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Download Thumbtack and start a project today. The Stanley Cup Final is over following a tight Game 7, and Jack Michaels, true to his word, joins us now from Florida. Jack, I listened to your pregame. I listened to a good portion of the third period. I heard you say it multiple times. This is the biggest game in Stanley Cup playoff history.
Why? For sure, Stanley Cup Final. You know, if you think about the great Stanley Cup Finals, it's kind of a short list to be honest with you. Because in hockey, for whatever reason, if you think about, there hasn't been a ton of dramatic Game 7s. We haven't had a Game 7 overtime game since 1954. You know, and so, I mean, when it comes to the Stanley Cup Final, the comeback and the chance for Connor McDavid to officially, you know, stamp whatever he needed to, if he needed to at all.
You know, take his rightful place on the mantle of all-time greats in this game. You rally from three games to none. I mean, that's historic. I think all-time teams are something like 402 and 4, you know, in those situations when you include the NBA in Major League Baseball, maybe 402 and 5. Because it's happened four times in hockey and only once in baseball history.
So, I think the relevance of rallying from 3-0 down to force the Game 7, combined with the players' choices, the best player, universally accepted in the game. I mean, that doesn't really happen that often in any of the four major sports. I mean, Amy, if you think about it, in our lifetimes, what has it been, other than Michael Jordan? Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky in our lifetime, and now Connor McDavid.
I think there's always been an argument about the best baseball player or the best football player. Even when Tom Brady was at the peak of his power, it was like Peyton Manning was still there. So, I think that's why I felt like tonight was a really big deal. It's going to be a Stanley Cup Final that's remembered for a long time, where normally, you know, if it had just ended in fourth straight or whatever, you don't think of Edmonton and Florida as, like, capturing, you know, the whole world's attention. Well, I think the Stanley Cup Final really did, and McDavid and the comeback were two big reasons why. The Oilers forced a Game 7 by completely changing the style of play following Games 2 and 3, and the way that they were able to stack goals in the last three games, so impressive.
What was the major difference between the three Oilers' wins and what we got in Game 7? Well, part of it was they weren't really able to do much off the rush against Florida. You know, in the eight-goal outburst in Game 4 that served a term this series completely around Amy, they got seven goals off the rush. Now, I kind of knew that wasn't going to necessarily happen again.
I mean, it just doesn't. But they were still able to score timely goals off the rush with speed. They were the faster club. They were able to utilize that speed and do some damage on Florida. The other thing they did is they dominated special teams. I mean, they outscored Florida's power play, short-handed, in the series and still lost.
They outscored Florida. I think it's maybe one of three or four times ever that the Stanley Cup Final aggregate goal scoring was in favor of the loser of the series. So, you know, you do a lot of things right, you get to Bobrovsky, and it started with the two goals they got late in Game 3 to come from 4-1 down to lose 4-3. And then they shelled them for 5 in the next game, you know, obviously the 8-1 blowout.
They go down to Florida, and again, they were able to get up early. At the 25-minute mark of the Oilers' 3-1, 3 wins, Amy, they were up 5-1, 3-0, and 2-0. In this game, Florida got the first goal and never trailed at any point. And that was, I thought, a massive difference because, as you know, when it's going the other way, it's hard to stem the tide. And for Florida to get that first goal tonight, even though Edmondson was able to counter and tie it, the fact that the Oilers never got the lead, I think, kept Florida in a more positive state of mind, where if they had fallen behind tonight, it might have been, well, this is inevitable.
We've blown our chance, can't reverse the momentum. And the fact that they got that first goal and never trailed at all in Game 7 tonight, I think, was massive. And allowed Bobrovsky to settle in as well. I mean, 24 shots, Amy, and I realize the Panthers only had 21, but 24 shots against Sergei Bobrovsky, that's not enough.
I mean, it's just not. They needed more. Although there were some fairly dramatic saves toward the end, including a couple he made without a stick and one he made from his rear end, and then another time denying Connor McDavid point blank. He still made a handful of saves. I mean, he still played the kind of goal that Florida needed him to. To be honest with you, 15 shots through two periods, they didn't really test him that much in the first 40 minutes. They waited a little too long, and that allows him to settle in the game and feel confident about making kind of some of the acrobatic saves that you're describing in the third period.
