The series ending, game winning goal scorer for Round1!

I've been getting it wrong all day. I got it wrong yesterday. I got it wrong the day before. Paul Stasny's first goal of the series was not the first goal of the series. It was the first goal of game two. You have no idea how many times I have said that he scored the first goal and the last goal of the series. Maybe because, I don't know, all the games run together. I don't know how it is for somebody playing.

But Paul Stasny joins us on the Adam Gold Show. Man, I made it sound, I mean, so much sexier than it is. But is there anything sexier than a series-ending overtime goal? How are you, sir? I'm doing well. They're always nice. It's always nice to put the other team away. Sometimes it's better at home, but on the road it's just as nice because it quiets down the crowd and the guys all have a happy flight home. When you scored the goal, have you seen the video of the goal?

Yeah, I've seen it. I mean, it's not a goal that if you're Ilya Sorokin that you go, well, that's okay. When you threw it out in front, what was your intent? I think when I got it, when you see the replay, when you watch as a casual observer, there's not a lot of things that are open. Before I get the puck, everything kind of slows down, so I kind of see what I have before I get it. And once I know I don't really have a two-on-one in my head, I'm thinking I'm just going to try to throw this on that, you know, not look and you almost throw it and kind of surprise them and whether to get a rebound or just create a little havoc. And I don't know, it's kind of an element of surprise and especially in overtime, I think everyone's always kind of plays a little hesitant. Everyone's always a little nervous. So it's always those bad angle shots that seem to create some kind of chaos or some kind of havoc. And sometimes they go in, sometimes they get us a whistle, sometimes they get us a rebound, but there's never, you know, I've played long enough to realize that, you know, you never want to waste any shots, come playoff time, especially come overtime.

Overtime, you just never know. I mean, I watched on Saturday night, John Tavares score off a defenseman's skate. And Ian, it's just, man, overtime goals are just goofy at times. Are you someone that watches the other series? Yeah, I'll watch, especially I have buddies. Like I watched, uh, you know, some series to me, you know, like if there's a player I like watching, I'll watch those series. Um, sometimes I have interest in different series just based on teams I've heard in the past or buddies I have, but a lot of times, yeah, I try to watch and it's hard the first week because there's the first round, there's so much hockey on it.

You're trying to go back and forth and change channels. And then, you know, you got the kids and everyone wants to watch hockey, but everyone wants to watch hockey to realize there's not enough time in the day sometimes. But I always think the first round playoffs is kind of the best, best hockey, especially on TV, just double headers every night. I mean, four, there were four games every night until we got into the middle of the second week when they kind of stretch things out.

So we wouldn't have conflicts for game sevens and whatnot. Um, but I mean, you have friends, you've been in the, I'm looking at your playoff game log and you've got over a hundred playoff games. Uh, you've got friends all over the league. I do.

Yeah. But I, I mean, just the close ones, you know, the ones I'm really close with, I follow, I kind of, I, you know, it's such a small league. You kind of know someone on every single day. So, you know, you're rooting for your buddies to do well and to be successful and at the same time, uh, you know, yeah. I think when you were younger, you'd be rooting against people. And then when you get older, you realize you want to be happy for your friends or your old teammates or your old teams. And, you know, it's just a better kind of philosophy to live like that. Paul Stasney is joining us here on the Adam Gold show.

All right. So how will you watch tonight? Will you watch just kind of relaxed on the couch, just taking it all in, or will you watch like with an eye on, uh, what match-ups you might see and which players are doing what?

No, I'll just watch regular. I'll, uh, I'll probably watch the first two periods, record and watch a third tomorrow morning, you know, I'll go to bed early, wake up early, but, uh, both teams are really good. They're both kind of like different, but you played them so much, you know, especially these first two rounds, you kind of, she's like USA within your division.

So you kind of know all these guys. So you know that whoever wins, it's going to be a tough matchup for us either way. So, um, you know, you just want to see a good hockey game as, as a fan of hockey, you just want to see game sevens, be good games.

