The Florida Panthers have Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes. NHL on TNT Color Analyst Brian Boucher joins the show to preview the series. We get some insight on the Carolina's identity, are the guys trying to prove that they are tough guys against the Cats? Boucher shares his perspective on Brad Marchand and his hit in Game 1 that got him ejected on a 10 minute misconduct. Does Matthew Tkachuk look all the way back from his injury?
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00:00We got ourselves game two tonight of the Eastern Conference Final.
00:03Florida Panthers taking on the Carolina Hurricanes.
00:05You, of course, can hear that game right here on 560 WQAM, 730.
00:09You got yourself a little Panthers preview.
00:12If you guys are watching it tonight, you'll be watching it.
00:14NHL on TNT tonight.
00:16Their coverage gets going at 7 o'clock.
00:18And one of their analysts joining us here, Brian Boucher,
00:21here on the Toyota of Hollywood Guest Line Shop.
00:23Over 2,000 Toyotas on sale at one location at Toyota of Hollywood
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00:30Brian, thanks for joining us.
00:31Really appreciate it.
00:33Yeah, my pleasure.
00:34Great to be with you guys.
00:35So the interesting thing this last game, other than, you know,
00:39the Panthers putting on it, it seemed like Carolina got to a point.
00:43I think it was somewhere after Bob had the no-stick save
00:47where they wanted to get a little physical with the goalie.
00:50Brian, as a former goalie yourself,
00:53what do you make of when that starts happening,
00:55where a team likes to get a little chippy with the guy between the pipes
00:58is that them trying to get into his head?
01:01Is that a tilt-on, you know, trying to mess with him a little bit?
01:04Like, when that starts happening from a team, what's going on there?
01:08What's the strategy?
01:09Yeah, I think there's no doubt.
01:10I think they're recognizing that Bobrovsky's, you know,
01:14locked in and trying to find a way to get under his skin any way you can.
01:19And, you know, I think some goaltenders
01:21who probably don't have as much experience as Bob
01:24might get unraveled there in a situation like that
01:27and kind of get caught up into it.
01:29But, you know, when you watch Bob play, I mean, he's just so focused,
01:34so dialed in.
01:35He kind of gets away from that stuff.
01:36He knows not to get engaged.
01:38He's not going to get rattled by any of that stuff.
01:41You know, the only thing that you've got to be careful of
01:42is that you don't actually take a serious hit, right,
01:46that actually can injure you.
01:48But you're right.
01:49It did look like it was a concerted effort on Carolina's part
01:54to get there, to make sure they get a body on him
01:56and see if they can rattle his cage.
01:58But he was locked in.
02:00I didn't see him being bothered by it whatsoever.
02:03I'm curious about this because, Brian, you played with him as a rookie.
02:05Like, we got Bob as a vet.
02:07He's had a very incredible journey here with the ups and downs in his flucker,
02:10and now he's on his way to legendary stats with everybody.
02:13But he's known for his crazy preparation.
02:16Like, did he always have that, like, coming into the league as a rookie?
02:19What was Rookie Bob like?
02:21Yeah, he did.
02:22Well, first of all, Rookie Bob didn't speak a lick of English,
02:25so my communication with him was pretty limited,
02:29aside from hand gestures and whatnot.
02:34Yeah, this guy, I mean, he got to the rink extremely early.
02:39His preparation in the weight room, his pregame stretching routine,
02:44everything that he did was impeccable.
02:47I had not seen a goaltender work as hard as he had up to that point.
02:52And I played with a lot of guys, a lot of veteran guys,
02:54that had long careers that I respected.
02:58And this kid came in undrafted in Philadelphia.
03:01I think I skated with him for, like, 10 minutes at the end of August
03:04with our goalie coach.
03:05We went out there and we did some drills.
03:07And I told my goalie coach, in five minutes, I said, I'm in trouble.
03:10Like, this guy is that good.
03:11I could tell in five minutes that this guy was special.
03:14And there's no secret to his success.
03:17I mean, what he does is he just works.
03:19He prepares.
03:20He does not get bothered by outside noise.
03:24He insulates himself.
03:26And he just worries about his process,
03:28which is a big reason why he's been successful.
03:30Brian, you know, I've watched the Panthers now for a while,
03:34and they've really turned it around when they became more physical.
03:39And we have these other teams trying to match their physicality,
03:43but it's not who they are.
03:47Would, I mean, with teams that play against them,
03:50and I mean, you know, even the team they're playing now,
03:53wouldn't they be better off just playing their game?
03:56Because when you try to be physical, you're actually, you know,
04:01they play better because, oh, now you're in our yard.
04:05Now you want to play our style of hockey.
