
good. That's going to be one of the best matchups to watch throughout the, throughout the final
8:42
So yeah, that's a big one. Another one I want to touch on is a exhaustive Forsling against
8:48
McDavid slash dry saddle, because it's probably going to be up against both of them at times
8:53
He's been really good and I I've still angry because the Canucks drafted him and there's
8:58
a whole big thing about it. It's not, I mean, he wasn't ever, I don't know. He was, it took
9:03
him a while for him to become what he is right now. So I don't know if the Canucks would
9:07
have waited long enough for him to become who he is, but he's been really good. I Jacob
9:15
what do you think about this one? I mean, this matchup is going to be a pretty big one. Forsling has been up against the top players throughout the playoffs too. I do. How will
9:23
you manage to, to play against these guys? I think Forsling has like, I love this story
9:29
and especially like getting waived by the canes getting claimed by the Panthers. Now look at him. He's got a huge eight year deal. I think that it's a fantastic story and he's
9:38
he's earned it, especially even just these playoffs. He's been the best defenseman. He's
9:43
he's definitely been better than Aaron Eckblad. And he's, he, like you said, he's going up
9:48
against the top guys. He's playing a really strong two way game. It's not just a shutdown
9:53
kind of role. Like you might see from Kulikov or something. But he's, he's jumping up in
9:58
the offense. He's getting his looks too. And he's not one to shy away from a hit. He's
10:02
not one to shy away from making the smart defensive play. He has become an incredibly
10:07
sound two way defenseman and the Florida Panthers, I don't know what it is, but they either got
10:12
really lucky or they have some of the best development in the organization. So going
10:19
up against McDavid and Drycidal is going to be quite the task. I don't think that they
10:23
McDavid and Drycidal that is have gone against a defenseman like Forsling yet, like that
10:29
high end guy, like they've went up against Drew Doughty who you can kind of make that
10:35
comparison, but Drew Doughty is getting older and slowing down. Still great by all means
10:39
But and then you've got Quinn Hughes and Phillip Roenick who are more offensive minded. They both play good on the defensive side, but they're definitely more offensive minded
10:48
And then with the stars, you got Miro Heiskinen who's more offensive minded, still great two
10:51
way option. But Forsling is more of the number one defensive kind of guy. And I think that
10:58
it's going to be a bit of a bit of an adjustment for them to go against. Yeah, I, I mean, I guess the stars went against Tanev a lot too. And I mean, Tanev is an older
11:07
guy as well. So, I mean, kind of, I don't know how much Tanev played against McDavid
11:13
and Drycidal, but. And Tanev can't skate and he's not up in the play as much as Forsling is. Like he's, yeah
11:20
Forsling is just much more mobile. And so to have such a mobile, defensively strong
11:25
player is special. For sure. We'll continue on Forsling, Joey, and this is against now Edmonton Oilers have
11:33
Evan Bouchard, who's been, I mean, he's been scoring, getting points like, oh, what did
11:38
he have? 26 points in the playoffs right now. And that's insane for a defenseman. What
11:45
do you think about this matchup? I mean, basically it's a two number one defensemen going against
11:50
each other and they're probably gonna be on the ice together too because Bouchard plays
11:54
with McDavid and Drycidal most of the time. So how is this matchup going to go
12:00
It's very intriguing. Forsling is definitely going to have his hands full with this one, I think. But he's, as Jacob has touched on, he has been not one to shy away from making
12:11
a defensive player, getting, you know, getting his hands dirty on the forward check. He doesn't
12:16
mind stepping up offensively. If he just comes in and keeps doing what he's been doing for
12:23
the first three rounds and keep doing what he does, I think he'll be fine. But it's definitely
12:29
quite the task. It's gonna be huge. And who does Forsling, who does he play with? Is it Ekblad
12:38
On the top line? Yeah, it's gonna be Ekblad. So it'll be Ekblad and Forsling going against these guys
12:44
And Ekblad hasn't been the best as of late, but he's stepped up a lot recently. And if
12:50
he continues to have good games and do what he was drafted all those years ago for, he'll
12:56
