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Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final?
Back in on Canuck Central, Sat and Bic coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Keep your thoughts coming in to our Dunbar Lumber text inbox, 650-650. We have overrated, underrated coming up in the next segment. So get those submissions in and keep getting your thoughts in as well. And this hour of Canuck Central is brought to you by your lower mainland Boston pizza.
The playoffs are here and BP is ready. So skip the couch, catch every hit, every goal, every save, every playoff beard. This is how you watch playoff hockey. And without much further ado, let's go to the Able Auctions hotline and welcome in our next guest. It is Kevin Woodley in Goal Magazine and NHL.com. And he is a presentation, as always, of White Rock Hyundai. What's happening, Woodley?
Not much. How are you guys doing today? We're doing well. We're doing well.
Just chilling. You know, we counted down the days of the draft. We enjoyed the Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final last night. That was a wild one. That was a good one. That was a good one. So, I mean, how... We've seen Game 1s get loose from time to time, and that one happened last night. What did you make of the chances both teams were giving up?
Yeah, they were more than they were used to seeing. And that said, like, you know, I talked to you guys about how Vegas has...
sneakily gotten more high danger chances five on five than any other team in the playoffs and i think that surprises people and how a lot of them are sort of the greasy goals like it's not just the skill that we saw last night uh it's how they started the comeback i mean bodies to the front of the net uh they leave the family cup playoffs in goals off of rebounds screens tips deflections broken plays like they're number one and i think you saw that on the first one like hey even on the even on the winning goal as much as a skill play to hurdle
up top and he crosses the slot line, gets across the middle, makes that a high danger play as soon as he does. The reason Freddie Anderson's so far behind on that is when that pass comes out of the corner, there's traffic.
And it's the screen and fudge that prevents him from getting a read clean and quick on where that puck is headed and delays him getting out and on top on hurdle and getting across. So, you know, they've got everything in their game. They showed it last night. Overall, though, I mean, you look at You know, nine high danger for Vegas, almost three expected goals against.
Carolina had 10 high dangers, you know, three and a quarter expected goals for. That's a lot more offense than I think either team is used to giving up. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest here. Like, Seth Jarvis, you know, he hits his spot in the pre-scout, what was it, 20 seconds before Hurdle scores the winner. Like, you saw in the first goal, Ehlers comes down the wing,
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Chapter 2: How did goaltending performances affect the game's outcome?
Like, It's pretty tough when you're not seeing a lot of rubber, you're not feeling a lot of pucks, but every time you do, it's high danger. And last note on that too, something that I was critical of Montreal doing, I thought Vegas did a better job as the game went on. They're not feeding pucks into Frederick Anderson's puck handling.
They're making it harder on him to go out and get rims and stop rims and make plays and feel the puck and stay connected to the game. You saw in the first Carolina goal, he gets out, makes an easy rim or makes an easy stop on the rim, throws it up the wall. It leads to a transition chance. I didn't see a lot of that as the game went on. I thought it was something Montreal did a poor job of.
They let him stay settled in a game where he wasn't busy by feeding him easy touches behind the net. And I think that's important for Vegas not to do that. And outside of the first 30 seconds of the game, they made it tougher on him. Most of the rims were up along the glass. Made it a lot tougher on him to get out, touch pucks, get a feel for the pucks, get a feel for the game.
That just makes sense.
so much harder when you're not being shot and you're not getting puck touches so you mentioned the glove side on heart what is the equivalent for Friday Anderson or if you want to expand on the heart one as well just what are the areas of the net or what what parts are these two teams going to be attacking the goalies on well interestingly enough on the Carter Hart thing like um like that's just if you're looking glove high versus low you want to go over the pad I mean it's just
Yeah, inherently, if you hold your hand up like that, like in that stop position, it's just an awkward, delayed reaction to get it down over the pad. It protects the top of the net extremely well, but it's just that much harder to sort of twist that wrist down. And we saw it on Dobish. We saw it on other goalies during the playoffs. It's something that shooters are taught to look for.
Freddie Anderson is more of that neutral handshake. And so for him, it's going to be a little delayed up and over the shoulder, like he'll there's give and take to everything in goaltending and glove positioning is one of them. If you hold it a little lower, you give up high. If you hold it a little higher, you give up low. And it's just a matter of recognizing that.
Overall, though, honestly, if I'm... Carolina, I'm probably going after Carter Hart on the blocker side. We saw the one go in. That's the seventh one between the blocker and the body in the playoffs so far. Stuff off the wing, stuff against the grain. 37.5% of his chances or goals that have gone in are against the grain. So move it one way, shoot the other.
The highest I've seen in the playoffs in a number of years. So I think you can look at them to attack the blocker a little more even than they did. Colorado with two to one shot Walker side versus love. I think that book is out a little bit and I think you'll see Carolina try and go to school on it as well. But I mean, to me, we can talk about where to shoot on these guys all you want.
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Chapter 3: What strategies did Vegas use to create high danger chances?
They'll create the traffic. But then they also have skilled guys to find the spots. And to your point, Sat, it's a really good one. Not so much on Freddie Anderson per se. Like, to me, every goalie, I would be working to attack them low, high and behind the net.
Like you force them to, as soon as you force them to pick a side of the crease or a post to be on or force them to turn and look behind them, like they give up vision of everything in front of them. As soon as you have to look behind the net, you lose track of where guys are moving on the other side of that. And so you can be just a half second late to pick up where that pass is going.
And I think the same applies to defensemen. I've never had this conversation with defenders, but it seems clear to me that Vegas working below the goal line and out of the corners, forcing the Carolina defenders in a man-on-man defense to sort of have to turn and look and find their guys who are moving off puck while still keeping track of it down low. It just feels to me...
like that's something that they're either going to have to adjust to or just do a better job in their coverage of because it looked like Vegas was having success on it. Like, again, I think that's so much a Freddie Anderson thing as a way to exploit that system perhaps and one that's going to be hard on any goaltender on the other end and to get those looks.
