After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Additional terms and fees apply. Good morning to you. It's Tuesday. Should we call it championship Tuesday? It was a championship Monday, but now it's a Tuesday and we're still celebrating championships after a game seven tight tense.

I could feel it in my gut. Starting about 20 minutes before the first puck. Or before the puck dropped. The first puck dropped. And then going through a bang bang sequence in period one only to finish that first period in a 1-1 tie.

Some tense moments into period number two. A near miss for the Oilers seconds before the Panthers scored the go ahead goal. And then from that point on, another period and a half with no more goals. Just tight and tense and that sense of urgency.

It was brilliant. Not anything like what we got in games four, five and six. And that's probably the reason why the Panthers were able to prevail ultimately. That and Sergei Bobrovsky who found some personal redemption.

At 35 years old, 14 years in the league. He's not a consummate trophy winner, but he is a Stanley Cup champion as are the Panthers for the first time in their franchise history. It wasn't easy. The Panthers created the most difficult path for themselves.

But even taking the toughest road and emptying the tank. I love the way they handled this adversity. They didn't have a lot of it in the playoffs. Some not a ton, but they were pushed to the brink by the Oilers. And you can imagine, no doubt, it was all worth it.

They said this about the Celtics a week ago. The blood, sweat, the tears. Leaving it all out there to the point of exhaustion and really to the point of understanding that this wasn't just an in season goal.

This had to require all of them for the last year. And we've heard them talk about it. From the second they lost to the Golden Knights in this Stanley Cup final, roughly a year ago, they decided. From this point on through the offseason, the work, the fitness, the training, the practice.

Of course, honing their skills even more so to be ready for this moment. It's one thing to say it. It's entirely another to have it come to fruition. And if you didn't hear the story that Paul Maurice told after game seven was done, pretty incredible if you think about the perspective, too, of what was on the line for the Panthers, not just the Cup. When I come in yesterday morning, we got this big bank of six TVs, and one of them has a network on it. And the banner is, and I'm not ****ing you, if the Florida Panthers lose, is this the biggest collapse in sports history? And that damn thing is sitting on the TV. And you know, you're waiting for it, like, roll it, people. Let's move it.

15 minutes. So I'm waiting by the door for my video guy to come in and say, so we have these banks, it's a new rink, right? We have that all over.

Get that network off our TV. Because I'm sitting there going, and I don't like it, and I'm 57. But what happens if you're 25 and you're going, I've got to live 50 more years as being a part of the biggest collapse in sports history? So from the loss to the drop of the puck, something has to change and something has to get better. And that would be where I think I worked. Once the puck stopped tonight, I was done working. And I liked our first, so I was good. I was good. I was at peace with, I wanted to win, but we weren't scrambling around in the first trying to find our game.

That's a nice place to be. The Panthers, a lot of people were saying before the game, needed to score first. They needed to do something to interrupt what had been a streaking Oilers team. Through the end of game number three, which they lost. But then game four and game five and game six, breakouts, rushes, the attack, the aggressiveness, the Connor McDavid points, Edmonton outscored Florida 18-5 in the three previous games. That's a 23 total goals. The teams had about that many shots each in game number seven. It was a completely different tenor and tone and yet a delicious atmosphere for this winner take all affair. Only thing better would have been sudden death, but I'm not sure Panthers fans could have handled it.

It was tight enough as it was. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Good morning to you. It's a terrific Tuesday for Panthers fans and also for Tennessee volunteers fans as they capture the College World Series for the first time in their school history.

Online at ALawRadio is where you can find us also on our Facebook page and we're asking you just because we finally got to see Lord Stanley's Cup again paraded around the ice in Florida. That poor thing. He's got to have jet lag, even flying back and forth across the country.

Think about it. He was in Edmonton for game four because it was an opportunity for the Panthers to sweep. They did not. They went back to Florida. It's a six hour flight from what I've been told, even on a charter. They went back to Florida with the Cup for game number five.

