He was just at PNC, and hopefully he’ll be back… or maybe not…

John Forslund was in the building on Thursday night last week. I walked down into the B-side of Press Row and looked up and there I saw my friend John Forslund doing national radio for the Eastern Conference semi-finals. I hope he will be in the building when the Hurricanes open up this series, which, I don't know, could be Thursday, could be later.

Don't know. John might. John, how are you, sir? I'm great, Adam. How are you?

I'm doing well. Are we going to have you as a guest? Well, uh, you know, a lot of times when you do these playoffs in my position, you sit there and you watch games and you're told if this team wins, you're going here. If this team wins, you're going there. And human nature takes over and you have favorite places and you're like, well, geez, I really hope this happens because this is an easier flight. This is a team that I might know better than the others, a better broadcast position, whatever.

Uh, but it's the best position I've ever been in. So if my team wins tonight, the Seattle Kraken. Right. And they move on to the Western final.

I'll go do that. If they lose, then I stay and I will be in the East and I will be at PNC arena on Thursday night. Gosh, now you've me. I'm torn because I want the Kraken to win. I'm not really that torn to be honest with you. I mean, I know who I want to win tonight and I know where I want to get back to if I get that opportunity to walk in the climate pledge arena in the third round of the Stanley cup playoffs. That's what I hope happens, but I will take the consolation prize. That's a nice consolation prize.

All right. We'll get to, we'll get to Seattle, uh, in a second, but I wanted to ask you this because I was really hoping, uh, to, to see you right after the game. I did not realize like our, the pregame, the postgame show was just off the rails, uh, for, uh, for us on the radio. But what, what, what was your impression of watching the hurricanes, especially in that game when I thought New Jersey throw eight four out the window? I thought game five or game five of that series was the best. The devils had played forget about the hurricanes. I thought that was the best performance for the devils because Carolina played a good game and New Jersey was every bit there equal. Uh, so what was, what was your impression of that game? So, so my takeaway of that game was how impressed I was with the maturation level of this group. And the fact was that the devils were playing for the no tomorrow philosophy. It showed a really good young team that was going through this cycle for the first time. Um, you know, playing their best, best game of the series, closest game of the series, but the, the hurricanes just stayed true to their philosophy and their game plan.

And that shows me that they're hardened again. They're this team has been through a lot, this group of players. Uh, this is a window right now for them to win it all. Uh, I think they realize that, uh, I don't think they'll get to the third round if they don't have good fortune.

I don't think it's going to be, you know, let's have a parade. I think they want to get to the final with this group of players and they've been able to survive, you know, substantial injuries and, and roster adjustments. And the only way you survive any of that is to be well coached and have a level of maturity and they have it there. And to watch Jacob Slavin play the way he is, is remarkable, absolutely remarkable. And, uh, just continues to be one of the best defenseman in the national hockey league.

So those two things are, uh, what I took away from walking out of the building that night, which was a really neat experience for me personally, to be there, see it, call it and, uh, and then get on a flight to Vegas. John Forslund is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Jacob, I, I oftentimes kind of chuckle at the three stars in the building. Um, Jacob Slavin was the best player with that was, I mean, he was the best player on the ice.

He did not get one of the three stars. Well, the three stars, the three stars have become a joke in most buildings. Right.

Um, they have been here for a long time in my opinion. Uh, it's a marketing thing and it's usually the obvious choices based on statistics and whoever scores the winning goal and those types of things. And Jacob's never going to get the proper recognition because of the way he plays. Unfortunately, he's going to get left out of most North's trophy conversations because he doesn't record enough points. Um, but Pocky people know people that I talk to on a daily basis know and have known for a long time. So even the underrated where he plays narrative doesn't work anymore.

That doesn't, that doesn't hold any, any air whatsoever for me. So Rod said after the game that he thought that Jacob might be the best defensive defenseman he's ever seen. Now that could be Jacob just played one of those Jacob Slavin games in a game that they needed him to do that. But I mean, how far off would rod be?

He's not far off. He's not, he's a, he's an unbelievable player and has been for a long time and he's a great defenseman. You know, this, this category of, of defenseman boggles my mind to, um, offensive defenseman, defensive defense. Even Paul Coffey was the epitome of, of in his era of maybe what an offensive defenseman was, but he defended really pretty well because he had the puck all the time and he knew how to play in his own end. And, and, and he was very good. He was very good at pickpocketing guys and not giving up the blue line. Lidstrom was one of the greatest of all time. Um, you know, but listen, when, and going way back when, when Bobby or played, uh, Larry Robinson to me was very similar to Slavin. You know, uh, that's the type of player that I see in Robinson never was a top scoring defenseman, but he could get points and maybe Slavin could have more points if they didn't utilize a four forwards on every power play, like every team does today. So you have one option as a D usually to throw out there. And that guy's with this team has to be burns. It has to be cause he's elite that way. So, but Jacob Slavin is a remarkable player and has to be the most valuable player in the hurricanes without question.

All right. What, uh, what do you think John Forsen is with us before I go to the crack? And what do you think Tevo Tara vine and would add to Carolina's mix? And they got through two rounds of the playoffs.

Yeah, he was in games one and two against the Islanders until overtime against the Islanders, which yes, per fast, by the way, uh, one with an elite shot past the alias broken. Uh, what do you, what, what does Tevo add when he comes back? Well, it gives them a piece. They're probably going to need to kind of balance things out against what they're up against. Um, you know, I've watched them all year because of, you know, where my heart is a lot and off nights and whatever. So I'm always following this team closely, um, care about the players. Uh, he's had kind of a sleepy season, right?

