Liam McHugh, NHL on TNT Host

All righty, this is Zach Gelp Show, Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You will have game four of the Stanley Cup final coming up tomorrow. The Panthers are up two games to one in the Stanley Cup final. Let's go down to Florida. Liam McCuta's great job anchoring all the coverage on the desk for the NHL on TNT, and he's kind enough to join us right now.

Liam, appreciate the time. How have you been? I'm great, man. Best time of the year. It's like 90 degrees.

The most contrasting styles of environment we've had since last year, I guess, at this time. But hey, outside of the travel, this is about as good as it gets. Rematched easily, best on best hockey, and it's produced fireworks, man.

So I went into the Stanley Cup final and I said, my gut tells me. Connor McDavid and the Oilers are going to win, but then a little voice went off in Micah Besa and said, You can't pick against the best team in hockey in the Florida Panthers.

So I ended up taking the Florida Panthers. Truthfully, I don't care who wins. If the Panthers win, it doesn't change my life. If the Oilers win, it doesn't change my life. Neither are my team.

But I was irate. With the game that the Oilers played in game three, because they were trying to be someone that they aren't, and they fell right into the trap of the Panthers. Just how about the way that the Oilers approached that game three? Because I thought it was humiliating. This was the first time we saw the Oilers, like you mentioned, fall into that trap.

This is what the Panthers do. You know, several players in the Oilers a day later confess: we know it's in their DNA. They're going to get in your face. They're going to annoy you. They're going to irritate.

They're going to try to get a response from you and get you out of your game. And they absolutely did that. And in the first period, it was a parade to the penalty box on both sides. And if the Oilers are not going to win the special teams battle, which they did not in that game and I'm not in this series, then they don't have a prayer. They absolutely don't.

There's too much high-end talent. They have to win that. But more than that, they can't play that style. That's exactly what Florida wants. They are built for that.

Sam Bennett is that guy. Matthew Kachuk is that guy. And then they go and bring in Brad Marshan, who could not fit any more perfectly into what they want to do. In between the whistles, and specifically after the whistle was blown. And I thought the big moment in the game and the telling moment was after Sergei Bobrovsky got run into, and there was a goaltender interference penalty, Sam Bennett.

Chase down Victor Arviton, they get center ice, but then Sam Bennett of all people. doesn't take a retaliatory penalty. He grabs him, says something. And I think this is the magic and the important aspect of this new Florida team that maybe two years ago they didn't have. He probably said something that got under his skin.

But then he skated away, and it's almost twice as bad because you're going to the penalty box, Sam Bennett's laughing at you, which the Florida Panthers spent a lot of time doing the other night, and then they go and burn you on the power play.

So the fact that they had the discipline and the Oilers didn't is an enormous problem. It has to be the other way. The others are going to have a chance here.

So, what do you think the response is going to be in game four? Because if the Oilers win game four, it doesn't mean they're going to win this series. But if they lose game four, I just don't see how the Panthers aren't going to find a way to win one more.

So, after getting embarrassed in game three, having a few days to really have it all soak in, what type of team do you think we see from the Oilers in performance tomorrow night? I really do think we see a very different approach from the Oilers. I think Evander Kane specifically is a guy that I look to. You know, he's been the X Factor in the series. He only played two games in the last final.

He was really banged up, and he is that physical force. And in game one, I thought he was excellent. He was exactly what you want about Evander Kane. He went out, he set a tone physically. People really didn't want to challenge him because, unlike a couple of the guys on the Panthers who like to irritate you, Evander Kane will throw down.

And the guys who want to irritate you on Florida, they don't want to drop the glows of Evander Kane. But he didn't pick up penalties.

So he was right there, right where he needed to be. I'd also say this: there's only a few athletes in the world who, when they say something like, We've got to get it going, we're going to turn it on, or what Conor McDavid said, we have not gotten to our best game, but it is coming, you start to worry, right? It is like if Michael Jordan said those words, like, hey, we haven't played the way we can play, but watch out. That thing is coming. Conor McDavid says that.

My ears perk up because I believe him. He is otherworldly and the difference now. this year and maybe last year too. The maniacal drive. Of Conor McDavid is what's separating him from the Conor McDavid in the past.

He's always been the most talented player on the ice, easily most talented player in the world. But now, with that drive and him doing some of the things that Sidney Crosby does, which is the back checking, the defensive part of the game, the dirty stuff. He has both of those. I expect a very, very great response from the audience. Only thing, though, Zach.

