Host and Reporter of Floridapanthers.com Jameson Olive joins the show to talk about the Florida Panthers and their first round series win over the Lightning! How many years does Sergei Bobrovsky have left in him? How does he feel about Brad Marchand, is he fitting into the team? Jameson has ALL the receipts as to who and why so many people are betting against the Panthers?
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00From FloridaPanthers.com, Jameson, joining us here on the program.
00:03Jameson, thanks for joining us again, man.
00:04Thank you so much, and appreciate you stopping by.
00:07Anytime. Love coming on the show, guys.
00:09What did you make of yesterday?
00:12They put the hammer down on them.
00:13It was a very exciting back-and-forth affair,
00:16but that third period, it felt like they just kind of took the life out of Tampa Bay.
00:21A lot of great performances.
00:22What was the one that stood out to you the most yesterday?
00:25There's a lot. There's a lot to get to, obviously.
00:27I think it was impressive, the Panthers, for the first time in the series,
00:30went down 1-0, but stuck with it, came back right away, got the lead soon after.
00:34But you look at, to me, more than anything, it's the third line.
00:37It's Etulos de Reina, Antoine Lundell, Brad Marchand.
00:40In the series, the Panthers led 4-0 in goals when they were on the ice,
00:43and you saw why in that game five.
00:45They were absolutely dominant.
00:48Just Brad Marchand was slicing and dicing through the defense.
00:50Etulos de Reina was getting all the helpers.
00:52Four points, only the fourth Panther to ever do that in a playoff game.
00:55First one to ever do it in a series-clinching game.
00:58And then Antoine Lundell just winning all the key face-offs,
01:00getting some big moments, big points, goals, assists.
01:03So there's a lot of different reasons the Panthers won this series,
01:05and specifically that game.
01:07But I think the biggest X factor was that third line,
01:09which is just a match-up nightmare for teams that aren't as deep
01:12as the Panthers are.
01:13What do you make of that, too?
01:14Because it's like, I feel like, we joke, it's like Florida's Little Finland.
01:19It's like they got this quadrant of great players.
01:22But I feel like he is almost the most underrated out of all of them
01:25because obviously you got Barkoff, baby Barky with Lundell,
01:29Nico Mikula's going to kill anybody because he's a monster.
01:32But that, too, just kind of seems like he does a little bit of everything.
01:35He shows up in a big play.
01:36So, like, when you watch him, for the fans who are just getting into it
01:40with the playoffs, what are the things that just make him special?
01:43He's Mr. Under the Radar.
01:44He's soft-spoken.
01:45If you get him off to the side, he's great.
01:47He can talk forever.
01:47But on camera, of course, he's pretty short.
01:49But he's the man.
01:50He's an absolute dog.
01:52This team loves to four-check, and he's an elite four-checker.
01:55He started out his career as a center, got shifted to the wing.
01:58You know, he was on the fourth line when Paul Maurice got here.
02:00He gets bumped up to the third.
02:02He's even played a bit in the top six.
02:03But for the most part, he's on that third line with Anton Lundell
02:05because their chemistry is so good and has grown so much over the years.
02:09But he's incredible.
02:10And he comes up big in the playoffs.
02:11He's a playoff performer.
02:12We don't talk about that enough.
02:13You go back two years ago, that first roundup set over Boston,
02:16game six at two-list run, has the game-winning goal.
02:19And I dove into it a bit this morning.
02:21So I'm like, man, when I think about the playoffs the last couple years,
02:23I actually think about Etu quite a bit.
02:25He's 10th all-time in playoff games played for the Panthers.
02:28And he's 11th in points, 7th in plus-minus.
02:31Like, he's not Barkov, Verhege, Reinhardt, Kachuk, those guys.
02:34But he's right there.
02:34He's that next tier.
02:36He's just a consistent playoff performer for the Cats.
02:38And you need those guys.
02:38You can't just win with your top stars, especially in the playoffs top stars,
02:41as we saw with guys like Nikita Kucherov and Brandon Point.