04:08We do this every day.
04:09You're just a visitor.
04:12Yeah.
04:12I think you nailed it 100%.
04:16This is Carolina playing that type of game.
04:19It's not who they are.
04:20It's not their identity.
04:21Their identity is they play on their toes.
04:24They're fast.
04:25They fire pucks to the net.
04:27They retrieve it.
04:28They get it back.
04:29They throw it to the net.
04:30They get you spinning around.
04:31They get you out of, you know, out of your comfort zone.
04:34But it felt to me in game one that there were some guys on Carolina's roster
04:40that wanted to prove that they were tough guys,
04:42that they could go punch for punch with Florida's physicality.
04:46And I agree with you.
04:47I don't think it's a strength of Carolina's team.
04:49I don't think they should be focusing on that.
04:52And, you know, listen, if Andrei Svechnikov wants to play that type of game,
04:57I respect it because he wants to play a man's game.
05:00I'm cool with that.
05:01But I don't know that that's necessarily his strength
05:04and what he should be focusing on.
05:05I think what he should be focusing on is, you know, driving offense,
05:10possessing pucks, getting to the hard areas, and trying to provide offense.
05:15If he does that, you know, that's what's going to make Carolina successful.
05:18If he's going out of his way to deliver hits,
05:20I think that just plays right in the floor at his hands.
05:23Especially when, you know, the Panthers have sometimes struggled on the odd man rush, right?
05:29And Carolina hasn't used that speed at all to create as many of those opportunities as possible.
05:35They stay back and check each other, check the Panthers.
05:39And I'm like, wait a minute, you're not even using your advantage that you've had all year to see if it works.
05:47Yeah.
05:48Yeah, I mean, I agree.
05:50I think that, you know, if they want to get aggressive and be physical and allow Florida to use a rush game,
05:59it's another element that I think Florida has in their arsenal.
06:05They've got good players.
06:06They've got some skilled players that can make plays off the rush.
06:08But it's not necessarily who they are.
06:10But if Carolina is going to go out of their way to be physical,
06:12I think it can open up some of that game for Florida.
06:17It'll be interesting to see the adjustments that Carolina makes tonight.
06:21Like, I think, and, you know, we'll talk to the coaches here soon.
06:25So I wish I was doing this afterwards, and I probably could give you more insight.
06:29If I was coaching Carolina, I would be, you know, it's a fine line.
06:35Like, we've got to be able to, you know, to not be bullied around the ice.
06:39But at the same time, we can't go out of our way to engage in that type of play.
06:46And we've got to play to our strengths, which is play fast, get pucks behind their defense, possess it.
06:52Like I said, get it, you know, when you get it, get it to the point, get it to the net, retrievals, all that stuff.
06:58And then you get them having extended D's own time, the Panthers, and then perhaps they take penalties.
07:03And now you get on the par play.
07:05Now you're playing your game.
07:07So, but, you know, it'll be interesting to see if they're more passive tonight
07:10or if they just go double down and say, you know what?
07:14No, we're going to play Florida's game.
07:15I'm curious to see what the Hurricanes do.
07:19Can you take us to the ice when the Gossus Bear hits Marchand with the shot?
07:24All hell kind of breaks loose there.
07:25What was your perspective of that going down on game one?
07:30Yeah, I thought, you know, I thought Marchand was late on that hit.
07:33He was trying to, you know, listen, this is playoff hockey,
07:36and you do whatever you can to rattle your opponent.
07:39I think Marchand, it was borderline late.
07:41You know, there was intent to hit a good player.
07:45You know, you could say borderline dirty, and Gossus Bear saw it at the last minute.
07:50And Gossus Bear, you know, he was doing his thing where he was trying to, you know,
07:56send a message to Marchand.
07:58I think it's great.
08:00These are the things in playoff hockey that you love to see.
08:03Marchand, you know, a veteran that's been there, done it.
08:08He knows how in a long series, like, you plant that seed.
08:11And I feel like in an instance like that, you can see how it rattled the Hurricanes, right?
08:17I mean, when you take a shot at somebody, you know that you've gotten underneath somebody's skin.
08:22And it's going to be important for the Hurricanes to control their emotions
08:26and not let a guy like Marchand do that to you.
08:30Because if you do that, you get out of your game plan.
08:33But it was pretty – I thought it was funny to see.
08:36There's no doubt that Gossus Bear had intent to shoot it at him.
08:40And I don't mind that stuff.
08:41I think it's great.
08:42What do you think about the influence Marchand's had with those two –
08:45the two young guys on his line with Lester Reynon and Lindell, especially,
08:49because Lindell's younger, because it was funny seeing the, you know,
08:53the first power play get drawn, which Caroline was upset about
08:55because they thought they missed a hit on Lindell.