And that's all you care for. So you're going to watch the first two periods live and then record the third period and go to sleep. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I get up, I got kids here and also I got other priorities. So it's just that way to take, I always get up early anyways, and then I can watch the third period without, uh, all like fast forward through commercial. So it takes 20 minutes usually the next morning.

So it's not, it's not that bad that way. That way I go to bed at my normal time, instead of trying to stay up and watch the game that is discipline. You know what happens? You try to stay up and all of a sudden they score late and then it goes in overtime and then it just keeps pushing back your bedtime later and later and later.

Well, that's, that's what happens to me. Um, I, I was in a way, I was thankful that the Boston game was the first game because when Brandon Montore scored with just under a minute left, we had, uh, we had extra hockey. Uh, so will you be rooting for, I don't know, five, six, seven overtimes between the Rangers and devils?

Like I said, it doesn't, it doesn't even matter. I think when I was younger, there'd always be teams I'd root for hoping you play him and then you end up losing that team. So now you come to mindset where like, whoever you play, it's going to be tough. Second round, let them beat up on each other. But I think, uh, like I said, watching that Florida Boston game, like you couldn't ask for a better game seven. That was awesome as just a fan of hockey. And that's what you want to see tonight. It's just, just a good game that whether it goes over time, or it's a one goal game, it's just, you know, it seems to get more eyes to the TV and it just grows the game.

Paul Stasney is joining us here on the Adam gold show. Uh, so it, it, and I've been saying this to people, it doesn't matter whether it's the devils or the Rangers. They're both great teams. They both have tons of offensive firepower, but which is, if you could describe the difference between playing one or the other, what is the biggest challenge against the devils, the biggest challenge against the Rangers?

Um, I don't know. They both have really good power plays. They both, maybe the devils might play a faster transition game. And, but then the devils might have, or then the Rangers might have more like five individual fire, like kind of game breakers, you know, guys that have played big playoff performers, you know, whether it's a terror sink or King where guys like that can, they can steal you a game or two. And you know, when you play against players like that, it's dangerous because you know, the team, you know, have to do nothing. And then one guy could just win you a game in the playoffs series.

That's, that's important. So, uh, yeah, like, like devils play a fast game, a transition game. You know, they can come at you in waves. They're, they're really fast, but then the Rangers kind of Rangers kind of play all around where they can play that game. But at the same time, they can play that physical game and they can rely on, on their goal center to steal them a game and their power play to win them a game. And we certainly saw you, you were not here last year, but we saw what Igor Shostakin can do, uh, in a playoff series.

What was the biggest challenge in overcoming the Islanders? Uh, I mean, knowing when you're playing them, I think before the series, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be physical. It's going to be tight checking. There's not going to be a lot of chances, you know, they, they kind of always play from the back end up and they have a lot of like two way players.

So it's just, you got to play patient. You got to know it's going to be like that. And then sometimes it's frustrating because you'll watch other games and they could be like, you know, seven or five game back and forth, but then sometimes you'll, you know, we'll play Islanders.

There'll be not much. And all of a sudden it's just a two, one game with a power play goal different. So every team kind of presents different challenges. And then, you know, that's what makes playoffs so hard is the first round. You can play a super defensive minded team.

That's going to be physical, hard to get to net, you know, to be able to score. And then the next round, you can play a completely different team and you, you got to change kind of your identity, change the way you play. So I thought we did a good job of being patient, knowing that it might take 60 minutes and you know, you're not going to win any of these games in the first period.

A lot of these games that you have to grind, grind, and kind of stick with the game and kind of trust the process the whole time. Real, real quick, before I ask you a bigger picture question, Paul Stasny is with us here on the Adam Gold show. And by the way, game one will be Wednesday at PNC Arena. We don't know the time yet. That'll be determined after tonight's game seven between the Rangers and Devils. After the second period, did you guys go into the locker room saying that we haven't played our game yet and it's only a one goal deficit? Did you guys feel good about your position at that point?

