TJ Luxmore

Well, Linda, first I want to say thank you for your kind words on Roy and I's age so far. Because around here, we're kind of the elder statesmen.

So it's nice to... Hard to believe.

Is that the secret?

I got to take notes. Yes. So, Linda, we're coming up on 10 years this spring on actually the first time that you and I got to meet. You probably don't remember, and I wouldn't blame you, but I do have a picture of it, if we can put it up here for Linda. You and I met on the ice about 10 years ago.

And I was so skinny, too.

So as a fellow goaltender, somebody, another member of the union, I'm curious.

Oh, yeah. So what happened was, on the backstory, the Panthers had played a game.

Roberto Luongo and I believe it was Al Montoya were the goalies. They both got hurt in the same game. Yes, yes. Lou actually went to the hospital, I think, to get like an x-ray on his shoulder, came back and finished the game because Robbie Tallis, the goalie coach still, was dressed in his gear ready to go in.

So like a day or two later, the Panthers come out with, say, okay, because of what happened, we're opening open goalie tryouts. So of course, everybody in the media who's a goalie, myself, Linda, We had to get there. We had to get on the ice. We had to see if we could we could cut it with the with the big leaders.

I don't know about you, but I didn't I didn't make the team.

That was me and my 500 save percentage. I'll take it. Against two NHL guys, I'll take my 50 save percentage and go home.

I never felt so my age than I did in that moment. I thought I was good. I'm out here like I'm a beer lead superstar. And then those guys are just making me feel like I was 10 years old. Oh, man.

I don't know what happened. So sticking with the goalies, I did want to ask your opinion on the current goaltend. Not us, not the prospective NHL goalies, but the current ones. Maybe a softball, maybe not. But what is your goaltending Mount Rushmore currently of NHL goalies? And I'm sure Igor Shostakhin is on there because for me, he's like above and beyond.

But I'm just curious, one goalie to another. What's your goaltending Mount Rushmore currently?

Let's start with the hot takes. Dave, what you got? My hot take is... It's a rule that I would like to impose in the NHL. And if we can roll the video, Igor Shesterkin took a shot at the empty net the other night and it was going in. It was going in the net. And who was it? It was Macklin Celebrini, I believe, blocked the shot.

So my hot take is if the goalie shoots the puck and it gets past the red line, nobody can touch it. You got to let it go. You want to have your chance to block the goalie goalie, you got to do it on that side of the red line. If the goalie has enough time to get the puck, to shoot it down the ice, get the bleep out of the way, he deserves it. Igor, you deserve your goal.

Well, he's only, what, 26 behind Gretzky. And if he misses, let's say, 20 games, he's still going to come back with like half the season. So as long as you can hit the ground running, it's certainly within the realm of the ground running.

He's been trying for so long. Igor's just starting to get his goal. So that's my hot take. It's a rule change. If the goalie takes a shot, and he can take it. He has to be below the goal line. We can work on the semantics. I'm fine with that.

Then don't be down and have the goalie get pulled if you're in the Stanley Cup Final Game 7. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. I'm feeling this is a good rule. This is a good rule.

It was a more traditional Panthers game, especially after those two games against the Devils. They four-checked, they hit, they scored five goals. Defense was pretty solid. Just overall, it was nice to see them get back to playing Panthers hockey after those two games against the Devils that were a little rough. A little rough stuff.

But unfortunately, while we thought, while we hoped that this was the Panthers kind of getting back on track, it was more just a one-off because the next couple of games we're going to get into right now are not great.

Back-to-back, back-to-backs.

Yeah, a little closer than the score would indicate because of the two late empty net goals. Special teams were a little funky in this one. Overall, the Panthers are having a hard time getting back into their game. They're not forechecking the way they usually are.

It's really been in the neutral zone that they've been having trouble, whether it's the Jets or we'll get to the Blackhawks in a second. But both teams doing a really good job of keeping Florida's zone exits a little bit murky and not letting them have the fluidity that they're used to. And as a result, Florida's sputtering a little bit right now.

Very frustrating.

Yeah, this felt a little bit more like a Panthers game defensively, but offensively they just couldn't get anything going. And credit to the Blackhawks, as you said, the worst team in the league right now, but they played some pretty solid defense, particularly in the Panthers zone, trying to keep Florida from exiting the zone and moving through the neutral zone.

Florida just couldn't get anything going. They couldn't get any speed defensively. They couldn't even get deep enough to dump it. They were having a hard time. Once they got in the zone, they'd keep pressure. Once they got in the zone, they kept zone time sustainable. I think they had over five minutes of zone possession time last night. It was just getting there that was a really hard time.