08:57And I thought it was funny because, like, I don't really see Lindell do that a lot.
09:00Everybody calls him Baby Barky, but it seems like now he's starting to get
09:03some of the Marchand extracurriculars brought into his game.
09:08Yeah, Marchand, I think, can drag you into the fight a little bit.
09:10I think that's a good thing, gets you engaged.
09:15So, you know, and then you've got a guy that, like I mentioned before,
09:17he's been there, done it.
09:18And, I mean, you just feel – you feel that much more confident
09:21when you have a guy riding shotgun with you in that regard.
09:24But, you know, from a hockey standpoint, what Marchand, I think,
09:27brings to that line, you know, Lester Reynon and Lindell,
09:31very conscientious defensive players.
09:34But with Marchand, I think, you know, he brings an element of thinking offense
09:39to those two guys that I think is really beneficial.
09:42And in order to get the trust of your coach, you know, you always have to be
09:45responsible defensively.
09:47You have to be trustworthy in certain situations.
09:49And I think those guys, Lundell and Lester Reynon, have already done that.
09:54And now this is the next step in their game where they play with a veteran guy
09:57in Marchand who's like, no, hey, when we get the puck, let's go.
10:00Let's try and generate.
10:03And, you know, now you've got three lines that you have to worry about.
10:06So that's a deep lineup.
10:09And, you know, so the pickup of Marchand at the deadline has been great.
10:14I mean, great for this Panthers team.
10:16And, you know, for Marchand, it was a bit of a slow start to the year.
10:18He had some off-season surgeries.
10:20I think that slowed his training.
10:21But now you're starting to see the real Brad Marchand.
10:26And I think he's super motivated because he's playing with a group of players
10:29that are dialed in, that are professional.
10:32And it really is a nice marriage to see.
10:35So talking to Brian Boucher, you guys can catch the NHL on TNT tonight.
10:387 o'clock, their coverage gets going.
10:40Of course, puck drop is at 8 o'clock.
10:41You can also hear it here on WQM.
10:43A couple more before we get you out of here, Brian.
10:45A lot have been – things are going pretty good for the Cats right now.
10:49You know, Matthew Gachuk making his way back to the playoffs
10:51was obviously a big feat for him coming back from that groin injury.
10:54There's been a lot of debate.
10:55Like, does he look fully himself?
10:57What was your – what are your thoughts watching Matthew out there?
10:59He hasn't scored since the Lightning series, but still doing good things.
11:03Does he look all the way back to you?
11:06No.
11:06No, I don't think he's 100%.
11:08I think he – you know, I wouldn't be surprised, you know,
11:12to hear that, you know, in the offseason, you know,
11:15there's more maintenance to that injury that needs to take place.
11:18But he's a gutsy player, and he just gets himself prepared
11:22to a certain point to play a game that is effective.
11:27And, you know, that's the luxury you have when you have a team that is deep enough
11:32where you can shut a guy down so that he can get to this point.
11:36And, you know, it almost felt like the Panthers just took the, you know,
11:39the long-range approach heading into trade deadline and into the playoffs,
11:44understanding where they were.
11:45Yeah, you know, everybody was talking about getting the division,
11:48getting home ice.
11:49It's not all that important to a veteran group like this.
11:52And I think for Kachuk, he's gotten himself to a point where, you know,
11:55maybe he's 80%, but his 80% is a hell of a lot better than some people's 95%
12:00just because of the way that he plays and the intangibles that he brings.
12:05And, you know, once he gets on the power play and you're in zone –
12:08I mean, listen, Matthew Kachuk has never been the greatest fleet of foot skater
12:11that there is.
12:13But you get him on the power play, you get him in tight areas,
12:16he can protect the puck, he can make plays in tight spaces,
12:19and he just has that ability to get on people's skin like few can
12:25in the National Hockey League.
12:26I mean, he comes back to the bench.
12:27He always has something to say to the other side.
12:31It's quite funny to be down there and see some of the stuff that he does
12:34and how upset the others get when he's talking.
12:38He may not be 100%, but I tell you what is 100% – his mouth.
12:43Holy smokes, he doesn't stop.
12:46He does not stop.
12:47You're right.
12:48You're right about that.
12:49Thanks for the time, Brian.
12:50We're looking forward to your coverage tonight,
12:51and I appreciate you giving us some time this morning.
12:53Thanks, Brian.
12:54All right.
12:54All right, guys.
12:55Great talking to you.
12:55There you go.
12:56Brian Boucher, you guys can catch him tonight on TNT.
12:59Of course, you can also listen to that game right here, 560 WQAM.