be fine. Yeah, so that's gonna be a big matchup too. So lots of big ones going. And another one
13:04
is Zach Hyman versus Sam Reinhardt. These two guys are, I mean, they're power play guys
13:10
They score a lot on the power play, score a lot around the net. Jacob, I'll start with
13:15
you with Hyman. I mean, again, another story. He's been scoring like, just seems like he
13:20
just elevates his game in the playoffs. He always gets into double digits with goals
13:26
He leads the playoffs in goals right now. Talk about Hyman, how he's gonna go against
13:31
I mean, I don't know if he's gonna play against Reinhardt, but it's just these two guys seem to be very similar at going against. How is Hyman gonna go against the Panthers
13:40
Well, Hyman is one strong series away from breaking the record for goals in a playoffs
13:45
which is insane. Like, I think he's six away from tying at seven away from taking the lead
13:51
which is insane to think about. And yes, it helps that the Oilers have played a few
13:56
extra games and like the the Gretzky era Oilers, because they were sweeping most of their series
14:03
But Hyman has done some incredible things. And one thing to notice is that he opens up
14:09
his series really strong. So he's scored, I believe, four goals in game ones this year
14:14
So he had a goal in each of them, and then two against the Canucks. So he's done, and
14:19
I believe that's correct. He's done really well, just to open up the series and kind
14:24
of set the tone. And I think that that's where he kind of thrives is catching people while
14:28
they're sleeping and getting used to the new system. And again, with the Panthers, they're
14:32
not used to playing the Oilers. You heard Matthew Kachuk say that he doesn't know how
14:36
to play against Stuart Skinner. He's only played against him a couple times. And even
14:39
even Kachuk has spent time in Calgary. So like, you just don't know how these guys play
14:44
You're not used to playing against them. So Hyman's really good at kind of fitting
14:49
in and figuring out how he's going to thrive before the other team figures out how to shut
14:54
him down. Yeah, and and that's he's been very consistent throughout the playoffs too. And I mean, he
15:01
had a bit of a lull there against the Canucks a bit, but I mostly he's been scoring pretty
15:07
much at will. So here's another guy, they're gonna have to try to shut down to Joey Sam
15:12
Reinhardt has hasn't been as dominant as he was in the regular season, but he still
15:17
scored some goals. He's still a guy you're gonna have to watch. What do you think about
15:22
how Reinhardt is going to be in this series? I think he's gonna step up just as well as Hyman has. He was kind of struggling a little
15:29
bit in the Boston series, only a couple goals through six games. But in the series against
15:34
the Rangers, he really started coming into his own, you know, two goals, two goals in
15:38
game three, and then the game winning goal in game four. He's, he understands the task
15:45
at hand. Yeah. And he's, like I said, over the past few years, he's really come into
15:50
his own. He's been a top player for the team. He knows what's at stake. I think he's gonna
15:55
try to go on to this and be as dominant as he can. He has, like I said, he's been a little
15:59
bit quiet, all things there, but eight goals compared to 26 is it's a wide margin, but
16:08
Reinhardt knows what's at stake. And he's been a playoff performer for a while. So I think he can go into this series with the same integrity as he had in the series before
16:17
Yeah. And he's playing obviously for a contract too. He's a free agent and I don't know, Panthers
16:24
are probably gonna want to re-sign him, I'm sure. All right. Now another big, big matchup
16:30
is special teams. Both teams have been really good power play. Oilers are still in that
16:36
streak of they had to kill 28 straight penalties and that's a record franchise record. And
16:45
they're just been really good both ways. I mean, obviously everyone knows their power play is ridiculous. Joey, how are they gonna go against, Panthers going against these two
16:55
ridiculously good special teams? And I know the Panthers have been kind of up and down
17:00
on their power play throughout the playoffs. How is this gonna go? I mean, the special teams
17:06
this is a big, big storyline. They really have to find a way to start clicking. They started
17:13
finding the back end of the power play last series, but it started to fizzle out very
17:17