The goal tenant. The goaltending is the issue. Listen, I'm sure we're going to get to it. The goaltending is the one thing that I question, and I really wonder what's going to happen. Do you think Skinner's going to start?

I do. I don't think he should. I think they should go to Pickard. Uh now I know Listen, Chris Monbach's been coy about this. He doesn't want to tell you who's going to be in that.

He says it's probably going to be a roster change, but that change could actually be defensively. I think there's a chance that Troy Stetcher comes in, Klingberg comes out.

So, defensively, there could be one roster change. I think they feel like they've gotten to this point. They're so late, and Skinner had been so good up to this point that they're going to ride with him. I think. What worked for them in the past can work for them here.

Which is when Skinner's game goes away, Pickard comes in, the team rallies around him, he plays well enough, they get a win. Then you have a decision to make. Do you put Skinner back in? Because when you put him back in after taking him out, He's fantastic. I don't know why that is, but the reset for him works.

It worked two years ago, worked last year. It could work again this year. I think they should go away from Skinner. I think they should go to Pickard. My gut says that they're not going to.

Liam McHugh here with us. I want to circle back on what you said with McDavid. He has five assists in three games in the Stanley Cup final. Doesn't have a goal. A lot of conversation, obviously, about Conor McDavid.

If he does lose. Another Stanley Cup final here, and it's back-to-back years with the Panthers. We all know he's the best player in the league. Like, that's not up for debate. But how do you think people start to talk about Conor McDavid if it's back-to-back years where the best player in the league loses in the Stanley Cup final?

I think it's similar to how we've been talking about him. And hockey, I think, is unique in this way. All sports have the idea that to be the greatest of all time, you need a championship. But I think hockey really values it, probably values it too much because I think we're looking at someone who does things on the ice that no one's ever done. Uh, absolutely, like he talent-wise, skill-wise, might be the greatest player of all time, and I, you know.

I sit at a desk two seats away from Wayne Gretzky. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say that. We ran some old Gretzky footage the other night just to remind us or remind the people at home that magic existed before Donna McDavid. I think the way he operates and the speed that he operates is just different. That being said, you need the title.

And to get this close. And not finish the job. It'll be a conversation that continues and it will eat at him. Eat at him in a wave. The difference is, I don't know.

I could see him being the type of stubborn player. And maybe this is me just being nostalgic. Because, like, I was, listen, I'll give you a separate: I was a great, huge Knicks fan in the 90s.

Okay. And Patrick Ewing had lost all those times to Jordan and lost to the Pacers and then decided I'm going to be on the Bulls. I would have like he'd never be welcome back in New York in my mind.

So I don't, I think McDavis is the type of guy who's like, I'm gonna do it here. I'm going to get it done with this group. I will make this happen one way or the other. And I think to some extent, Leon Drysaw is that way too.

So they're there. The other side of it, Zach, is. We can be talking about in a year or two. One of the all-time fairs teams. If Florida wins and they wind up re-signing some guys and keep running this back over and over, and you already talked about potential of the modern dice.

There's a lot to unpack there. Let me start you off, though, with the McDavid stuff. Is Liam McHugh's here with us for a few more moments? You know, it hasn't even crossed my mind that he would leave Edmonton. Just because, right, the last 20 years, we've seen Ovechkin with the Capitals, we've seen Crosby with the Penguins.

Is there a lot of conversation that maybe he could be out the door soon there? I think when Leon Drystad signed long term, there was this feeling: okay, Drystad is going to be there. McDavid's going to want to stay. They're going to run this back over and over. Two games into the postseason.

We were preparing ourselves to have the discussion about whether McDavid is going to be looking for other options? Because they were done. I mean, and I think you can ask a lot of the Oilers, coaches, and players how they felt two days in, two games in. And if they were being honest, I think they would say, yeah, it looked like. We didn't have it.

Kings were going to run us out of the building. And it looked like the Kings were potential Stanley Cup finals. And then that conversation had to be had. And I think there was a chance that you'd wonder, is this guy looking for the exit? I think when you get this close, it's hard.

I will tell you this though, I've heard conversations both ways now. I've also heard conversations with if they come back and win it. Who knows? Maybe he brought them a title. He's given them what they wanted.

And maybe he pursues his career somewhere else as well.

So it's interesting. Maybe those are just my colleagues who don't want to fly all the way to Edmonton. I mean, that's possible that that's it as well. And they're just wistful thinking that they don't have to have a couple of stops on the way to heading up north. But I'd love to see him stay.