Oh no, Panthers didn't win that one either. They have to return to Canada and to Edmonton for game number six and then back to Florida for game seven. Think about that.

I don't know the exact number of miles. I do remember hearing before the series started though the longest distance in miles between two cities, two teams competing for the Stanley Cup in this championship series history. So the Cup had to go back and forth too.

Think about it. The flight plans. You've got the Oilers on a charter, the Panthers on a charter, and the Stanley Cup on a charter. Does the Cup go on the bottom? Unless he flies commercial. Hell no. The Cup gets his own row of seats.

What are you talking about? First class? Yes. Wait, do you think he comes out of his case? If he wants. If he's feeling a little snug in there, maybe.

Loosen out a little bit. I would think that Lord Stanley's Cup would want to ride in style and sit upright and be gleaming. The thing is, what if there's turbulence or something along those lines and Lord Stanley's Cup gets bounced from his row of seats or his padded cushions and he ends up on the floor of the plane.

Just dented. Oh, could you imagine? I think someone would lose their job.

I think two people would lose their jobs. There's two caretakers for Lord Stanley's Cup. No, a semi-serious question. Does he get his own charter plane? You've got to have a pretty big jet to go from Edmonton to Florida and I bet you have to refuel depending upon how big the plane. If I'm the NHL, I'm making sure Lord Stanley gets there in the safest, most comfortable way possible.

So yeah, I'm getting him his own charter. Maybe he was on the same flight as the NHL Commissioner and personnel? Or do you think Lord Stanley flies alone? Because no doubt they're flying back and forth as well. You have to have Gary Bettman.

You've got to have other NHL personnel in the building for whatever is the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals. So they're all making this trek back and forth, back and forth. Media too, though I trust they're flying commercial, most of them. Think about the number of flights that went back and forth from Edmonton to Miami or maybe Fort Lauderdale, whichever airport they fly into.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And Lord Stanley couldn't catch a ride on any of those planes? He had to have his own charter? Maybe he was with Gary. Yeah, that sounds like it would make sense. Alright, so maybe then, but he does have to have his caretakers, his handlers with him at all times.

Which means you can have the Commissioner of the NHL, but he doesn't get to handle the Stanley Cup until it's time. Only his handlers, and they only touch him with gloves. Isn't that funny? He's their pet, essentially. And they still can't pet him without gloves. Without gloves, yeah. Seriously, someone needs to answer that question. Does Lord Stanley get his own plane when he's flying back and forth across the country? Alright, that'd be interesting. An interesting piece of history.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yes, with that story from Paul Maurice, he just didn't want his players to be thinking about that, to be feeling that kind of pressure, as though you can escape it after you've coughed up a 3-0 lead in a Stanley Cup Final. But yes, a lot of the talk going into this game was about the tone that would be set early, and whether or not the Panthers could finally, finally grab a lead for the first time since Game 3. Verhage works the inboards then, has it in the trapezoid, Rodriguez near side, the power plays over, shot tipped, they score! Rodriguez got it on net, it was tipped out in front, and the Panthers have the first one! Here indeed, 7, 15-33 to go in the first, and the Panthers are on the board. It was Carter Verhage in front getting a stick on it.

He'll whistle it in deep, they'll give him center. Tarasenko, slashing around the boards, only to see that disrupted by Sisi, beautiful pass, breakaway! Shot, score! What a finish! And Edmonton has tied it up, brilliantly!

The play-by-play on both the Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers radio network, so Doug Plagans and Jack Michaels, yeah these were pretty close together, but Carter Verhage, he just kind of sticks his stick out there, that sounds funny. He sees the puck coming in from the point and hoping for a redirect. I get it that sometimes it's strategic and sometimes these guys actually have the opportunity to flick it one way or another. A lot of times though, and we've seen it a bunch in this series, hit off someone's elbow, it'll glance off someone's knee, and end up being redirected into the net. In this case, Verhage could see, I mean it's coming at you fast, life comes at you fast, but Verhage can see that the puck is going to go way wide right, and just, he does it with, he gets a stick out there at the perfect time.