very quickly. They really need to figure out who to have on the back end. They need to get
17:22
more traffic in front. If you take the eyes away from Skinner, then there'll be more pucks in the
17:27
back of the net. But that's the thing. You're going against an elite penalty kill unit
17:34
Well, on the flip side, I think the penalty kill for Florida is going to be just as dominant. They've
17:39
gone against some of the toughest power plays in the HL, the number one ranked power play in the
17:45
Tampa Bay Lightning, a very strong power play in Boston and very strong power play in the Rangers
17:51
And they only had one goal, one power play goal that entire series. I roughly was scored by
17:56
Vincent Trocek. But I think, as I said before, the gauntlet of goaltenders, the gauntlet of
18:05
fantastic forwards. I think this is just another final stage that Florida has to conquer, and
18:10
they've shown they can hang with the best. So if they continue to play dominant, they'll have their
18:16
first cup. Yeah. And Jacob, I mean, like I say, the Oilers power play and penalty kill have been
18:23
beyond elite throughout the playoffs. I mean, the penalty kill wasn't as dominant throughout the
18:27
regular season, but it's been really good in the playoffs. And it's probably a big reason why
18:32
they're here. Will it stay dominant against the Panthers? Because the Panthers can roll out a
18:37
pretty good two units too. Yeah. I look at the Panthers and I see them more as like that physical
18:43
playing down low kind of team. And you look at their previous opponents and a lot of them were
18:49
a lot of cycling where the Panthers, their power play has a lot of like down low
18:54
hard forward tracking. Like you got Bennett, Reinhardt. You got like Matthew Kuchak
19:00
obviously. And so they're going to carry the puck down low. They're going to get in front of the net where you look at Vancouver and Dallas and LA and they're kind of let the defenseman quarterback it
19:10
and move the puck around. So it's going to be very different kind of opponent for them on the
19:14
special teams. But I do think that the Oilers PK has just been fantastic. And when you look at the
19:19
power play, I mean, their power play has been one of the best in the league, and it wasn't even that
19:23
good against Dallas. They didn't convert too often, but they're still running it. I think it's 37
19:29
at this point and their penalty kill is like 94%. So they're first in the playoffs in both
19:38
Yeah, that's going to be a big battle. We'll see who comes out on top or they're just going to cancel each other out. And I suppose that could happen too. All right. I, you know, we haven't
19:48
talked about what we've mentioned Matthew Kuchak at times here. I want to ask you, Jacob, do the
19:54
Oilers have an answer for Kuchak? I mean, Evander Kane's kind of banged up. He may be the only guy
20:00
that maybe go against him. How are they going to deal with Kuchak? Because he has been really good
20:06
against the Oilers. He was in the battle of Alberta. Oilers got through that. But Kuchak
20:12
I don't know if they have anyone that can match against them unless you have someone that else
20:17
What do you think? It's going to need to be a big series for Vincent de Arne. I think that if he
20:25
comes in and plays really physical series, and kind of does a really good job focusing on whether
20:30
it's going to be Kuchak or Bennett or Reinhardt or any of these guys that really like to get in
20:34
your face. But don't forget about Corey Perry either. He's still a he's still a pest in this
20:40
league. And he might not be as physical as he was 15 years ago, but he's still absolutely effective
20:47
I think that this is going to be his time to shine. You look at the last series again
20:51
and I just mentioned it with the power play. Florida's the most physical, aggressive team
20:55
And we've seen over the past three series that Evander Kane and Corey Perry just haven't been
21:00
as effective as they have been in the regular season. This is going to be the series that they
21:04
show up because they can play that physical game. You even heard Evander Kane say at the end of the
21:09
Dallas Stars series that he had a hard time because the Stars wouldn't engage in the scrums
21:14
wouldn't engage between the whistles. Florida is not going to back down from that at all
21:18
And so I think that Evander Kane is going to take another step. And again
21:22
Evander Kane feeds off that. It makes him better. So does Matthew Kuchak and Sam Bennett. Like it
21:26