So it's kind of a indifferent year by his standards. Um, I hope that, you know, he comes into their lineup and gives them the spark that they need the way he plays, because I think they're going to need another piece offensively, um, to go up against what, what you're going to see in the next series, uh, Florida, you know, throw away the regular season. They're playing well at the right time. They're playing better than anybody. They knocked out two giants to get to where they're at right now. A really good balance and a level of grit.

That's interesting to watch. Um, but the way to combat that, the way the hurricanes always combat a little bit of heaviness that might come from the other side is with their team game, with their great defensive style and having a game breaker like him to do it at the right time. So that's why I think you just kind of slide them in and if he can get to the level where he expects to be, that'll really help. I've always said about Tara Vine and he is the, he is the conduit to everything. He unlocks Sebastian Aho at times. He makes the power play better. He makes the penalty kill better. He has been that good.

All right. Now to your team, John, uh, the one that, uh, that employs you to do their games on TV. They have been a remarkable story and looked great in game six. They have won games on the road. Everybody's won games on the road, including the hurricanes.

Um, what, what do you make of where they are at this point? I mean, one, when a game seven on the road and it's the two most recent expansion teams playing for the Western conference title. Well, it's, it's remarkable and yes, they're expansion, but I think, you know, we've talked about this before their, their roster, the crack and roster is laden with experience cup winning experience.

And I believe, I think I have the numbers and if they're not exactly right, it's close. The roster that takes the ice tonight in Dallas is a collective 34 and seven and game sevens in their career. So they, they, they know, they know what they're doing. Uh, they've already beaten the defending champions three times in their building and first in the first round, including game seven. So they had that been there, done that thing working and they played their best home game of the season in game six and, and looked, you know, it looked like they were overwhelming Dallas at times with their speed and their four checking and their balance because it's a team that comes in waves.

It's just, it's one line after another. There isn't much difference among the four forward lines. There isn't much difference among the three defense pairs. Uh, Phillip Grubauer's goaltending is where it has been throughout the last two months of the regular season and playoffs. They have a real good chance to win tonight and move on.

It's a, it's a terrific story. It doesn't surprise me though, to be honest with you, um, because I have the privilege of watching this and watching these guys work like they have all year. And I know the kind of chemistry that they have and, you know, and being around teams throughout my career that have gone all the way. That's the one thing that doesn't change your talent changes, the people change, but the chemical equation in the locker room, which I'm sure a local team has here.

Um, that's the key. That's the key to wanting to keep going, wanting to keep playing when your will tells you, you might not have enough or it's too much, or you want, you want it to be over. You know, those things kind of mentally creep into an athlete's mind and, and the way the Kraken are playing right now, they just love each other and they want this thing to continue. Let me ask you one quick question before we have to say goodbye to John Forslund, TV voice of the Seattle Kraken.

And like, I might even say, hopefully, uh, we'll see, he either gets to do with games of the team he works for, or he gets to do, uh, our games on the radio here in the East. Is there an almost automatic chemistry from a group that's kind of been thrown together through an expansion draft, like a bunch of cast offs, did that help Vegas in their first year when they got to the Stanley cup finals? Uh, did it, does it help Seattle? I know it's year two, but does it help Seattle?

Cause there's so many players who have kind of come from different spots. One, one to the Vegas narrative and what happened in Las Vegas, I'm going to tell you from an outsider's perspective and what I know from being around them and in that season and covering them in the playoffs and covering them nationally over the years. And I'll tell you exactly from a personal standpoint, what happened with Seattle. And there's two things when Vegas was ready to launch. Remember the trip to the terrible tragedy, the shooting in Las Vegas, right?

Yes. That, that event shook the earth, obviously all of us, but that was a rallying point for that team. At that time, they came together, they had an automatic community bond, uh, in, in play there and it continued throughout the year. And then they rode this amazing emotional roller coaster ride that continued to ascend all season until they got into the playoffs with a spectacular goaltending performance for Mark Andre flurry. And they utilized the misfits ideal of yes, we're all misfits here.

We're all cast offs of our team, which is what most expansion teams do and a way to go with the crack. And it was COVID the COVID season was so miserable. The protocols that were in place made it so difficult for the cracking players to come together as a group of guys. They couldn't fraternize away from the rink like you should. They couldn't have a Halloween party.

They couldn't have a Christmas party. They couldn't do a lot of things with the, with the fans that you would normally do to understand who the fans are and have one-to-one contact. So when they came back in the second year, there was a new found energy of we were back in Seattle. We understand what this town is all about. We know how to get around. We understand our neighborhoods. We all have the houses now.

We all live here. We love this area and we don't have restrictions anymore and we can act like a team and some roster adjustments were made by Ron Francis and it all fell into place. But I felt, I, cause I said it too, in various interviews, I felt in training camp that it was way different. I had no idea that you'd be talking about a game seven in the second round of the playoffs.

Nobody would go there, but I knew they would be different mentally and carry themselves in a much more positive vein. So I think those two outside circumstances kind of lifted the inspiration for each team and hey, they could play in the conference final. And we do know they're playing in the winter classic next year, Vegas and Seattle in Seattle. So that's going to be fantastic. That will be great. All right, sir. I am rooting for you.

And if I don't see it during the conference finals, I know it's for a good, a good reason. I appreciate your time, John Forslund. Well, you'll know where to find me as usual. Anyway. Yes. All right. Take care. I'll talk to you later. Okay. I am.