I know they practice this, it's not like they've never done it before. It's something that, in a game though, I love the hand-eye coordination, I love the instant reflex and the instant reaction to seeing the puck coming in. Get your stick up there, not in someone's face of course, but get your stick up there and do the best you can to change its trajectory, and I'll be damned if it did not work perfectly again for Carter Verhage. But then you get the breakaway on the other end, and we're not at one after the first period, and right, you could feel the tension building. Even Connor McDavid said that they could feel it on the ice, recognizing once they got into the second period that goals were going to be hard to come by. Back to the right point for Sisi, down along the boards, then tricidal, Fogel cuts out front, and a save by Brodsky, and then it's pushed away out of harm's way by Kulikov, and the Panthers break it out quickly. Here's Reinhardt at the right wing side, Reinhardt to the right circle, a shot, and he scores!

Sam Reinhardt gives the Panthers a 2-1 lead here at Game 7, 4.49 to play here in the middle frame, and Sam Reinhardt out of the right circle gives the Panthers the lead. That goal, that go-ahead moment for Sam Reinhardt, who's had an incredible season, was it 57 goals in the regular season? 57 in the regular season? No, wait, 57 total maybe. I'm pretty sure he had 57 in the regular season.

Yeah, 57 regular season, that was his 10th in the playoffs. While we're talking about cons by trophy winners, yeah, pretty incredible season that he's had for the Florida Panthers, but they're only up 2-1, that's nothing in the NHL, it's certainly nothing when you're talking about guys like Connor McDavid, and Leon Dricetl, and that line, and boy the third period gave them chance after chance. Do you know, this blows me away, do you know the Panthers went 10 plus minutes in the third period on their own ice without a shot on goal? And the majority of that time, maybe this is an exaggeration, but it certainly felt like the majority of the third period was spent in the Panther zone. The amount of ice time that McDavid and Dricetl and their line were logging in the third period, incredible. No wonder at the end of the game, I think there were about 25-30 seconds left to go, McDavid hits the deck, he and another player just kind of run into each other, and he goes down to his knees, and I swear it took him 5 seconds to get back up.

He was exhausted. They were giving it everything they had, but so was Sergei Bobrovsky, and I know he's been much maligned for the number of goals he gave up in the middle part of this series as the Oilers were winning 3 in a row, but he was brilliant in the third period when it counted on Monday night. McDavid out to the line, a drive and a save made by Bobrovsky, that time on Bouchard, Dricetl up top, Ekholm across one time, Bouchard save made by Bobrovsky, with the pad, out to the line again, Bouchard. He'll hold it for the Oilers, long shot in front, a chance, whacked it, and somehow some way that stays out of the net.

Oh my goodness, wow. What a pile up down there, and somehow Bobrovsky on top of it, and Zach Hyman looked like he had a wide open net, and he wasn't able to cash in, and the Panthers remain up a goal with 7.02 to go here in the third. As Doug Plagans on the Panthers Radio Network, I think my favorite sequence is when Sergei Bobrovsky, well there's a couple of different elements to it, Bobrovsky is facing relentless pressure in front of the net. And there's a couple of shots from his left side, he blocks those, they kind of get knocked away. The puck ends up on the right side, his right side, so left post if you're looking at it, but his right side, and there's Connor McDavid, who could have reached out with his stick, and smacked Bobrovsky on the head. That's how close he was.