goes both ways, but you're going to see a lot more scrums than the whistles in terms of if
21:32
you've been following the Oilers. And I think that that's going to make them even better. Joey, what do you think about Matthew Kuchak? I mean, he's not, again, that hasn't been as dominant
21:41
as it was last year, especially goals wise. He was in double digits already at this point
21:47
Also was injured in the final last year. So this is a lot different. Matthew Kuchak going in here
21:54
What do you think about how is he going to play in this one? I think he still remembers his time during the Battle of Alberta. So he probably has a chip
22:02
on his shoulder even saying to himself, I hate Edmonton, but I hate Tampa more. So
22:07
he may, I think he's going to go in and just do what he does best. Be a pest, be in front of the
22:13
net and just do, does what he does. Same thing with Sam Bennett. I think, you know, Sam Bennett
22:18
knows this opponent very well. He's a very dominant playoff performer. He thrives off
22:22
this kind of energy. He has six goals and four assists in 12 games. He might, I don't know how
22:28
a hundred percent he is, but he will probably have no quarrels dealing with Evander Kane or
22:37
Corey Perry or whatever, ever once again in his face. Because he's, like I said before
22:43
the whole team, they've gone against some of the best. I think they can come in and just do it again. Just grind it out. They don't mind getting physical. They don't mind for
22:50
extracurricular activities after the whistle. This is just, to Bennett and Kuchak, it's just the
22:56
battle of our barrel over again. Yeah. Yeah. And this is going to be a fun, I don't know
23:01
there's so many matchups and so many storylines that we can talk about here and they're all going
23:05
to be fun to watch. I will. And if I recall correctly, coming out of the draft, Matthew
23:09
Kuchak said that he always looked up to Corey Perry. That was his idol. That's who he modeled
23:13
his game after. And now look at this. Who would have thought in 2024, Corey Perry and Matthew
23:18
Kuchak, like that's, yeah, it's, it's going to be good. I think we've covered most of our
23:25
the things that are going to be talked about in the storylines and stuff. So unless you guys have
23:30
something else you want to talk about here before we move on to our, the goaltending, which is
23:35
another storyline. So Stuart Skinner versus Sergey Bobrovsky, obviously Bobrovsky is much more
23:42
veteran. He'd been through this a few times. And also was in the final last year, Stuart Skinner
23:48
new thing for him. And he's been up and down throughout these playoffs. The same percentage
23:52
still looks really bad, but he was really good against the stars. Seems to have come into his own
23:58
a bit. I, Jake, who's going to win this matchup? I mean, Skinner's obviously the underdog here
24:05
Yeah. Skinner's definitely the underdog here. And I think one thing to look at is that Sergey
24:11
Bobrovsky is the better goalie. I might lean towards Stuart Skinner in terms of being the
24:18
better person that can make that one more save than the other goalie. So you take a 10, 20 game
24:26
sample size and Sergey Bobrovsky is always going to be the better goalie in this conversation
24:30
But I think that Stuart Skinner is really good at just making one more save than the other guy
24:34
And I mean, Bobrovsky is too, like they're both neck and neck. And I really, I'm just trying to
24:39
make a case for Skinner here. But Skinner is very good at just making as many saves as he
24:48
needs to. And that's kind of how he's adapted to playing since Calvin Pickard came in for him. And
24:53
now you look at his resurgence since, and he's been great. His numbers haven't been great, but
24:57
he's been getting all the wins. He's been getting, he's been making all the saves that he needs to
25:01
So he's bounced back really well. And he just kind of, you want to make every save possible
25:08
but he knows when it's time to like, okay, I really have to make these saves now. Yeah. Joey, I mean, Bobrovsky obviously wants to atone from, from his final last year
25:19
because he wasn't that good, as good as he was before. How is this matchup going to go? Is he
25:26
going to just play better than Skinner and just be the reason or one of the reasons that the Panthers
25:31
win it all? I do agree that Bobrovsky is the better goaltender in the matchup. It really comes down to how he
25:40
handles certain scenarios. I mean, he's been in the same exact situation before