But absolutely, he came up big. He had one extra save than Stuart Skinner did. I think, you know, the Sam Reinhardt game winner with five minutes to go in the second period is probably one that, you know, Stuart Skinner would like to have back. But, you know, when you lose two to one, you can't start pointing at the goaltender.
I mean, that's not why he lost the game. He's the longtime play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers back into the Stanley Cup final, forcing a Game 7, but now heading home without the Cup. Jack Michaels is with us still from Florida.
It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Connor McDavid, as you point out, best player on the planet, has a breakout middle of the Stanley Cup final. A lot of attention on him. How would you describe his Game 7?
He'll tell you I wasn't on the score sheet the last two games. And, you know, I think he'll probably, you know, find fault with his game even though he, you know, scored the fourth most points in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Broke Wayne Gretzky's record for assists in a single Stanley Cup playoff run. I mean, he and the rest of the team have a lot to be proud of.
They really do. These are the elite of the elite. And both he and Leon Dreissel, who did not score a goal in the series and, you know, finished the postseason on a nine-game drive spell without a goal. And this is a perennial 40-goal scorer and a three-time 50-goal scorer and an MVP in his own right. They're going to be hard on themselves. But, you know, that's just the nature of taking ownership of being two of the five best players in the game. They're going to wonder what more they could have done.
I will say this. I thought Edmonton's depth was good enough in this series and in this playoff run. I mean, they had 18 different guys score a goal. You know, they had more guys chip in than anyone else in any other, you know, any other Stanley Cup playoff team. It wasn't their depth that let them down. Ultimately, I think you spot a team, a 3-0 series lead.
Florida didn't lose four in a row all year long, Amy. Even though you probably could make an argument that Edmonton outplayed Florida in two of the first three games. At this level, in the Stanley Cup final or in the final round of any of these major professional sports, you can't afford to let a game get away. You can't afford to let a goaltender steal a game from you.
You've got to win the games you can win because usually they come back to haunt you later in the series. And Edmonton's lack of margin for error, you know, ultimately cost it in this series where, you know, many people from Edmonton will leave this series thinking that perhaps the better team did not win. Connor McDavid ends up with the Conn Smythe trophy. It's his first Stanley Cup final. How do you feel about a player from the team that didn't win ending up with that award?
There's arguments on both sides. I mean, McDavid was so far and away the leading scorer. He had 42 points.
No one else had more than 32 in the postseason. And Sergei Bobrovsky, while winning all 16 games for the Florida Panthers, his save percentage was, you know, barely over 90. So it wasn't like he was a Jonathan Quick or lights out. And you could say, hey, if McDavid had a quiet last two games of the series, what about Bobrovsky's, you know, middle three, where he literally stopped 75 percent of the shots in those three losses? I think there's an argument to be made that that McDavid did deserve it. I think it's weird. I'm sure McDavid thinks it's weird.
He certainly didn't accept the ice on the award, as you no doubt saw. Right. It doesn't happen very often. Most recently, J.S. Chigurh, the Anaheim Ducks in 2003. It's often a goaltender, Ronnie Hextall in 1987 for the Flyers against the Oilers. But it is an aggregate of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's not just the finalist. And it is strange when you look at the combination of Florida's balanced attack and Bobrovsky's rough go in the middle portion of the Stanley Cup final. I do think it's justified, but I also obviously think there's an argument for Bobrovsky to, you know, to win it because he did win all 16 games.
What's amazing about Bobrovsky, Amy, is how quickly people forget. Last year, he entered the postseason. And this is the postseason where Florida would advance to the Stanley Cup final. He was a backup. He was behind Alex Lyon, who's a juryman goaltender. Goal tending is, you know, here today, gone tomorrow. And Bobrovsky certainly has been brilliant the last two postseason. And the push to the Game 7 and a lot of the pressure that was on him from the other side, it's a pretty sweet ending to his story as well. Jack Michaels is with us still from Florida following Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. As much as you can share, what was it like with the team once the game was done? Well, I mean, that's the one thing I've learned covering professional sports at all levels. And as you know, I had a long, long tour duty in the minors and, you know, now in the National Hockey League close up to a Game 7 loss.
It is soul crushing. Yes, they're pros. Yes, they're highly compensated. But at the core, Amy, these are athletes like you and I were little kids. They're still those kids, right? They're still like us back in the day. And this still means everything to them.