Well, yeah, I think we felt good because Freddie was unbelievable for us. And then I, I've been in enough games where, you know, you can get dominated, but you're only down one goal and it changes real quick. And you know, I've been on the one on the lead side and on the losing side of those games. So I just knew that, uh, you know, their mindset was they're up one, you know, we're going to give it, we were more desperate come the third period. Cause we had to be, and then they probably sat back with it cause they had to leave and that's just tendency.

That's kind of human nature. So for us, it was more about get to our game as quick as we can and forget about what happened the first two periods because Freddie kept us in it. And then we just kind of went wave after wave and kind of got, got to our game. And it's just because they were more desperate, but be, you know, because they probably sat back with it because they had the lead and, you know, that's what, that's what happens in playoff hockey. It's hard to play aggressive all the time, especially when you're winning, it's playing losing hockey sometimes easier. Cause you got nothing to lose and you got to play aggressive and you know, do you want down one goal? Just knew if we could score one goal, um, you know, we can win the game, whether it's a third period, whether it's overtime.

And you know, like I said, all credit goes to Freddie for the way you played and kind of held us in it for the first 40 minutes. Also, Sebastian Aho is really good after almost eating a puck. So maybe you guys should hit him in the face with a puck all the time.

No, I said he kind of, the way he plays, we kind of just, I mean, we follow his lead. He was unbelievable all series, you know, like not the biggest guy, but he's a strong, powerful guy. And like you said, he, they were physical on them. And then when he took that puck in the face and, you know, he almost felt bad for him and bad balance, but then, you know, he didn't complain about anything. He came right back and didn't shy away from anything. His game never changed. He probably got more aggressive. And I think we kind of followed his lead. I've always liked angry.

I call it angry. Aho is my favorite Aho and final thing for, uh, for Paul Stasney, when you look around the locker room and I know you guys are not processing it like, well, we should have had Max, we should have had Andre and hopefully we'll get Tevo Taravanen back at some point, but it's not the same roster you guys thought you would have at this point in the season. Is there some element of satisfaction that you get that we are still able to do what we're doing in spite of what we don't have?

Do you guys think about it that way at all? Uh, sometimes you do it, but like, I think when you get, you know, the part you're out, when you're on the ice practicing and playing games, we know what we have. And this is our roster and Rad's done a good job of, you know, when we lose the guy, it's always tough. Like when we lose patch or we lose scratch, we lose turbo. Then the initial reaction, maybe the next game, it's a little let down, but then it was a good job of keeping our focus on the guys that are playing, you know, like no one's gonna feel bad for us.

No one's gonna, you know, you don't use excuses. This is part of hockey. Every team's gonna have injuries and it hurts when you lose, you know, through your top left-wingers or left-handed forwards. But at the same time, he's a good job of kind of like, you know, building a culture, building a style play or a style game that we want to play. So, you know, if we do have injuries, we don't have to change much. We can plug a guy in and if everyone kind of plays the same way, we follow the lead of, you know, our captain or follow the lead of Ajo and it just kind of trickles down from there. And I think, like you said, because no one is, no one feels bad for, no one can feel bad for us.

No one used to excuse. We just keep playing, keep playing. And we don't have time to think about like, you know, if we had this or if we had that, cause yeah, we had those guys, we have more scoring, but maybe then all of a sudden, you know, other things don't happen. So we got to just enjoy the kind of situation we're in, have fun with it and realize, you know, you can't take it for granted because you never know what could happen and you never know what year, you know, could be your year to win and you never want to use excuses. So I think when you're in the playoffs, when you have a fighting chance, you know, you have a good team, you have an opportunity to win every game. And I think we know we have a good team and no matter who we play against, it's going to be tough, but we're confident in our group that, you know, we can beat anybody. Well, enjoy the first two periods tonight and then the third period.

And who knows how much more tomorrow? I appreciate your time, Paul. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.

You got it, Paul Stasny. I honestly, no chance I expected that to happen. No, no chance I expected, but I'll watch the first two periods and I'll go to bed. What? I can't do that. I mean, I'm not going to bed till it's over. Yeah. I am a little upset. It's an eight o'clock start.