Billy Lindsay Talks Florida Panthers Trying to 3-Peat, Tampa Bay Lightning Fights and Anton Lundell

WQAM-AM / AM 560 Sports WQAM

Florida Panthers Radio Analyst Billy Lindsay joins the show "in the midst of greatness!" Billy expresses how much focus will be on Anton Lundell, preseason fights with the Lightning, and more analysis of the Cats!

Transcript

00:00The great Billy Lindsey joining us here on the program.

00:04Billy, happy to have you, man.

00:05How are you?

00:07Yeah, doing really good.

00:08Getting ready to go tonight and kick off this brand new season.

00:12Let's see how it gets started and get rocking and rolling.

00:15Am I upside down here?

00:17Yeah, your camera's flipped.

00:20Hold on one second.

00:21One second.

00:22I don't know.

00:22Get that situated.

00:24How's that?

00:25No, you just flipped it.

00:27Now you're upside down.

00:29One more way.

00:29Go all the way around.

00:31This is still the wrong way.

00:32There we go.

00:34Hey, we got you, Billy.

00:37I'm perfect.

00:38I just love technology.

00:40I'll figure it out one day.

00:41Let's go.

00:41All right.

00:41Let's start off.

00:42What was the first question again?

00:43We'll start from the top.

00:45Hey, man.

00:45How exciting is this right now?

00:47Just, you know, you've been around this organization so damn long.

00:50This is obviously insanity, just how cool this is.

00:54Ring night last night.

00:55Just all the festivities that are going on.

00:57I mean, just what are you just your thoughts about where the franchise is at right now going

01:02into a chance to three-peat?

01:04Staggering what they've been able to accomplish for the last three years.

01:07Win the Stanley Cup back-to-back.

01:09Ninth team to do that in NHL history.

01:12And now they're approaching one year at one time and win at one time, but now going there

01:17three straight years, hoisting the Cup on back-to-back occasions.

01:22That brings you into the story and limelight of one of the all-time great teams.

01:28You're starting to push those boundaries.

01:29You're starting to get into that conversation.

01:31If you were even able to get to there another one, a fourth in a row and win three in a row,

01:37then you're talking about dynasties, especially in the salary cap era with this Florida Panther

01:43team.

01:43It starts with ownership down, with the commitment, the group, the players, but it's been staggering.

01:47And being around that ring ceremony last night, we're in the midst of greatness here with

01:54this Florida Panther franchise.

01:56And I don't throw that word around lightly, but yes, they are in greatness territory as far

02:03as one of the best teams in NHL history.

02:05Billy, one of the things that amazes me about this team is you may be able to keep up with

02:12them with your first line because everybody's first line has great players, but you go to

02:17the second, third, and fourth line, and this team seems to get stronger and more dominant

02:24the farther along you go into the roster.

02:29Have you ever seen another team that was like this?

02:33Because usually teams, when I hear of great teams, it's like, oh, you go that first and

02:38second line and they're untouchable, but you might be able to make some way in the third

02:44and fourth lines.

02:45Yeah.

02:45You'll see with great teams over the years, that's usually the separator.

02:49Actually, if you look back, it's always that third and fourth lines.

02:52You mentioned everyone has great players up front, but how good is your third line?

02:56And last year, if you took it into the playoffs, I don't know if we had a top line.

03:00Everyone thinks with Barkoff and Reinhardt being up top, that's our top line.

03:05But the way that Marchand comes on board with Luos Dreenan and Lundell, the way they're able

03:10to play Bennett, Kachuk, and that group, they just roll along.

03:14It seems like every night that out of our top nine, our top three lines, anyone could be

03:20a top line on a different occasion.

03:22Our fourth line goes out.

03:23They hit everything in sight, they scare the crap out of you, and they can play, and they

03:29provide a lot of energy, which is just really exciting.

03:33And so that's where this team was able to kind of push with that Marchand trade coming on

03:37board, is that there just wasn't a matchup, and he talked about it.

03:41Stay with us for 20 minutes, okay?

03:44Stay with us for 40.