Now, the one thing on Freddie, and Carter does this too, and it was actually in my pre-scout on Carter, less so on Freddie because he only does it on the one side, When that puck gets close below the goal line around the net, as soon as you see a goalie reach out with that stick to cut off that lane, that automatically means on a pop pass, you've got to go far side one tee.
Because that reach with the stick delays their ability to get that far side coverage. So as soon as you see that stick out there, it's A, you've got to get that pass.
beyond it either over it or just outside of it but you know that reach creates a delay to the far side of the net as soon as that pop pass connects into the middle it's got to be a 1T and it's automatically got to be far side of the net and if you can execute and the goalie continues to do it I don't want to say it's an automatic goal every time but it's pretty close.
Is there also because you mentioned Vegas just kind of expanding on that is there enough Offensive diversity and how Carolina wants to create their chances, that seems like maybe Vegas has an edge in that in trying to create different looks?
Yeah, funny enough because we've always thought of Carolina as this pucks to the net team, but they rely a little more on skill, on rush plays, on the type of things that we saw them create with Ehlers. Obviously, there's a ton of pressure and forecheck pressure in their game that forces turnovers and creates time and space for those skilled players to make skilled plays, but
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Chapter 4: How did Carolina's offensive approach differ from Vegas's?
Um, but, but having the center depth they have in the way that everybody buys in around that center depth, five men units up and down the ice. I think that's been a massive part of the success they're having in the playoffs. And,
You know, you get a little more focus under Torts, maybe a few defensive tweaks, a little more sort of collapse back to the house, not to the extremes we saw when he was with the Rangers, but a little more shot blocking. You know, it really is hard to believe this is a team that we wondered would make the playoffs, now looks like a team that, you know, frankly, ever since Torts took over,
it's hard to imagine anyone beating them. And tomorrow night becomes a massive game for Carolina Hurricanes because it's really hard to picture anyone beating Vegas four out of five.
Just looking big picture as well. You know, there was a stretch here in the 2020s when you would look at the four goalies remaining in the conference finals, and it was Vasilevsky, Bobrovsky, Sorokin, Shosturkin, Price a little bit of a run there, Jake Ottinger out west. And then I look at the final four this year.
Freddie Anderson, Carter Hart, as we've discussed, and the Woods in Colorado, and Dobish in Montreal. Is this maybe finally a year where we kind of get back to the 2010s and it's about the overall environment than it is about the marquee goalie that's kind of defined this era so far?
Yeah, I mean, maybe, Vic, but I'd argue that even, you know, like, I'd argue that a large portion of the success that some of those bigger names had was tied to the environment. You know, As good as Vasilevsky was, Kemper also defended really well. Same with Florida.
Like Bob made game-changing saves behind that D, but it was still always graded out as one of the best defensive environments for a goaltender in the playoffs. So, you know, when we saw Colorado win a cup with Darcy Kemper, you know, definitely not at its best in splitting time with Pavel Prentz too. So I think it's part of a shift Yes.
And, and again, this is a message I've at the risk of somebody knocking on the door or pulling up to my car alongside me here and ripping my goalie union card out of my hands. Like, you know, I've said that I've had this conversation with goalie coaches around the league and they'll admit like, what do you want to build a team with?
Even as a goalie coach, do you want an elite number one goaltender, a great top four defense or, you know, four good centers down the middle. And most goalie coaches will tell you, you can be a great top four on defense and, Give me some center depth, and I can build you a goalie that'll win for you.
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Chapter 5: What adjustments do both teams need to make for Game 2?
He goes back to the American League and does the head coaching thing. He has success. You heard Ryan Johnson talk about the consistency of his delivery when they weren't having success last year. Just checks a ton of boxes in terms of the path he's taken to get to here. The alignment top to bottom gives you faith and hope that they're going to do this the right way.
And everything I've heard about him from opponents in the American Hockey League when I used to go out there on a more regular basis, opposing coaches and management, the players that I talked to this year in the Canucks locker room about their experiences, the players I talked to last year during the Calder Cup run, made you to believe that this is the start of a really good NHL coaching career for Manny Malhotra.
If you're a Canucks fan, you hope it's a long-term career here. You take a look at Rod Brindamore in Carolina and what he's done. Could this be the start of something like that here? Only time will tell. But he checks a lot of the same boxes in terms of experience as a player, what he's done, the different jobs he's done as a coach.
And I guess above all, his ability to communicate, his ability to delegate and empower the people around him.
empowering was something that I thought Rick Tockett actually, talking to people around him, he did really well when he was here, but I don't think it happened as much in the organization above him while he was here, and hopefully with the people they have involved now, there'll be a lot more of it moving forward.
Woodley, listen, man, always a pleasure chatting with you. We'll talk to you again next week, and we'll see where the Stanley Cup final is at.
Yeah, no, appreciate it, guys. I appreciate you putting up with the traffic going by me and the rumble rumble of the old car, man, off to gasoline and caffeine with my brother for a car cruise today. So just pulled over in the Abbotsford farmland to talk to you guys today. It stinks a little, but it's not just the gas. It might be the cow.
Yeah, I know. I hear that. But, hey, we always appreciate you making the most of this. So thanks for your time as always, dude. Thanks, guys. Take care. That's Kevin Woodley on Sportsnet 650, brought to you by White Rock Hyundai. Visit the showroom on King George and White Rock or whiterockhyundai.com. And, you know, obviously, it's funny.
We've spoken about this, but even going back last year, you and I were in agreement to, between Adam Foote and Manny, Manny should have been the guy.
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