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
00:26on 441 between Hollywood and Sheridan.
00:28And visit them online at toyotofhollywood.com.
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.
Comments