I think it's just as likely, but I think it's an option, sir. I would think that's a one-way street. If you ask me, if the Oilers want him back, obviously, I think the answer would be yes. If he wants to leave, it would only be because McDavid wants to leave. It wouldn't be the Oilers don't want him back.

Oh, no. No, no, I think it would. Oh, it's a complete one-way street.

So, yeah, if I was unclear about that, like, it is absolutely like if McDavid wants to leave, if he thinks, A, It's just not going to happen here, which I find it hard to believe because you're this close, right? You're this close.

So, um, Or be He has an all-world performance over the next few games. Wins the comms fight again. Gets the Stanley Cup, but deep down inside, something he has not expressed, and I don't know this. Maybe it's in there. He said, I'd like to pursue this somewhere else.

Because then you leave and you're a legend, right? You've given Edmonton what they wanted. You're up there. You're not. And you're not Gretzky, you know, you got that many Stanley Cups, but you're up there.

You have become the player that they drafted.

So I think it's potential. There's potential for that to happen. I mean, I I don't know what's in his heart and his mind, but I think, yeah, I think it's a conversation. Right now, to me, he's a nicer version of this guy, but he did a cross-sport analogy. And right, there's not a lot of controversy with Big David.

Kind of reminds me how I felt like watching Barry Bonds as a kid, where the numbers were just ridiculous. You knew it was something that was so special. And hey, Bonds got to World Series with the Giants and lost to the Angels.

Now we've seen two Stanley Cup appearances, and this is far from over. But if he loses this one, that's what I think the comparison is for me. It would be Barry Bonds a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, because he's bigger than, you know, Mike Trout would be the other one, but Mike Trout didn't get close, right?

Like, so it's, or, you know, at least not consistently.

So yeah, he's that level. I think, and I've said this, we've talked before, I think he's. I think he's the best teams forward athlete in the world. And I don't even think it's something that's debatable right now. I would have said Leo Messi a few years ago, but now that Messi's older, it's not him, it's McDavid.

He is that guy. And the fact that he's added all these different facets to his game, and that's a thing to me also. It's not like you could look at McDavid and say, ah, you know what? He might have been able to lift them to a title. Had he done this and that and worked on defensive parts of his game and cared about back checking and worked on face-offs, he's done all that.

By the way, Yeah. Yeah, s sorry to cut you off, Leo McQueen. What was your reaction? You know, I know that everyone had a good laugh of it on the set, but when the commissioner comes out firing to biz about the no state income tax and all that stuff with the Florida teams, if we had a mic'd-up interview with Liam McHugh right there in that moment where we just did one of those back and forth, what would you be saying about that whole exchange? Because I thought it was great television.

Okay, so we had a meeting earlier in the day. We talked, like, we don't go into detail in our meetings. Like, our show is very loose. But yeah, it's like, hey, listen, we got a couple of questions we're going to ask him. Obviously, Florida hockey and, you know, sixth straight.

Final series with teams from the state. But I said, you know, we can't bring this up without bringing up the state tax. And there were some people who were like, I don't know. And I'm like, it's Gary Devin, he's going to relish them all. Like Please.

Comes to the desk and he's like, I want to ask that question immediately. As soon as I like, it was Bettman's eyes, and I'm looking right at him while Biz is asking this question. Like, his eyes light up. Like, oh, this is going to be fantastic. There we go.

And he is ready and he is just there to shoot that down, body Biz. And Biz is such like a perfect other foil for that because he's like, oh, like, he'll take it and be the bun of the joke. What I thought was funny is like, next up, Pretzky then hit him with, would you change the playoff format? And I'm like, oh my God, like, we're, we're hitting all the hits. This is everything that Bettman has shot down in the past.

And I'm like, what's the next question here that we're going to talk about? Like, it's going to be like expansion to a city that he said was never going to happen. It's. He was on it. He's defensive about it.

I get it. I still think it's a conversation because here's what's going to happen: we're going to get the free agency. Sam Bennett's going to be a free agent that every single person wants. Brad Marchant is going to be a free agent that every single person wants. They are both only going to wind up at teams that have a chance to win Stanley Cups if they leave.

And if they say they are probably going to have to take less money. to fit into the Florida system. And then when you do the math. And it feels like, in the end, if they get the same amount of money that they would have gotten had they gone somewhere else and been taxed. You have to at least sit there and say, yes, it is part of the equation.

It's something that factors in. And I get that years ago, there weren't people coming to the games, and Florida, especially the Panthers, was a place that you would go to to retire essentially in the sports and not have people notice that you've slowed down considerably. It's not like that before.