He had to be two, three feet away tops. There aren't many times that Connor McDavid is going to be stopped point blank from right in front of the net, and it was him, and it was Bob, and that was it. It wasn't a forceful shot, there wasn't a whole lot of juice on it, but Bobrovsky was able to stop it with the pad on his right leg and cover it up. Then there was a sequence right after that, where he loses his stick, so now he's facing the Oilers, stuck in the Panther zone, and he's got no stick, and he had to make a couple of saves with the body blocks. And you saw him, he's twisting around like a pretzel, just to do anything he can, of course the defense was working in front of him as well, but man, I was catching my breath, I was feeling it myself in my own living room. I can't imagine what it was like to be in the arena, or just to be on the ice in those moments, but he was incredible. Only required 23 saves, but gave up just the one goal, a stark difference from games four, five, and six. And even in the final seconds, we've got both the calls from the Panthers and the Oilers, still so dramatic. 23 seconds left, 2-1 Panthers, fans to their feet, Bouchard has missed tricidal, down to our right, Forsling in the corner, he'll try and hold this. 10 seconds left, 2-1 Panthers, a dream 30 years in the making is a reality.

The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. Plug in a Hyundai EV and the extraordinary happens. It's not just the ultra-fast charging capability and long range in the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6, or the adventure-seeking spirit of the Kona Electric, or the groundbreaking 601 horsepower IONIQ 5N. And it's not just the comfort in knowing that every Hyundai EV is backed by a 10-year, 100,000-mile limited electric battery warranty. Hyundai's EVs transform a low hum into a loud adventure, they bring color to your journey, and turn energy into main character energy. So forget everything you thought you knew about EVs and turn the extraordinary into something truly electrifying.

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The number one pediatrician recommended brand. Get home. You always will have a place in South Florida. Oh my God. The Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.

Yeah. Start the celebration South Florida. The Panthers have done it. Stanley Cup champions! The Florida Panthers are the 2024 Stanley Cup champions. Oh, we crossed the finish line, buddy.

We crossed it. Oh, what a group of bunch of guys. Paul Maurice, congratulations. Oh, what a team. What a gutsy effort. That is some cojones, boys. Wow. Oh, oh.

OK, a couple of things. That's Bill Lindsay. If you don't know who he is, he is the analyst for the Panthers radio network, along with Doug Plagans. I just want to say how much I appreciate Doug.

Doug did not get offended or get upset or try to talk over Bill. I mean, he was doing his thing. Maybe he thinks to himself, Bill's ruining my final call. This call is going to be played over and over and over again. And what we get is Bill yelling.

But here's the thing. Doug understands what this means to Bill Lindsay. Bill spent the majority of his career with the Panthers. He played in the 96 Stanley Cup final in which, if I remember correctly, they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche. He started his career with the Quebec Nordiques.

Well, the franchise that turned into Colorado. And then he went to Florida. And the majority of his years, the majority of his time and his effort and the prime seasons of his career were spent with the Florida Panthers. But he never won a cup. 777 career games. And again, the majority of them were played with the Florida Panthers. But he didn't win a cup.

And this journey is 31 years in the making. So for Bill Lindsay to lose his marbles is okay. The emotion comes pouring out of him. And Doug could have gotten offended. He could have just kept talking. Instead he stops. He waits for Bill to exult.

He waits for Bill to express his emotions. And then he finishes the call. And I appreciate that he did that, recognizing Bill lived this for years. And this matters to him as much as it does to the guys on the ice.

Oh, he crossed the finish line, buddy! So for Doug Plagans, a bravo. For the classy way that he handled this. The grace with which he handled this final call. We'll let you hear it again a little bit later. But also for Bill Lindsay, I know this is the furthest thing from his mind.

The least important factor for him in this moment. Does he recognize, though, do you think that that call is going to be played over and over and over and over again? Three and thirty years in the making is a real honor. I love it so much.

And that's the great thing about championships, right? When they hit us, all that emotion just comes pouring out of us. Pouring out of us. The relief, the release, the joy. That is some cojones, boys!

But even at the end, it's like he's about to fall over. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! So great. It's like Tom Hanks in the Money Pit.