02:44They can be, you know, taken out of series.
02:45You need your depth guys to step up.
02:47And for year over year, it's been Etu for the Cats.
02:49It's doing a great job.
02:51You know what's amazing to me?
02:53Should we be giving Paul Maurice more credit for being able to find the right combinations?
03:01Because when you see, like, I'll use the Heat as an example.
03:05Sometimes, you know, Spoh has, does better when there's less.
03:11Like when his rotation is only seven or eight.
03:13Whereas, you look at Paul Maurice.
03:15The way he puts these guys together, it always seems to work.
03:20You very rarely hear a situation where you say, those guys shouldn't be playing on that line together.
03:25You know, it's a bit, it's Paul Maurice, it's Bill Zito.
03:28It's them working in tandem.
03:29It's the entire hockey ops team here.
03:30The Panthers, more than anything these last couple years, have been so good at identifying fit.
03:35But there's so many players that maybe wouldn't succeed elsewhere or weren't succeeding elsewhere that the Panthers immediately pointed to and said, that guy, he's just in the wrong place.
03:43They're asking him to do the wrong stuff.
03:45We know that when we bring him here, he's going to fit right away.
03:47You look at Seth Jones in particular, was getting, you know, just piled on in Chicago.
03:51He was getting a lot of heat there.
03:53He comes to the Panthers.
03:54He fits perfectly.
03:55He's been so good on the back end for these guys.
03:57And you can say the same about guys like Carter Verhage, who they took out of the kind of the rubble heap there in Tampa.
04:02But he wasn't getting playing time, and now he's an all-timer here with the Cats.
04:05So over, you know, the years, that's what they've done.
04:08Yes, they have some big stars.
04:09Yes, they made splashy trades for guys like Fatty Kachuk.
04:11But they've also just found guys that were maybe underappreciated, underutilized elsewhere, brought them in.
04:16And then once they do get here, Paul Maurice just knows how to work them.
04:18He knows how to coach them up.
04:19You know, talking to the guys, one of the biggest things Paul Maurice does that, you know, multiple players have told me is he just gets in their head in the best kind of way.
04:26So many guys, especially in the playoffs and in these big moments, can stress and, you know, be worried and get caught up in their own head.
04:32And they say, Paul Maurice will come over during a practice, you know, pull you over on the ice, talk to you.
04:36And immediately what you had in there is gone, and whatever he said is now in there.
04:40He's able to get in your head like that and put in the thoughts he wants.
04:43So he's a player's coach.
04:45And we talked about, you know, Tobin was saying this team, you know, closing out teams in the third period like they did in Game 5.
04:49Since Paul Maurice got here, this team is 22-0 and leading after two periods in the playoffs.
04:54They are a shutdown team.
04:55They closed the door.
04:56Yes, that's the players, but when it's that lopsided of the status, that, you know, glaring, you have to give a lot of credit to the coaching staff and Paul Maurice as well.
05:03Last night, we had another all-time from Bob.
05:06I saw your tweet today, put it next to the Bobbery.
05:09Like, your reaction as that's going on, because I continue to be floored what this guy can do on the ice.
05:15And it's now being added, of course, like you bring in his age and what he's able to do.
05:20But it's insane, man.
05:21It feels like every series, he's got one where you're just like shaking your head.
05:24You're like, I can't believe that he came up with that.
05:26Yeah, and that's what you need in the playoffs.
05:28Each goaltender has to make, you know, three or four spectacular saves.
05:31And, you know, Andre Vasilevsky is one of the greatest of all time.
05:34He's a Hall of Famer, just like Bob.
05:35But Bob made one or two more bigger saves than he did in that series.
05:39And that one on Gonsalves in the second period, the Bobbery 2.0, that was it.
05:42That was a game changer.
05:44Panthers had a one-goal lead at that time.
05:46And it really kind of took the air out of the building and brought all that energy right to the Panthers bench.
