Brian Boucher, Former NHL Goalie

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Auto Trader. All righty. Game seven of the Stanley Cup Final comes your way later tonight. The Florida Panthers at one point were up 3-0 in the Cup Final, and now we have a game seven.

Holy smokes. What Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers have done the last three games is just surreal. Now joining us is Brian Boucher, the former NHL goaltender.

He does a great job all throughout the year. NHL on TNT, and he's kind enough to join us right now. Boucher, always appreciate the time.

Thanks so much for it. How you been? Yeah, great to be with you.

Doing good. At the finish line, can't wait. It's been a long year, but boy, it's gonna end with some drama here tonight.

Should be great. Yeah, I thought the finish line was gonna end last week. I can't even believe that we have a game seven. What have you seen since the Oilers did fall down 3-0 in this series? How have they been able to get these last three wins? Well, they played North hockey.

I think a team that has so much skill, they've not tried to over complicate their game. They've just gotten the puck North. They've stretched the neutral zone. They found ways to get their speed game going. And I think for a team that probably fancies itself on trying to create plays and find east-west plays, they just took what was given to them.

And now looking for another play, just get it to the net. And they found ways to get pucks past Sergei Bobrovsky in game four. And from there, the confidence took over. And to be honest with you, I feel like Edmonton, in five of the six games, probably deserved to win. And the fact that they were down 3-0 in this series, give credit to Sergei Bobrovsky, a big reason why the Panthers were up 3-0. But the Oilers, I feel like, have been the better team for a huge chunk of this series.

And finally, they're starting to get results. When you talk about Bobrovsky, we know how sensational of a goalie he is. But when you've lost three straight, there's this whole mental game that gets a part of it. What do you expect from Bob tonight in game seven?

That's a great question, and I don't really have an answer for you. I don't know what we're going to get from Sergei Bobrovsky tonight. The one thing I know as an ex-goally is that when confidence slips, it's hard to stop that momentum going in the wrong direction. And something has to happen for you to gain your confidence back, whether it's a series of big saves, a key save at a key moment.

That can kind of spark you and get you going in the other direction. But for Bobrovsky, I feel like a guy that was just so confident, so calm at the start of the series, getting pulled in game four, seemed to rattle his cage a little bit. And he's had a tough time in gathering that confidence back.

All eyes will be on him or here early on tonight. I think Florida has to do a better job defending in front of them. I think Florida needs to score first. I think they need to extend the lead if they do score first and give Sergei Bobrovsky a little bit of breathing room so that he can kind of get his legs underneath them and get his confidence back. But if that doesn't happen, they fall behind. It's one of those feelings of the goalie, like, here we go again.

And it's hard to get that confidence when you fall behind. So we'll see what happens tonight. But look, either way, it's gonna be a great storyline. If the Oilers pull it off and come back and win this series, the talk will be about McDavid and what this team has done. It'll be a historic moment. And if Florida is able to stop this runaway train that's been going on in the last three games and win, that'll be a hell of a story, too.

So it should be great. Talking to Brian Boucher right now with us on the Zach Gelb show for a few more minutes. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like I have so much respect for the Panthers. I'm a Ranger fan, and I've been saying all throughout the year, Boucher, that they're the best team in hockey, the Panthers. And I just know how physical they are and how much they control the puck. To see what they've looked like really the last three games and how that speed of the Oilers like you were talking about, it's one of those things when a team is just used to being at the run that they've been on the last two years, that it looks like their confidence is totally gone. And now, obviously, momentum is totally on the side of the Oilers. Yeah, and they look slow.

They look tired. A team that was so good at possessing the puck in the offensive zone and forechecking and retrieving pucks and winning 50-50 puck battles, they're slow to everything. They're just a step behind. And the Oilers seem to be anticipating where the puck's going next. And the Panthers have had a tough time in figuring that out. And some key players have really gone dry for the Panthers in this series. Like, Carter Verhage has been invisible.

Minus nine in the series. I know some of that is empty net or goals against. But a guy that has scored some big goals for the team has been quiet.

Sam Reinhardt has been quiet. Only one goal in the series. Matthew Kuchuk. I know in the second half of game five, he looked terrific. But aside from that, I can't say that I've noticed Matthew Kuchuk in this series.