And to come up one goal short after a one hundred and seven game campaign, 82 in the regular season and 25 in the playoffs is absolutely devastating. And they were gutted after the game. It was silent and no one wants to talk. No one likes to lose. Everyone feels lousy.
That's just the way it is. It's not a, you know, a turn the page moment for these guys, not in the immediate moment. It hurts and it's going to hurt a while. And what makes them amazing pros is eventually they're able to turn the page and move past it and and find a way to get hungrier for next year. But tonight it is utter devastation and there's no talk of contracts or money where I'm going on vacation.
There's just despair. It's a really long flight back to Edmonton, too. I know that you talked about the atmosphere inside the building during Game 7 on your broadcast.
Listen to a lot of it. Did it live up to all the hype of a Game 7 for a Stanley Cup? It absolutely did. I mean, the atmosphere in Florida was electric. The Panthers were obviously well represented with it being on home ice. Edmonton always travels well. And there were several thousand oiler fans in the parking lot before the game.
Wow. And obviously crammed into the arena. So, I mean, there were alternate chance of let's go Oilers, let's go Panthers. We want the cup, you know, all that stuff. And and Florida did. I mean, they turned out it was a great atmosphere in Florida. I'll tell you what, you know, they earned it and they deserve all the accolades that are to come their way. It's not easy to win a Game 7 against the league's best player, let alone a team like the Oilers that that were well balanced. And and these were these were two very good teams. I don't know whether they were great teams. Like, I don't know whether Florida is going to go on a run like Chicago and win three cups in six years.
I don't know whether that's in their future, but I can say that when you get to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, you're pretty you're pretty certain that these are the two best teams going. And it was a, you know, a titanic battle with not a lot of room out there, not a lot of scoring chances, desperate teams. I mean, obviously, Florida's playing to avoid the biggest collapse along with the New York Yankees in 2004 in modern sports history.
I mean, that's what it was. So they were playing for their lives and they're playing to win the trophy that's generally considered the hardest to win in the four major professional sports. And that's the Stanley Cup. And that trophy still means more.
I'm sorry. Just that trophy means more to their sport than the Vince Lombardi trophy, the Larry O'Brien or whatever it is in the NBA and that World Series thing with all the flags on it. I mean, I'm sorry that the trophy itself, Amy, it's hard to it's hard to overstate the significance of it relative to the game. It's all about the cup. Half the people forget what the other trophies are named. And, you know, that's what that's what they play for.
And it's it's unique. It makes hockey that much that much more interesting. It's it's the hardest trophy to win because you got to win 16 games. And I I know you do in the NBA, but the first and second rounds usually do not have the same degree of competitiveness that they do in hockey. They just don't. And the record shows that the record the record would indicate that you don't have many eight feeds going on a run the way the L.A. Kings did to win the Stanley Cup.
Anyone can win once you're in the tournament. And I don't think that's true with the other sports. And it's so stark as well because you can be so close to it and yet you can't touch it until you earn it, which means you might as well be on the other side of the planet, even if you're in the same building with it. Yeah, it's it's an incredible tradition and it's always amazing to watch it walked out onto the ice. But it is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. There's a certain there's a certain pride and honor in navigating the gamut of a two month playoff campaign that is physical. And we always find out about injuries and broken. You know, I mean, Jacob Trubas, you know, played with a broken ankle for the Rangers in in their in their conference. I mean, these are ridiculous injuries that the players are driven to play through because of that Stanley Cup. So I just wanted to say that, too. It's it's it's really something. It was my first cup final. You really have a greater appreciation of what these teams and what these players go through just to get to the end.
Absolutely worth all the investment. You can find Jack Michaels on Twitter at Edmonton. Jack, longtime play by play voice of the Oilers. And it's always good to have him.
We promised that we would have him on the show again for a Stanley Cup final. And of course, Jack, you always deliver the emotion and help us to break it down. So thank you so much. And safe travels. The real sadness here is that it's going to be a long time before I talk to you again.
So I, I always enjoy our chat. And, you know, like I said, if you ever need a gig as an agent, I've got an opening. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to thirty dollars off your next repair service. Plus, get a free Closer Look vehicle check to make sure your road trip ready. So if you need a brake service and alignment check or tune up, hit up Midas for up to thirty dollars off. For more details, request your appointment at Midas.com They bring color to your journey and turn energy into main character energy.
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Whisper: medium.en / 2024-06-25 07:02:42 / 2024-06-25 07:10:29 / 8