03:45But it's a battle of attrition.

03:47If this Panther team was on the top of their game, could you stay with us for 16 minutes?

03:52Sometimes the answer was yes, but over a seven-game series, it definitely was no.

03:58And when this team needed to come up with the goods, like a big statement game, game seven

04:03in Toronto on the road, it was a beatdown.

04:07There was nothing left behind.

04:09And greatness can be summed up as, can you perform the best under the most critical situation

04:16at the hardest times against really high-quality opponents?

04:21And the answer for this Panther team was resoundingly yes, yes, and yes every time.

04:27And teams just could not find a way to combat that over a seven-game series.

04:31Maybe there's nobody more spoiled on this team than Anton Lundell with how much success

04:35he's had at his age in this already.

04:38But he said, like, you know, in the lead-up to the season, like, he's expecting even more

04:42of himself.

04:43Everybody calls him baby Barky.

04:45Like, do you see even more of a step-up from Anton Lundell in responsibility and production

04:50of what they may need from him at this age?

04:52Well, there's going to be a step-up for sure because of the Barkoff injury being out at

04:56the start of the year, and they're going to have to evaluate.

04:59But Lundell is going to get more power play opportunity than he ever has, which is good.

05:05He's a fabulous penalty killer.

05:07He's been able to develop.

05:09You talk about all the playoff experience the Stanley Cup brings at a young age.

05:13He's going to continue to grow, but this is the year that they're looking for some more

05:16offensive output.

05:18With the Barkoff injury down, I believe he can get up into that 25 goals.

05:22Low territory, 60 to 70 points.

05:25If he's able to do that and play that high-quality defense, like you say, Barkoff, the baby Barkoff,

05:31he plays both ends of the rink extremely well.

05:34But if he's able to take another jump offensively, continue to do all the other stuff and grow,

05:40this is going to help offset that Barkoff injury somewhat.

05:44So there's going to be a lot of focus on Anton Lundell and his ability to produce throughout

05:49the course of this year.

05:50What did you think of all the craziness that happened this weekend with Tampa?

05:55That was insane, Billy.

05:57Come on.

05:57That brought me back to my training camp days.

06:00Games used to take five hours, and there was 20 fights.

06:05Just going off.

06:07We took the mantle from the throne from Tampa Bay, and that's the beautiful thing of winning

06:11Stanley Cups.

06:12Because before, when you're not winning and you're losing, you don't have any rivalries.

06:18Now that you've won some Stanley Cups and you battled through it with Tampa Bay, that's

06:22definitely a rivalry.

06:23We've seen it get heated there in the preseason.

06:25You've got a huge rivalry with Toronto.

06:27The same thing with Boston, Carolina.

06:31You just all go into different matchups.

06:33There's a lot of dislike towards the Panthers, and you hate us if you ain't us right now.

06:38And that's just the basic saying.

06:40It goes out there, and you can see a lot of teams.

06:42They're going to come after you.

06:43They're going to test you because Tampa definitely wants what they had back.

06:47And a lot of these teams that figure that they want to be part and top of the East, they're

06:51going to come after the Panthers with everything they've got.

06:53So what you saw there in those regular preseason games, you're going to see a lot of that here

06:59throughout the course of this regular season, where they're going to try and test the Panthers.

07:04And there'll be no backing down from the Panthers.

07:07That's what you come to expect.

07:08And this team handles adversity very well.

07:11But that was a lot of shenanigans for some preseason games.

07:14Billy, did you know something was up when you couldn't recognize that one name on the

07:17ice?

07:18Yeah.

07:18So Tampa Bay brought up six players from the American Hockey League that had already been

07:28sent down, brought them up for that game.

07:29Right.

07:30They figured in five of the six misconducts and all the penalties.

07:34What do those kids got to lose?

07:36If there's a mantra out there, just go hit everything in sight, trying to destroy everything.

07:40You're still going back to the minors afterwards.

07:43And what are they going to find you, $12?

07:44Because you're not making no big money.

07:46No money, yes.

07:47Right.