Sam Bennett, I guess you could say the same thing. And then their depth, their third and fourth line has been nowhere near as good as Edmonton's depth. So if it wasn't for Evan Rodriguez and Alexander Barkov, who knows?

And Sergei Bobrovsky. I mean, who knows? This could have been a way shorter series, but they're alive. They got a chance. All they got to do is win one game.

We'll see how it goes. But there's no doubt that the speed and the confidence of Edmonton is taken over here in this series. We know momentum is a real thing, right? As talk to host analysts, right?

People that follow the sport. Everyone talks about momentum, momentum, momentum in a moment like this. I know you got hurt in that comeback against the Bruins when the Flyers were down three on that series that ended up winning in game seven. But did you guys at all feel in that locker room a total momentum shift?

And when did it occur when you look back at that series? Yeah, it's funny when you look back on it, you can feel the momentum. You feel good about yourself. But it's funny when you're on the side of where it's going well for you, you don't feel like the momentum carries from game to game. Like when the puck drops, like it hasn't carried over for it's two days in between games.

You don't feel like it carries. But there's something about it where you get the breaks almost all the time in those situations. You'll get the hit post that the puck stays out and then you go the other way and score. And then when you look back on it in hindsight, you're like, yeah, boy, we really did have the momentum. But in the moment you don't feel it. You feel confident. You feel good.

You kind of earn your breaks. But I don't know that you feel it when the puck drops. Now for Florida, they probably feel like it's slipping from them. And I've been in that situation too. In 2000, we were up 3-1 in the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Final and we couldn't get it done. And when I look back on that, it felt like everything that we were trying to do, we got in our own way. And so, yeah, momentum is certainly there during the game, but you got to find a way to kickstart it each and every game in order to get it in your direction. And I feel like we did it in that Boston series with the Flyers. And I feel like Edmonton is doing it right now. They found something in each and every game that they start. They're finding a way to get momentum back in their favor. It may seem like a silly question, Brian Boucher, but when you're down 3-0, clearly you got to win or you're done.

And then Florida would win the Stanley Cup. But you're pressing, right? It's all hands on deck and you know what the job is. I wonder at all, and obviously they know what's at stake tonight, if the Oilers exhaling after game six maybe impacts them into game seven tonight, just with the mental grind it's been the last three games.

Well, here's the thing. See, when you're down 3-0, I think all pressure is off you. I think the mentality is just relax, play, let's just go have fun. I bet you that's the message in almost every locker room, every situation when you're down, every team I've played for. And when you're down like that, guys, let's just relax.

Let's just go out and play, right? And you leave it all out on the ice. And if you give an effort and you lose, then you tip your hat to the opposition. I think the pressure was all on Florida in game four because they knew that if they lose game four now, the pressure really is on them to close it out at home in game five. And then what if you don't close it out in game five?

Now what? So the pressure has always been on Florida from the minute was 3-0. And what Edmonton now I think is going to feel, finally for the first time, they may feel a little bit of pressure because I don't know of anybody that I've talked to that says Florida is winning tonight. So Paul Bissonnette, I think I saw someone said that he predicted a 4-3 Panthers win.

He may be the only person predicting that. I think everybody's expecting Edmonton and those expectations sometimes can create pressure. How will Edmonton handle it?

We'll find out tonight. How would you put it into words, Bouche, if they do this, where they complete the comeback and McDavid, we know he's the best player in the sport. If he's the one that kind of leads this comeback and they're able to come back from down 3-0, how would you put that into words what this does for the legacy of McDavid and what it really means for the sport? Well it'll be the greatest comeback in Stanley Cup final history and it may go down as the greatest series ever. I mean I wasn't around for the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs comeback so I can't speak to that and that may have been a heck of a series. But this will no doubt be the greatest Stanley Cup final ever in modern history. And Connor McDavid, who is the best player in the world on the face of the planet, he is the best, will cement his legacy with this win.

And this could catapult him to multiples is what it could do. And it'll be a heck of a moment for the league. It'll be a heck of a moment for a franchise that had a heck of a run in the 80s. But it'll also be a heck of a story if Florida finds a way to stop the bleeding and win, which is why sport is the greatest of reality TV. We do not know what is going to happen tonight. As much as we can think we know or predict or anticipate, you drop the puck, anything can happen. And I can't wait to see how Edmonton responds and I can't wait to see how Florida responds.