No, it's not quite like that. Don't you dare. Don't you dare ruin the moment with Tom Hanks in the Money Pit. Anyway, I'm happy for Bill Lindsey. I'm happy, happy, happy for Paul Maurice.

Think about it. Paul, also a hockey lifer. And he'd been to the Stanley Cup final two other times.

They not won. The guy who has logged, gosh. I'll have to go ahead and look at the number for Paul Maurice. But just his wins alone in the NHL as a head coach. I mean, most guys that are coaches now won't ever see the type of tenure that he's gotten. He was out of the game for a while, he came back, he took the offer from Florida. And after missing out last year against the Vegas Golden Knights, now he's a champion as well.

So some really cool stories to come out of this Panthers locker room. But also Connor McDavid and Leon Drysidel. And two of the best players on the planet who are completely shut out in Game 7. Neither one has a point. McDavid doesn't have a point in Game 6 either. Drysidel doesn't score a goal in this entire series. That's a lot.

There's a lot to dissect there. Now, McDavid earned the Khan-Smythe trophy. I suppose it's controversial. The broadcast had to mute for a good 15 seconds because of what they were chanting in the arena.

When the Khan-Smythe trophy was not awarded to Sergei Bobrovsky. You'll hear all the reaction. It's a championship Tuesday morning. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers. Vindication, redemption, first time Stanley Cup winners in surprise. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. 20 seconds to go in this season. Game 7, Stanley Cup final. The Oilers come up ice. One last chance. Bouchard up the right-hand side.

Through Drysidel. Panthers will try to pin it in the corner. 10 seconds to go. 7 seconds. Florida 2. Edmonton 1. Oilers pulling. 2 seconds.

1 second. The season is over. The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup.

2-1 in Game 7. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh, sorry. I was telling Jay something. My mic was muted. But I was listening. I got that call from Jack Michaels on the Oilers radio network multiple times. And I've told Jack this.

I told him earlier when he joined us from Florida. I'm always so impressed with his professionalism and the energy that he brings. This was an amazing showcase for the NHL regardless of who won. And I know for the Oilers it's extremely disappointing, devastating, it's brutal.

All of those things. They came so close. I like what Jack told us in our conversation earlier in the show.

If you missed it, it'll be part of our podcast. But what he said is the Oilers just didn't have any margin for error. The Florida Panthers hadn't lost four games in a row all season. And as much as it was incredible to see the Oilers exert their will and break out in games 4, 5, and 6.

And the showcase it was for Connor McDavid on the game's grandest stage. When you lose the first three games and then you have to use every ounce of energy and skill to get back to a game. Just to get back to even. To get back to a game 7. There's just no margin for error. And I like what he had to say.

But this is cool. Coming from front office sports, the NHL has seen record breaking attendance. A huge boost in TV ratings. And another record for annual revenue. Plus a game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final.

And it's after hours with Amy Lawrence. Of course, to the victor go the spoils. And I love, love, love the tradition of these Stanley Cup Final winners. Who each get their moment to skate around.

It's not even a full lap. But to skate around the ice. To kiss the cup. To have their own special moment with Lord Stanley's Cup.

It's pretty sweet. Now they all get to take the cup for a day, which is also awesome. But for them to be able to exult in front of the crowd and to finally touch it.

You know the rule. Even his handlers can't touch the cup without gloves. But for Lord Stanley's Cup, you don't get to touch it as a player until you actually win it.

And that's the crux. They'd seen the cup before, right? Because they were, well they were part of the losing. Whether I'm the losing end, they were part of the Stanley Cup Final a year ago. And a lot of these guys were part of that. Kept the main group together. There's such great stories all around.

If you had a chance to watch. So Matthew Kuchuk has a hockey tradition in his family. His father, Keith, played for nearly two decades in the NHL.

Never won the cup. What a neat story he told when he was interviewed by Emily Kaplan on the ice right after they won the cup. He starts getting choked up when he talks about how his father and his brother walked him out to the car. As he was getting to the arena or leaving for the arena for last night's game. And how emotional that was for him. And what this means to him that his dad can be there.