05:50Sam Bennett told me after the game, like, that was like a lightning bolt for those guys.
05:53And to see your goaltender do that, not only does it keep a goal off the board, but it makes you say, man, Bob's in the zone.
05:58If we just keep up our end of the bargain tonight, like, we're going to win this game.
06:01So he's been so good.
06:02And you look at his career trajectory, obviously, when he got here to the Panthers, he was a two-time Vesda winner, one of the best in the league.
06:08But his first couple years of the cast didn't quite go well.
06:10And you remember, you know, that run to the final against Vegas.
06:13He started that, you know, playoff run on the bench.
06:15Alex Lyon was starting.
06:16And then he gets back in that series against Boston, and he's never looked back.
06:19He's, you know, just been elite ever since.
06:21So the mental fortitude, you have to have that to be a goaltender.
06:24But for Bob to kind of have that mental fortitude to kind of, you know, be on the top of the mountain, go back down all the way to the bottom, and then climb all the way back up in a short period of time has just been so oppressive.
06:34And he's just on another planet in the playoffs, like you said, and just gives us those kind of moments to take your breath away.
06:39Well, it's also kind of crazy because it's like you go back to the Seth Jones thing that you're talking about, and a lot of Panthers fans are wondering, like, there was a lot of love from the fan base of Spencer Knight and what he was going to be and be kind of the heir apparent.
06:50And that's such a trust from the organization to be like, nah, even at Bob's age, we think, like, this isn't going anywhere, and he doesn't look what he is.
06:59It's pretty nuts to feel like they would have that kind of faith in him.
07:03But, I mean, you know what a psycho worker he is, so I guess that makes sense.
07:07But it doesn't look like he's slowing down at all, Jameson.
07:09No, Paul Maurice said he's in his prime, and he's 36 years old, and he's played 750-plus games in the NHL.
07:15But, no, it's all about the routine for him.
07:17It's insane, the work he puts in.
07:19You hear about it.
07:20You hear players talk about it.
07:21But just he lives and breathes hockey.
07:23It's all he does, especially on game days.
07:25I mean, you'll be walking through an arena, and you'll just hear, like, clank, clank.
07:29And you'll look down the hallway, and Bob's just deadlifting.
07:31And, like, he's starting tonight, and he's just over there just putting in a huge lift, a huge workout here after morning skates.
07:36So all that he does is work and focus on his craft, and that's why he's gotten so good.
07:41And he's not putting up the same save percentage as he used to, but that's because also the Panthers are playing a different game.
07:45They're only asking him to make, you know, four or five big saves a game.
07:48He's doing it for these guys.
07:49He's doing just enough.
07:50He's still elite at his age.
07:52And, you know, he's a guy where, you know, goaltenders age well in the NHL.
07:55You have some goaltenders that play well into their early 40s that have still gotten the job done.
07:59And 36 years old, it's not crazy to think Bob has four or five good years left in him, just given how good he is and the commitment he has to his craft.
08:06How was your impressions of Brad Marchand?
08:09First playoff series.
08:11It really looks like he's rounding the form.
08:14As the series even went on, it felt like he got more comfortable.
08:16But his first playoff series with the Panthers, what did you make of it?
08:20Oh, just absolute dog.
08:21Fits right in.
08:22Loves the Panthers.
08:23Loves the locker room.
08:24He was talking about you don't respect what the Panthers do until you get a part of it.
08:28Because, obviously, the Panthers, the way they attack you, they come in waves.
08:30They rough you up.
08:31You really don't fully understand it.
08:32You just think, oh, they're being physical.
08:34Oh, they're just deep.
08:35But then once you get in the locker room and you see how they work and you kind of see how the food is made, he's like, man, there's something really special here.
08:41And these guys kind of do have that secret sauce.
08:43And he fits right in for a guy like him that's been top line pretty much his whole career to come in, immediately say, okay, I'll play on the third line.