07:47So one of those guys, J.J. Moser, a defenseman, did get hit.

07:52He's got a couple games suspension.

07:53And the coach, John Cooper, I believe it was a significant amount of money that was sent

07:59to him, the organization.

08:01So they did have to shell out some bucks for what happened in that game, did Tampa Bay.

08:05But they're looking at it as, hey, we'll just dress a bunch of kids and send them out

08:10there and just go let them loose on the Panthers, which I don't totally agree with.

08:18But that's what it is.

08:19And that's the way John Cooper and the Tampa Bay Lightning decided to go about that business

08:23last couple of evenings ago.

08:26Have you ever had a situation like that?

08:27First of all, it's odd to me, being from a different sport, that you would play a team like Tampa

08:35in the preseason.

08:37But hockey's a little bit different.

08:39And then to see, like, they're basically ordering a code red.

08:45Like, they're bringing guys in.

08:48All their stars are on the bench.

08:51And they're bringing all these guys in.

08:53And did anybody on the Panther side raise an eyebrow and say, watch out for the funny business

08:58because something's going to happen?

09:00You know what?

09:01Yeah, all this funny business, all this toughness, if you want to bring it around in October,

09:05let's see what you got in April.

09:06Right.

09:06When it matters, the last couple of times in the playoffs, it hasn't, that kind of pushback

09:11from the Tampa Bay Lightning hasn't been there.

09:14The Panthers, no.

09:15It's preseason.

09:16We'll be able to get there.

09:17But when the rubber meets the road in the postseason, can you do that same sort of thing?

09:21The Panthers, yes, they can.

09:23Have I seen that?

09:24Yes.

09:24Back in my day, it happened all the time.

09:26There used to be a training camp and preseason was much different.

09:30It was just bloodbaths, fights every single night and just trying to survive preseason.

09:35It's changed a lot, but that was a bit of a throwback.

09:39And they do play Tampa Bay just because logistically, it's a lot easier during the preseason to save

09:44and cut down on travel costs and the wear and tear on the body.

09:48But it's done.

09:49It's put away.

09:50Back door and forget about the past.

09:52Let's move forward.

09:53Same thing with Paul Maurice, what they've talked about is the past is nice, but we're focused

09:58on this year and trying to do something that just hasn't been done recently, and that is

10:04win that third Stanley Cup.

10:05So they're not going to worry about anything and just move forward and focus on what has

10:09to happen next.

10:10Appreciate it.

10:11Billy, Lindsay, joining us.

10:12You guys can hear him.

10:12And Doug Plagans on the call tonight right here on FM 104.3 WQM.

10:15Five o'clock puck drop from Amherst Bank Arena.

10:18Billy, imagine you're going to get the Gooseys.

10:19I know we did it last year, but you imagine when that banner goes up there, you're going

10:22to get the Gooseys again?

10:23Oh, yeah.

10:24Yeah, it comes back.

10:25It's just to be in the midst of this, it's going to feel pretty good to see what this

10:29team and just never thought we'd be there after the first one and to be able to get

10:33back there and defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions is just going to be really hard

10:38to hear and listen to all year and to kind of adjust.

10:41But this team's earned it.

10:42They really have.

10:44Yeah, you pay money to go watch this team?

10:46Yeah, it's well-deserved because this team does not try.

10:50They do.

10:51Trying is, I'll try and go to the gym or I'll do my best to go to the gym.

10:55Those are two different things.

10:57I'll try and play my best hockey or I'll do my best.

10:59This team, every time they put their foot on their ice, they do their best.

11:04Affirmly.

11:05This is a team that does not try.

11:07They do.

11:08So, come out tonight again and that's putting that best foot forward and starting off against

11:13the Chicago Blackhawks.

11:14Hopefully, Chicago Blackhawks.

11:17It'll be exciting and raise the banner and let's go another 82-game tilt, 82-game season

11:23and we're off.

11:26Appreciate the time, Billy.

11:26Thanks so much.

11:27Thanks, Billy.

11:28Have a great day, guys.

11:29Appreciate it.

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