It's going to be a heck of a night. Two more for Brian Broucher. How about on the goalie side for Edmonton with Skinner?

He's really taking his game to the next level. What have you seen him improve on? You know, he doesn't have to be great.

He just has to be adequate. And we've seen enough goalies here in recent history where that just needs to be the case. Go back to 2010, Ante Niemi for Chicago got it done. Darcy Kemper got it done for Washington. Aidan Hill got it done last year for the Vegas Golden Knights. So goal tenders that aren't of the highest ilk, you just have to do their part. And I think if you go back to game four, when the Oilers got up 8-1 and you watch that third period and the the Oilers gave up a lot of quality chances in that third period and that score could have been 8-3, 8-4 at the end of the game.

And people may not have paid attention. It's not a big deal, but I'm telling you the goalie, he had so many quality opportunities against them and Skinner locked in and he focused on that third. He gave them nothing. He robbed Matthew Kuchuk on an empty net one-timer. So that frustrated Kuchuk. And I think in that game, in that moment, in that third period Skinner, it proves something to him and he got momentum on his side and his confidence back. So give credit to him. He could have easily just kind of floated through that third period.

And if it goes to 8-4 and they win 8-4, yeah, they get the win. But is is Stewart Skinner the same goalie that we're seeing in game five and game six? I don't know.

Maybe not. He's found his game and he's found that at the right time. Well, last thing I'll ask you, obviously with what you said, it sounds like you're going Edmonton tonight, but how do you see the game kind of playing out and what kind of game do you think we're heading to with this game seven? Well, I mean, I don't bet it, but if I had to bet it and I was putting my own money on it, how could you go against what Connor McDavid's done? I mean, I know last game he didn't have a shot on goal and he had no points, but he's got 11 points in the series.

He's put this team on his back. It seems almost impossible that it's not going to go his way in this game. But in saying that, if Florida scores first, the team that has scored first has won five of the six games in this series. There's been very little lead changes in games.

So the team that gets up pretty much is the one that wins. If Florida scores first and if they find a way to extend the lead, now we're going to see an Edmonton team who I think when they have to catch up, I think the coach, Chris Knoblauch at times loses patience. We haven't seen it in a long time, loses patience and wants to put dry settle with McDavid. The minute you put dry settle with McDavid, I know logically it probably feels like it's an advantage for the Oilers.

I don't think it is. I think it hurts the rest of their lineup. I think they're better when they spread them out and they spread them out by playing with the lead. So get Edmonton behind, get them chasing, get them pressing, and who knows? I mean it's a game that Florida hasn't gotten to at all since game two in my opinion of the series.

If they can get to it, maybe they can frustrate them. But like I said, if I had to put my money on it, if I'm not, it would be Edmonton I'd be going with. You know what it feels like? Like you look at some of the biggest sports comebacks ever in playoff, like NFL, Super Bowl, Brady coming back from down 28-3, David Ortiz with the Red Sox coming back down 3-0 against the Yankees in the ALCS, LeBron coming back from down 3-1 with the Golden State going up against the Golden State Warriors. You have moments like this, you usually have an all-time great player, and that certainly is Connor McDavid.

Yep, that's exactly it. It's usually a star right in the middle of it and that's why it feels like it's McDavid's time. It's probably from a sports standpoint, maybe if you can take all the other sports, I don't know, I'm not huge in other sports, but the Red Sox in 0-4, I feel like it would be that comeback. It was 0-4 that they came back when Dave Roberts stole second base, it would be that moment.

It's as big as this, it's as big as that in my opinion. Yeah, I have two producers with me that are Yankee fans, so they're like mother bleeping you right now, they're not happy with me, Brian Boucher. Yeah, they won plenty, it's all good, they can relax.

That one still hurts them right at the heart to this day. But Boosh, enjoy Game 7 today, we appreciate you carving out some time with us today. All right, you bet, you bet, thanks for having me. There you go, Brian Boucher joining us live on the Zach Gelb Show, day of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

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