And I said this earlier and I certainly do believe it's true. For any of you who are parents, I think you'd probably agree with me. If it came down to a choice between I can win the cup or my son or daughter can win this championship.

Most parents, I would say, almost 100% of them would want their kid to experience that instead. And the emotion on dad's face was phenomenal. Tears rolling down his face and just struggling to keep from sobbing. It was pretty amazing but to hear Matthew talk about it too. And also recognizing that these guys were in the same position as the Oilers were a year ago.

And had to go through this all over again just to get back to this point. The culture of teammates. You know the teammates are so incredible. And most people have no clue what you go through in a playoff run like this.

This is our 106th game. It's just insane. Just insane what we're going through night in and night out. There's no better group of guys to do it with and for. You see the emotion.

It's real. I'm so happy for the guys. This group, we didn't like anything easy. We haven't liked it easy all year long. It's always been hard.

And winning in seven is a little bit more fun than winning in four. It made a few people nervous but 2-1 Phillip is kind of always been our DNA and can't believe it. Evan Rodriguez played a big role in this series. His first season with the Florida Panthers. Matthew Kuchuk was traded there two years ago.

And so they're more recently with the franchise. They can't claim as much angst as Alexander Barkov who's the captain. He spent his entire 11 year career with the Panthers.

And also you may have seen this nerd alert on the broadcast. Became the first Finnish born player ever to hold the cup first. Meaning he's the captain.

Got to hold the cup up first. But yeah this journey. It took 11 years of his career. 31 years for the franchise. Well it was long. Long ride.

But well sometimes it takes this long and we... TuneIn is the audio platform with something for everyone. News. In order to secure convictions in a court of law it is essential that we conclusively... Sports. The clock at four. Doncic.

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Best place to be right now. So congratulations to these guys. One more, and we talked about Paul Maurice because he's a lifer.

Not with the Panthers, but he's been in hockey for 30 years himself. And I'm sure wondered whether or not this moment would ever come. It's a little bit why that Sarah McLachlan commercials are good, right?

Like, we resonate with suffering animals. Okay. And I think they've seen me on TV for 30 years and they're kind of going, can you give this guy his family cup because this is painful and pitiful to watch. Didn't he say at some other point that his only other wish would be that the Winnipeg Jets could also capture the cup? Oh, you do? Sorry, I missed that. Somewhere on my list. My fault.

I'd like to hear it. If I could have one thing more, it'd be for the Winnipeg Jets to win the next Stanley Cup. Right, so there's a lot of noise behind him, but that's really cool considering that he owns the Jets franchise record for games coached and for wins. He was the youngest in league history to reach both 1,000 and 1,500 games as a head coach and the second youngest to earn 500 wins.

I did not know that. I was just reading that off the computer, but that kind of gives you an idea of his tenure. So much success, but not until now was he a Stanley Cup champion.

Pretty amazing. Online at ALaw Radio or on our Facebook page named after the show, we're asking you, is there a more attractive, more, more, more of a looker as a trophy? What's the best trophy in all of sports? Some of you are going with Lord Stanley's Cup. Others of you have set pictures like the college football playoff trophy or the Vince Lombardi trophy, which I agree is pretty shiny and that football on top is amazing. I've seen actually a photo of the trophy for the Daytona 500 winner for the Indy 500 winner. I personally, and I know it's a much smaller scale, I like the golden plate that Wimbledon awards to its victors.

It's pretty sweet too. And also the Wanamaker trophy for the PGA Championship. Just whatever.

These are names that stick with me. By the way, we found out that the World Series winners earned the, are you ready for this? Commissioner's trophy. Just any old commissioner. Pick a commissioner.

Doesn't matter. Any commissioner will do. The commissioner's trophy. That's awful. I want to start a petition to name it after Willie Mays.

