Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect, impressed-them-on-the-third-date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives.
They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink what you'll wear on that third date. Download the Instacart app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order, additional term supply. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus get a free closer look vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need a brake service and alignment check or tune up, hit up Midas for up to $30 off.
For more details, request your appointment at Midas.com. Have you ever covered a carpet stain with a rug? Ignored a leaky faucet? Pretended your half-painted living room is supposed to look that way? Well, you're not alone. We've all got unfinished home projects.
Whether it's a door that sticks or a disorganized closet or an AC unit that only works half the time, it all matters. You just haven't taken care of it yet. But there's an easier way. Just download the Thumbtack app. You can search for what you need done and find tons of highly rated pros right in your neighborhood.
Check prices, reviews, and book a pro right on the spot. Plus you'll know what to tackle next because Thumbtack is the app that shows you what to do, who to hire, and when. Pull out your phone and in just a few taps say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects and say hello to caring for your home the easier way.
Download Thumbtack and start a project today. Bill, how are you? Good, JL. How are you doing? Everything good?
Absolutely. Thank you for taking the time to hop on. I mean, I guess the first question, you have been with this team from the beginning. You are here with them now. You've played for them in a Stanley Cup Finals years ago in Colorado. You see the championship now. How do you feel knowing that the cup has finally reached South Florida? Oh, it feels so good.
That radio call you played is probably, I broke every rule in radio history etiquette that you should have been down. But to have it come full circle, this has been my home. Been down here for the start of the franchise. It was 31 years ago yesterday that we had the original expansion draft for our team that was put together, the original team. And 31 years to the day later, we win the Stanley Cup.
Seen the ups, seen the good, seen the bad, ugly. Everything in between, all the emotions running through my body in that game seven was about as nervous as I've ever been in my life. And to have the Panthers come out on the right side, it was a feeling of relief, exhilaration, everything that you could imagine. It was the dream and the dream finally came true.
Bill Lindsey is joining us, a former Panthers player and current analyst. When you think about a game seven, I feel like I was tired thinking about all the travel from Florida back up to Edmonton and back and forth and back and forth. What happened at 3-0 lead from your perspective, your professional perspective, what happened? Why did it take us three additional, four additional games? Edmonton's really good. Sergei Bobrovsky stole game one. Edmonton probably should have won game one. We played good in games two and three, had a 3-0 lead. Then the Connor McDavid effect took over.
One of the greatest players in the world started to put on a show. Edmonton's back in the series. Their speed becomes problematic. Panthers aren't quite sharp.
They've come after them. Waves, three on twos, two on ones are developing for the Oilers. They're able to tie this series up. And that's where game seven became so critical for myself and this franchise. There was no gray area.
It was black or white. You were either going to suffer one of the, probably the greatest defeat in NHL history. Last time it happened, 1942, Toronto Maple Leafs, World War II, six teams. So this would have been the greatest collapse of all time.
Or you're going to feel the euphoria and stimulation of winning this Stanley Cup. And that's why there was so much riding on to that game seven. So Edmonton, credit to them, they pushed us back to the rink. They got a really good team.
We were able to reset. Game sevens are like nothing else. It's like a Super Bowl. It's like a national championship. You're going to feel everything just flowing through your veins.
Everything's alive. The best feeling that you can have as an athlete. And for the Panthers, I knew that if they played the rest hockey, that they were going to be tough to beat. And all 18 skaters that stepped on the ice in game seven laid their heart on the line. And it was good enough to come up with the trophy.
So they let it slip away. All due credit to Edmonton, Connor McDavid, some heroic efforts, a really good team on the other side. But the Panthers were able to finish the job.
Bill Lindsey is joining us here at the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network, coast to coast. When you look at the Florida team that got close last year, and we saw what happened with Vegas, we see this team this year, we know that there were different players that were ported in. What was the biggest change you feel that got them over the hump? They added some depth in the off-season to the fourth line at the trade deadline as well. So you brought in Mikkola, defenseman Kulikoff, and Oliver Ekman-Larsen.
They all played a critical role, especially at the start. We had some injured defensemen. Once Ekblad and Montre got healthy, all those three defensemen that Zito signed became regulars in our lineup. So we were deeper on the blue line. The trade deadline, you get Tarasenko.
He comes in. He's won a Stanley Cup, Vladimir Tarasenko before. Adds depth to your top nine. You bolster your bottom six with Kyle Opposo, a veteran with over 1,000 games. They were depleted with injuries. This was a team that came with a mandate this year from training camp to work harder, to be the best condition team. So putting a deeper team together, a deeper roster with the experience of last year, a hunger and a fire to get back there, and a determination and will.
You put all those factors together. This team was better than last year. They weren't banged up going into the finals. They were healthy and they were on a mission to get the job done. And it took all the way, but they got it done.
But those were the factors that played the key roles. The Panthers analyst Bill Lindsey is joining us here. Coach Paul Maurice, he did not sweat.
He did not worry. I know he has played, or excuse me, he has coached a whole hell of a lot of games. Nobody's coached more games than him outside of a Scotty Bowman. What can you say about coach that has kind of kept this team on an even path, even from last year up until now?
He's such a good personality. 26 years behind an NHL bench. He's never won a Stanley Cup. But during these playoffs, his press conferences were honest. They answered all the questions and it was never wavering. It was never anxiety filled. It was never boastful.
It was comedic. He took a lot of the oxygen out of the room, took a lot of stress off the players. He understands how to push the right buttons, who needs a pat on the back, who needs a kick in the rear end.