And then, as you mentioned, down 2-1 late, Carter Verhege with a ill-advised, call it lazy, call it whatever you want, just a weird drop pass with the net empty, giving Nick Foligno more than enough time to get to the puck. Just a confusing play. I'm sure Carter Verhege, more than anybody, is sick to his stomach about it. Panthers got to get back on track, right?

Because now they've lost four of five. I think they've given up like 19 goals in the four losses. Some ridiculous number, which if you go back to like the last eight wins, they haven't given up that many goals. So it's a little bit of a time for Paul Maurice, as we've talked about many times. He knows this team. He's got to push those right buttons and get them back on track.

Slowing down Nathan McKinnon, Kale McCarr. If the Panthers are playing good hockey, this would probably be more of a high-scoring type game. Just because Colorado can put the puck in the net. Not necessarily the best at keeping the puck out of the net. And Florida, when they're on, they're going to be driving offense. Obviously, they're a very good defensive team.

Ooh, he's done.

Matched up against a highly good offensive team. So it should be a good matchup if Florida gets back to playing their game.

Yeah, that's what Roy said.

I read somewhere that they're thinking of bringing in Sergey Fedorov, who's been coaching over in the KHL, as potentially the next Red Wings head coach. So wouldn't that be kind of interesting? Fedorov, he's done a good job with SK St. Petersburg over there, so maybe.

And I mean, the playoff run, you say bad playoff runs, but all they did was run into the Eastern Conference champion in back-to-back years and the Stanley Cup winner in one of those two years. Sure, it was the Panthers, but it's not like that they just got beat by some crap team. Yes, it was an eighth seed, but an eighth seed that went to the final.

Yeah. He's the kind of coach that if he gets on in like a Utah-type situation, a Seattle, you know, somewhere that they'll give him some runway and there won't be these grand expectations, he could have some real success. Yeah. Your win of the week, Dave. Sticking with my usual trend of goaltending, my win of the week goes to Artur Shilovs of the Vancouver Canucks.

They were playing the New York Rangers the other night.

Where's his blocker? It's on the ice. Pick it up. No, I'm going to keep playing goal. He kept playing for like 30 seconds with a bare hand, which is dangerous enough. But then he goes out there and he makes a save. And he makes the save with his chest. He catches the puck and then he gets the whistle. That's ballsy. Because you could break a finger and you're out for a month at least.

So credit to Artur Shilovs for having some grande huevos out there. I'm not exactly sure. I don't think the referee is obliged to call it off if the goaltender loses a glove. We just talked last week about Anthony Stolarz playing without a glove and making a save with his bare hand.

So maybe we're seeing a trend now where goalies are just getting so fed up with shooters being so good now that they're going to start doing the Hasek thing and taking it to another level, using the blocker hand but using a bare hand. So good on you, Archer Shelobbs. I love the focus. I love that he made the save. And that's a big W on my book.

I like it.

The Blues are kind of like, you know, they're fine. But the Blackhawks one is really nice. The Blackhawks? Throwback-y.

All right, my first fail of the week, because I have two. My first one actually happened last week. Matt Zuccarello blocked a shot from teammate Brock Faber when they were playing against Montreal. Blocked it with his stuff. What do you mean his stuff? His nether regions.

Blocked it so well, in fact, that Brock Faber's shot actually ruptured Matt Zuccarello's testicle to the point where he has to have surgery. And he's out for over a month.

Yes. And, you know, much more painful. So moving on. Yeah. Prayers up for Matt Zuccarello.

Everybody pour one out for Matt Zuccarello. Yeah.

Yes.

No, my second fail of the week happened, I think, last night, actually. The Oilers were playing the... Who were they playing? The Rangers? I can't even remember who they were. No, they were playing the Wild. Because it happened to Marc-Andre Fleury. So...

So Leon Dreisaitl kind of dumped the puck from his own blue line, and it kind of bounced down the ice, bounced through two defensemen, and then it bounced through Marc-Andre Fleury. I don't know how this puck went in. It was the most ridiculous shot that I've seen a goaltender— and Flowers is probably just laughing at himself.

It was Stockholm Syndrome. Yeah, but look at—oh, my God. I don't know how that puck went in, but— Yeah, that's rough. That's rough, Roy.

So that's my fails of the week. What do you got for us, Roy?

With referees over here. Looks like we got a wrong lineup issue. Oh, boy. My ace analyst, Chandler Stevenson, gave me a little tip right here to my right. That's why I love being right here. So it's a lineup issue.

So it was written down wrong. Number 91 was written down instead of number 9.

No.