25:44
He's been through the playoff gauntlet and he has a decent defense in front of him. I think he's
25:49
definitely going to come out victorious in this matchup, but I don't think it's going to be as
25:54
easy as people make it out to be. I mean, you have to still deal with McDavid, Dreisaitl, Evander
26:00
Kane, Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse. It's he has to deal with an offensive gauntlet one more time
26:07
And like I said before, is it's, it's only fitting for that to be the final one for the cup final
26:15
So I do think Skinner will play just as good as he has to, especially with, you know
26:21
with what's at stake. But I think Bobrovsky is just going to barely edge him out in this matchup
26:24
for sure. All right. We've talked a lot about a bunch of players. So there's a lot of
26:30
choices for this one. Series MVP now, like I say, lots of names. So Jacob, who do you pick in there
26:39
It's got to be Conor McDavid. I think that doesn't matter which team wins the series
26:45
MVP is going to be Conor McDavid unless Matthew Kachek has a five goal game in game seven
26:50
Like I think at this point, win or lose, I think the consummate is already McDavid's
26:58
Yeah. And it's probably pretty good unless Barkov definitely is pretty close in that too. So we'll
27:03
see how he plays there. Joey, who are you picking as a series MVP? Before I do, is it possible for
27:08
someone to lose a series and still be crowned consummate? Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I wasn't
27:15
even thinking. My bad. Yeah. I think if I'm going to have to go with Alexander Barkov, he's really
27:21
stepped up in a huge, huge way these playoffs. And if he can successfully shut down Conor
27:27
McDavid and even put up some offensive some offensive points, he's going to go home with
27:31
some more hard work. I will say that Forzling and Bobrovsky deserve to be in that conversation
27:36
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I do think they're probably they're leaning
27:41
The media is probably leaning more towards Barkov. Yeah. Yeah. It's Barkov versus McDavid
27:47
and a lot of things we've had in reading around. So, yeah, the biggest matchup in the in the final
27:53
and, you know, battle for the consummate to. All right, this one's tough predictions for this
28:00
series. Jacob, what are you going? Who's winning the Stanley Cup and in how many games
28:07
It's this is such a hard series to predict because is it going to be the Oilers offense or the
28:12
Panthers physicality that takes the win? It's going to be one of them that decides the
28:17
Stanley Cup. I'm going to go with the Oilers offense, but it's going to be seven games
28:21
All right, Joey, what do you think? I've never wanted to be so right in my life
28:28
Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I've been a fan of this team through the worst days and some of the best
28:35
days. I think this team has what it takes. And this is the most talent they're going to have in
28:42
a while. They're strong physically. They're strong defensively. They have great offense
28:47
I'm going to take the Panthers and six. All right. I yeah, this is a tough one. I
28:54
I've predicted seven game series over here and they haven't all gone seven, but they've all gone
28:59
long. So I I'm going to go with this seven game series and the Panthers are going to win. This is
29:05
unfortunately Canada's going to stuff to wait for Stanley Cup. But yeah, Panthers in seven and game
29:11
seven is going to go into overtime. I think we're going to see a lot of overtime in this series. I
29:15
feel and we'll see how much these matchups say who's going to win each one of them
29:22
If it's going that many overtimes, I'm going to have to see my doctor about the blood pressure. Yeah, it's a lot lots of fun stuff. So we still have a couple of days before the final actually
29:35
begins. But thanks, Jacob. Thanks, Joey, for coming on, talking this series that should be
29:40
a fun one to watch. And we'll see who comes out on top. Make sure checking out everything at the
29:44
hockeywriters.com. We've got we're going to have what we have previews. We've got a bunch of
29:49
articles from different people have already written about this series, and we'll finally
29:53
get it going on Saturday. So stay tuned for that. And until our next till next year, until our next
30:01
playoff preview shows, we'll see you on another video on the HockeyWriters YouTube channel here
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