He's been at it a long time. And the coaching job, the best a coach can do is get the most out of his players. And the players love them. And once the players buy into your system and what you're doing, then as a coach, you know, you're onto something. And he said it before, this team became self-sustaining in the dressing room where everyone, he didn't have to walk in that room. He knew they were prepared to play. He had put everything into place, the game plans. And once you got the room is taken care of, you just have to walk in there and give a little speech and announce the starting lineup and away you go.
You're onto something. So Paul Maurice put the game plan into effect and for him, after 26 years, I'm not sure how you would come back to coach. If you lost that game last night, you might have to take a year off, but he didn't. He won the game and winning that game automatically, in my opinion, punched his ticket to the hall of fame.
And he is a first class guy through and through. Former Florida Panther player, current analyst Bill Lindsey is joining us here on the JR Sport Brief Show. For all of your experiences with this team, from expansion franchise to championship last night, how did you celebrate? What have you been doing for the past 18 hours? I just stayed at the rink as possible, late as possible last night and just soaked it all in down on the ice level and had a lot of good friends with the organization. Hung upstairs, the drinking days are behind me, so those were the younger days. At 53, I just can't do it anymore.
So with pizza, a lot of pizza, as much food as I could put into my system, enjoy it, desserts. I was just cramming everything into my body and hung out to the rink as late as possible and came home and got a few hours sleep and I got to sit here this morning and wake up. I got my dad here with me, 93 years old, in hospice care. My dad was in the hospital.
He was in the hospital 93 years old in hospice care. My wife of 27 years. That is the best celebration that I could ever have for your wife that I've dragged all over the country, North America. My dad that took me to hockey rinks when I was little drove me all over, gave me the possibility at the dream. Once I got into the NHL, my wife was able to carry and help me along, sustain my dream. Those two people are so special in my life. So to finally get home, sit down and say, to my dad and to my wife, we're Stanley Cup champions. That is how I celebrated and that is all I ever needed out of this Stanley Cup run from the Panthers.
Hey Bill, that's beautiful that you're able to share this experience with your family who supported you from your playing days up until now. It's the JR Sport Reshow here on the Infinity Sports Network. Where's the Cup now?
Do you have any idea? The last video I saw it was at a club. It was in the beach. Like where is it now? You might have to go fishing for it. It might be in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I'm not sure, but there were some players taking out taking out some swims.
So the elbow room down here, the famous bar down on A1 and Fort Lauderdale, it was closed today except for the Panthers. The Panthers had ownership of the elbow room and it was getting sandy. It was all over the beach. It was into the ocean. It was on the back of a golf cart.
It's been in a boat. Where it is at this particular moment, God only knows, but those players are going to have some fun with it and they deserve it. After all this you go through, you finally get to let your hair down and they're going to celebrate. That Stanley Cup has got the greatest stories.
If the Stanley Cup could ever write a book, that would be the best read that you could ever have. It's seen everything, done everything and it's going on another adventure with the Panther team. Bill, I know you're going to be busy.
You have the celebration, dare I say, this upcoming Saturday for the community, the fans, the organization, the players, everybody to participate in. What's going to be your role? Are you going to be working? Are you going to be able to have your hair down a little bit?
What's the deal? Yeah, I'll be down there with the parade and everything. It's going to be a whole organizational thing from top to bottom. That's why our ownership here, Mr. Viola, had a commitment here to give everyone a part in a role. If you're going to work hard within this organization, you're going to have a chance to succeed and be part of it. It started at the top with Mr. Viola.
He includes everyone. The players had to execute it on the ice, but this organization is a family. So the whole organization is going to be out in full support when we get that parade.
Bill, last question for you. For all the time you spent in South Florida, all your time spent all over the country just promoting and playing hockey, people don't necessarily think about South Florida as a hockey hotbed. Can you just talk about the community, the hockey community, and how the fans have embraced this organization since 93? So we came down. It was hot out of the gate in 93 and it exploded.
That's why I fell in love with this place. The fans embraced us. They were at our practice rink. We signed autographs hours upon hours every single day to kind of gravitate and bring this community toward Panther hockey. We got to the Stanley Cup in 96. We had some dry years, really down years, and the fan base that stuck with us.
We kept saying next year, next year, but finally we had Wayne Huizinga at the start and now with Mr. Viola it starts with the ownership group and the commitment that they have. Now four straight years in the playoffs. You won the President's Trophy for the regular season record. You had some failure in the playoffs. You get to a Stanley Cup final the next year and then it starts to go bonkers again down here.
There's a market for it that gets rabid. The fan base was loud and then you cap it off with that Stanley Cup championship and the players earned the right to have the fans in the building because they perform and the fans gave it right back. You say everyone doesn't think of it, but this is five straight Cups that Florida has been represented in with Tampa Bay and the Panthers and three of the last five Stanley Cups.
Two to Tampa Bay and one for the Florida Panthers have belonged to the state of Florida. So we got something going on down here. Hey Bill, I think you guys got something going on. You got something going on for the next week and a celebration for the next several.
Hey Bill, thank you for taking the time. Where can people follow you, your work, and everything you do for these Panthers? Yeah, Lindsey v Hockey, Twitter mostly. I just started Instagram. I'm way behind on all that kind of stuff, but I'll start rolling out some Instagram stuff. Same post Lindsey v Hockey on Instagram and we'll get it going.
We'll have shots of the parade and everything. Thank you so much Bill. Take some time to rest the pipes and enjoy yourself.
This sounds like an amazing time. Appreciate the time man. Thank you so much JR. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus get a free Closer Look Vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need a brake service and alignment check or tune up hit up Midas for up to $30 off.
For more details request your appointment at Midas.com. Right here on TuneIn. Go to TuneIn.com or download the TuneIn app to start listening. Therefore canceling account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on required finance agreement to $35 per line connection charge apply. See T-Mobile.com.
