Edmonton— The Edmonton Oilers push to return to the Stanley Cup Final and get closer to making history, how the Florida Panthers can prevent that from happening and the reaction to all the news being made outside of the championship round is part of the discussion. on this week’s episode of the “NHL @TheRink” podcast.
Co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke open the show talking about the Cup final and how the Oilers took it to Game 6 at Rogers Place here in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; KeynoteUSA, KeynoteUSA+, SN, TVAS, CBC ) after losing 3-0.
A big part of the show’s opening is a discussion with Rosen and Roarke talking about the dominance of Oilers center Connor McDavid, who is having a streak of consecutive four-point games and setting records everywhere, surpassing even the most high expectations that are always placed on him.
Rosen speaks with Edmonton-based NHL.com writer Derek Van Diest to get an insight into the Oilers and how the city of Edmonton is responding to this streak and Cup Final resurgence. They also talk about how Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have been quiet so far in the finals, and perhaps that bodes well for the home team on Friday night as it looks to take the series back to Florida for a Game 7 on Monday .
Rosen and Roarke then talk about potential changes to the Panthers’ lineup for Game 6, with one actual lineup change (Nick Cousins for Kyle Okposo) and two moves with players who have been playing.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson is expected to replace Brandon Montour at the point of Florida’s first power play unit, which has struggled. The Panthers are 1 for 16 on the power play with two goals against, and Montour was responsible for both.
Carter Verhaeghe is also expected to swap places in the top-six forward group with Evan Rodrigues, with the former playing on the top line with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart and the latter moving to the second line with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk.
After that brief discussion, Roarke welcomes NHL.com writer Tom Gulitti to the podcast and talks with him about the Panthers, their state of mind and more.
Rosen and Roarke close the show by discussing news outside of the series, including the New Jersey Devils‘ acquisition of Calgary Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom, the Washington Capitals‘ plans for Pierre-Luc Dubois after acquiring him from the Kings from Los Angeles, the return of Barclay Goodrow to the San Jose Sharks and where the Columbus Blue Jackets could trade Patrik Laine.
The “NHL @TheRink” podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and on the NHL app.
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