So I get the edginess because they built something here. But I still think it's a factor. And we're gonna see July 1st, free agency starts. And if these guys wind up taking discounts, now part of that's because they can win, but the other part of that is because they get to keep a lot more of the money. Two more from Liam McHugh.

Nothing to do with the Stanley Cup final here. What did you make of Peter DeBoer getting shown the door in Dallas following the Ottinger comments and all that? Listen, I wasn't completely surprised because I think, in general, in sports, if you're the coach, you can get fired. If you are the franchise player, you cannot. Jake Goddinger is the franchise player.

They paid him. He's their franchise goalie. He is one of the best goalies in the league. I think by the time the Olympics rolls around, I think he's going to be the starting goalie for Team USA. I think he'll start over hell of a good.

Beyond that, he's extremely well liked, very respected in the room, and kind of a quiet, friendly guy who's quietly competitive. DeBoer, I think if you could have that press conference back, he would. I think the decision is his decision, and I didn't love it at the time. But he went in there with an idea about what might happen in that series, it might happen in that game. It did happen.

Goals were scored early, and he decided this is what I feared. I'm making a move. Fine. I think the press conference fumed him. I don't think the decision did, the press conference did.

That being said, I also think Pete DeBoer is going to probably have. The pick of the next job openings in the NHL because of his track record. He wins. everywhere. He wins everywhere.

He gets to the conference final, and I know, oh, I didn't win the cup. There's a lot of teams that would like to get to the conference final that don't even make the playoffs.

So, you know, as someone who spent a lot of time in Buffalo, I can tell you right now, the conference final sounds gorgeous. Yes. Last thing I'll ask you.

So, a little over a year ago, I had a flight to Florida. And it was the night the Rangers were playing game six up against the Hurricanes, and I'm a huge Rangers fan. And I had to watch the Chris Kreider comeback and the hat-trick in the third on the plane. And I wanted to put out a video, but I knew I couldn't start screaming at my seat because then they'd probably duct tape me to the seat and that wouldn't be good.

So I ran into the bathroom and I'm a large man at six foot four. And I'm like crouched over, given the instant reaction by the bathroom near the pilot.

So I didn't want to yell and get like just destroyed walking out of the bathroom.

So that was me, though. And then the Rangers we know lost in the Easter Conference finals after being up 2-1 to the Florida Panthers. A year later, this was a Ranger season that was a disaster. In November, December, I knew this team wasn't going anywhere. You saw the reporting all last night throughout the day.

The deal's not finalized, but it appears that Kreider is going to the ducks. To see what happened with the Rangers from last year to this year, is it just okay? It was one bad year, or is this going to spiral into many years of frustration for Zach Gelb, the Ranger fan? Oh I Hammer clunk was on our panel has talked about, but he still believes that the court could win. and that's big now cristrado's a big part of that core Uh, he was never going to be a 50 goal scorer again.

And there's some talk about net front presence guys and how they age. I don't know. I saw a joke with Elsie Playdover. Yellow. Sure.

Late 30s, and Kryder's bigger than Pavelski, and he's still got that hand eye. I actually feel like he's a valuable asset. You can still get a ton out of him.

So it's interesting. But they have a new coach, Mike Sullivan, and you know. Deals are going to get made. And Mike Selden got a good look at him, right? He was the head coach of that Four Nations team, and Chris Crider was on it.

So there's that. The best thing you have going for you is that you're the envy of almost every other team because of your goalie. Igor Shasturkin is all world. You have a chance to win always because you have Igor Shasturkin. You need to bounce back here badly.

From Fox. Adam Fox has got to be better. He was nowhere near the guy who was a Norris Trophy winner. He looked a little slower. He looked a lot more indecisive.

The talent is there. I still think it's possible. He was a, I think he was. A collection of awful things that happened in one year, and the fact that it happened right after the team won the president's trophy, went to the conference final, only made it worse. And then they had all the authized things with Leaks about plans for trades.

I mean, it was a bad locker room and a worse product on the ice. It can only be better. I think they're a playoff team. I just don't know that. I believe it.

the core like Tank says, is still a championship court. I think it's a playoff core. I don't know that it's a championship. I don't think it's a championship core. NHL and TNT's very own Liam McHugh could catch him tomorrow night and all throughout the Stanley Cup final before, during, and after the games.

Liam, we appreciate it. Thanks so much. You got it. Take care. Thanks for having me.