Why not? 93 years old, he was not just a legend for what he did on the field, but he's been a great ambassador for Major League Baseball for all these years. I know the Giants claim him, but his history is rich for all of Major League Baseball. So maybe the Willie Mays championship trophy.

That would be neat. Championship Tuesday has a ring to it. Also, we're finally done with the winter sports.

Finally done. Connor McDavid, he won the Con Smythe trophy and he did speak after the game along with Leon Dreisaitl, who did not have a goal in this series. It's tough to stomach and finally get there. They forced a Game 7, but could not get through that Panthers identity. And even though they were able to explode with a bunch of goals in Games 4, 5, and 6, this was much more the Panthers style.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Gary Bettman. Let's go ringside. Let's first congratulate the Edmonton Oilers and your Florida Panthers on an incredible Stanley Cup final. The winner of the Con Smythe trophy is a player who has been the most valuable for the entire playoff run. Connor McDavid. The player who is going to be given the Con Smythe this year led the playoffs in scoring and broke Wayne Gretzky's assist record for a playoff. The winner of the Con Smythe is Connor McDavid.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. From the Oilers Radio Network and Jack Michaels, the reason why we needed to use that version is because everything got muted on ABC. I'm going to go with the F word along with McDavid's name maybe, which is why ABC chose to completely mute the whole broadcast as opposed to carry it live over the air in the wake of the Panthers winning the Stanley Cup. So the fans got the broadcast muted.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Yes, Connor McDavid ends up with the Con Smythe trophy and I'm sure you can debate about it. Ultimately, if you're talking MVP of the playoffs versus the Stanley Cup, there's really no debate. But yeah, not that he didn't want to talk about it, but as you can imagine, it's still raw in the moments after. Yeah, you know, obviously, I guess in honor of the names on that trophy.

I don't think he cares. I mean, it speaks to how amazing of a hockey player he is. But there's no player in the world that wants to win the Stanley Cup more than him and does everything right every single day just to win it one day. It's really hard, especially him, you know, being sad and being disappointed at the end. That's Leon Drysidel speaking where his teammate really didn't have the words.

Jack Michaels, he was great. He talked about the atmosphere. He talked about the, you know, the Oilers and coming up short. But I did ask him about a Con Smythe winner from the losing team and how did he feel about that strange occurrence?

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 Bobrowski, while winning all 16 games for the Florida Panthers, his save percentage was barely over 90. So it wasn't like he was a Jonathan Quick or or lights out. And you could say, hey, if McDavid had a quiet last two games of the series, what about Bobrowski's middle three, where he literally stopped 75 percent of the shot 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 final. And it is strange when you look at the combination of Florida's balanced attack and Bobrowski'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 Bobrowski to, you know, to win it because he did win all 16 games.

What's amazing about Bobrowski, 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 the backup. He was behind Alex Lyon, who's a German goaltender. Goal tending is, you know, here today, gone tomorrow. And Bobrowski 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 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 107 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. That conversation with Jack Michaels, longtime Oilers play by play voice on our podcast, it's good perspective and he's objective as you hear on his broadcast. So we're asking you which is the greatest trophy in sports, whether it's the one that's the best looker, deserves the cat calls, maybe the hardest to win, whatever it is.

We just want to know which one you like the best. David on Facebook, it's the Stanley Cup hands down, not just for the looks, but the stories behind it. But there's a lot to be said for the Claret Jug for winning the Open Championship, which is an incredible old tradition in golf and still to come this summer. Scott on Facebook, Lord Stanley's Cup, but I wouldn't mind a green jacket. Mike on Facebook says the Heisman Trophy.

So that's pretty sweet as well. On Twitter, get a new one I've never heard of before. This is John the Webb Ellis Cup for the Rugby World Cup. And our friend Mac in Delaware says the Preakness Trophy. It's a Baltimore thing. Enjoy your championship Tuesday. We're back with you tonight for the Hump Show.

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