08:49With these two young upstart finish guys that are great and accept that role and be so good at it.
08:54You know, he's not on the top power play in it.
08:56He's just here to win.
08:57And he's, you know, let's not forget, he's won one Stanley Cup, but that was his second year in the league.
09:01That was 13 years ago.
09:02He's hungry.
09:03Like, he wants another one.
09:04It's been a long time.
09:06And so, what was that?
09:08No, I'm just saying, were you surprised at all, Jameson?
09:09Because, like, the experts, you guys tweeted out yesterday, like, so many people picking against the Panthers.
09:17Like, I kind of blew my mind a little bit.
09:19Like, I know I'm not on the national landscape as much with the national hockey perspective, but I was like, you did?
09:25You guys all picked the Lightning to win this series?
09:27I just, I found that kind of crazy to see.
09:29Not that some picked.
09:31Overwhelmingly, it was picking against the Cats.
09:33Oh, I got the numbers.
09:34I got the receipts.
09:34I went into this.
09:35No, if you would just go off the pre-series predictions, you'd think this was the greatest upset of all time.
09:41Like, it's like the Panthers didn't even deserve to be there.
09:43Yeah, Sportsnet, 16 of 18 writers picked the Lightning.
09:46ESPN, 20 of 26.
09:48Athletic, 80-plus percent.
09:50Like, I don't think I've ever seen a defending champion get disrespected quite like that.
09:54And like you said, it's incredible.
09:57Because in football, we said, hey, I don't care how good Philadelphia is, right?
10:02I'm going with Kansas City because they're the chance.
10:05And like, you do this in every other sport, right?
10:08And in hockey, the first series, they're like, hey.
10:13And so I wonder what they're going to say now because they beat them up pretty good.
10:18It wasn't even close.
10:20No, and I think that hurt the Lightning because the worst thing you can do for the Panthers is give them a chip.
10:24This is a team that loves to be the underdog.
10:26I mean, they could be up in a series and Matthew Kuchuk's still talking about, oh, we don't know if we're in control or, oh, everyone's still against us.
10:32Like, they love having that chip and being the underdogs.
10:34And this was the first year you could take that away from them and say, no, y'all the champs, y'all the favorites.
10:39And right off the bat, everyone says, all right, you guys are dead.
10:41We're counting you out.
10:42They love that.
10:43That gets in the locker room.
10:44That fuels this team.
10:45So really shocked, really surprised.
10:47We'll see what happens here with the round two predictions.
10:48But, man, you think at that point an editor comes in and says, okay, a couple of you guys got to change your picks.
10:53This does not look right.
10:54Is this path more difficult than last year's path?
10:57Because with the teams that, you know, they're going to have to play, regardless of who wins, it just seems like this road is much more difficult than it was last year.
11:08It depends.
11:09You go last year and obviously Lightning round one, but then you got Boston round two.
11:12And Boston at the time, obviously, still kind of the boogeyman there for the Panthers, even though they beat them the year before.
11:16That's just such a tough physical out of a series.
11:19And then you got the President's Trophy winners, the Rangers, there in the Eastern Conference Final.
11:23Then you got the Oilers.
11:24Whereas this year, you got to go through either Toronto or, you know, Ottawa.
11:27We'll see what happens there.
11:28And then Carolina or Washington.
11:30Washington got the President's Trophy this year.
11:32I'd say there's less storylines.
11:34Maybe there's less personal rivalries here the rest of the way.
11:37But just deep teams.
11:38Maybe not as highly skilled teams as last year, but just deep teams like the Panthers are.
11:42Teams that love to forecheck.
11:43It might be just tougher physically now to get to the end than it was last year, maybe.
11:48How much of a mistake do you think that that hit was on Barkov?
11:52Like, just to fuel their emotions of it.
11:54Because, like, I found...
11:56Now, like, I get in a series, teams don't want to seem like they're backing down to the Panthers.
12:02But, like, I threw so many profanities at my television.
12:06Because you don't do that to Alexander Barkov.
12:08Like, he's such...
12:10He's like we said.
12:11He's like the sweet prince of hockey.
12:12He does everything the right way.
12:15And for somebody to take a cheap shot at him was crazy to me.
12:19So, how do you feel like that did...
12:21Not that they weren't going to win anyway.
12:23But just do you feel like that just fueled the emotions even more of them?
12:26Yeah, he's a former Lady Bing winner.
12:28He's the ultimate gentleman.
12:29You know, he helps sick kids.
12:30He's, like, the ultimate good guy in the NHL.
12:32It's, like, it's the one guy you really don't do that to.
12:35And, obviously, it's kind of the unwritten rules of hockey.
12:38But there are certain guys you can hit and certain guys you can't hit.
12:41And Barky's a guy you just can't put a hit like that on.
12:44And you saw...
12:44Honestly, good for the Panthers for not going too crazy in the moment.
12:48Because that worked out for them.
12:49But you saw as the series went on, the Panthers just got nastier.
12:52They got meaner.
12:53And if you get into a nasty fight against the Panthers, the Panthers are going to win nine times out of ten.
12:57They're built for that.
12:58So, once again, just like with the predictions, I think the lightning in a lot of ways kind of awoke the Panthers a bit.
13:04And kind of played into the Panthers' hands with how they thought they'd handle this series.
13:07Because with how the Panthers have played the last couple of years, a lot of teams do go into matchups saying, you know, they're tough.
13:11They push us around.
13:12But we can do that, too.
13:13Let's push them back.
13:14And it doesn't work out.
13:15You got to play your own game.
13:16You can't beat the Panthers at the Panthers' game.
13:17So, definitely set the tone for the rest of the series.
13:20Thankfully, Barkov's okay.
13:22But I think, you know, that's just, once again, just not a smart move.
13:25And, of course, we saw all the different altercations that follow after that, which just, for the most part, played into the Panthers' hands.
13:30Because, like I said, that's their brand of hockey.
13:32Once Ekblad finishes the suspension, he's got one more.
13:35But it was interesting because, like, you come in right away off the suspension.
13:41He has such a big impact in that crucial game four.
13:44What do you think it's going to mean when it kind of resets to normalcy of what he can do for them?
13:49Oh, huge.
13:50He eats a ton of minutes.
13:51He's on the top penalty-killing unit.
13:53You know, Seth Jones took his spot on the top power play for right now.
13:55But he can do that if called upon.
13:57And, obviously, things change throughout a long playoff run.
13:59But just an emotional leader, as he saw.
14:01You saw the fire he brought in that game.
14:03The physicality.
14:04You don't want anyone to get hurt.
14:05But just even just going and taking a big hit at Brandon Hagel.
14:08You know, the Panthers appreciate that.
14:09You know, it's defending the captain.
14:11Just went a bit too far there.
14:12But you love the physicality.
14:14You love what he brings.
14:14The emotion.
14:15A guy that's been there.
14:16A guy that's raised the cup over his head.
14:17And, you know, a guy that even if you – I don't know if you guys saw the puck video after game five.
14:22He's the guy handing out the puck.
14:23He's not even in the game.
14:24He's not suited up.
14:25But he's in that locker room giving the puck to Brad Marchand.
14:27So, it's a tight group.
14:28Anytime a guy gets kicked out and brought back in, you know, they love it.
14:31It fires them up.
14:32So, he's going to be huge getting him back in there.
14:33But quick shout-out to Uvis Belinskis, you know, for filling in when he was out.
14:36Panthers 3-0 on the road when he was in the lineup.
14:38So, once again, depth.
14:40Depth is the word for the Cats.
14:41It just works out.
14:42James Nolib.
14:43Go follow his work.
14:44FloridaPanthers.com.
14:45Thanks for the time, man.
14:45Really appreciate it.
14:46Thanks.
14:46Anytime.
14:47Thanks, guys.