The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
The Hockey Show: The Gentlemen's Sweep (feat. Eetu Luostarinen)
Fri, 02 May 2025
The Florida Panthers have advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Roy, David, and Ethan are here to celebrate. The crew examines how the Cats effortlessly discarded their cross-state rivals and what so many experts got wrong about this series. Plus, wins and fails of the week include Gabriel Landeskog's first goal back and an all-time party foul by one of Meadowlark's own. Plus, Tara Slone of NBC Sports California joins the show to discuss how Canada feels about the country's chances of bringing home The Stanley Cup for the first time since 1993, Macklin Celebrini's rookie year, and where the Los Angeles Kings go from here. Finally, Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen joins the show and tells us about his chemistry with linemates Anton Lundell and Brad Marchand, representing Finland at the Four Nations, and life as a new dad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and what is the theme of the episode?
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Hockey Show. My name is Roy Bellamy. Behind me sweeping right now is David Dwork of the Hockey News. And the shipping container is Ethan Badowski. And me and David are wearing ties. And I'm wearing a suit. And I'm wearing a 3XL.
the hell for man this is not 1995 i don't know why we've been doing that old shirts thread oh throughout the show this week so i thought we were going to continue that and then you guys are in here in a freaking suit and tie well you're like 235 pounds when you're like 16 years old no no no just triple x i thrifted
Chapter 2: How did the Florida Panthers achieve a gentleman's sweep against the Tampa Bay Lightning?
So I'm in a suit, and Dave is in a tie, and he's holding the broom because the Florida Panthers gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a gentleman's sweep. So I can tell you that I still don't understand why the members of the media decided to pick against them, but hey, what are you going to do? But the Panthers completely shut them down.
They shut down the Lightning pretty well because when you're that good, when you're scoring that well, especially on special teams, And the Panthers' penalty kill stifles a player like Nikita Kucherov? I mean...
That should be terrifying for the rest of the league. I would think so. Tampa, I mean, you've talked about how good of a scoring team they were, how amazing their power play was. And Florida, I mean, you know where they took them.
Yeah.
Shut down city. Shut down city, baby. Everything between the circles was incredibly difficult for Tampa. You could tell as the series was going on, they were getting more and more frustrated. They were blocking shots. Lots of shot blocks. The shot attempts were there, but the shots on goal, not so much.
The play for me that defined really what this series was all about was the play that Luster Reinen made on Kucherov, where he just put Kucherov in his pocket. It led to the fifth and final goal in this game. And Brad Marchand, this line was absolutely unbelievable in Game 5. Nine combined points. More points than Nikita Kucherov and Braden Point in the entire series in one game.
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Chapter 3: Why were experts wrong about the Panthers vs. Lightning series outcome?
Etu Loserainen had more goals and the same number of points in Game 5 that Nikita Kucherov had in the entire series. The Panthers dominated the Lightning. They pieced them apart just the way that they did last year. And looking back on it... This should have been the expected result.
The second that buzzer sounded, as a fan, I was already like, okay, we're on a Toronto or Ottawa because this is what the Panthers do now. They take teams apart. It doesn't matter how good you are in the regular season. It doesn't matter if they're on the road, if they finished strong to end the season or not.
They are going to take you apart if they're at their best and they're healthy, and they did that to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
That tells you not just how deep the Panthers are. That tells you... about their secondary scoring. They have an excellent top nine.
Yeah, their top nine is any other team's top six. It's not just the Panthers that got better, too. Not to take away from your point, Ethan, but Tampa got better, too. They're a much better team this year than they were last year. So I understand some of the logic behind some of the talking heads that wanted to take Tampa. They're looking much better. Florida was injured.
But anybody that's really paying attention here, that was watching what Paul Maurice was doing over the past few weeks, they knew that all they were doing was making sure they could hit the round running in Game 1 with the playoffs. And holy shit, did they.
I'll say this, though. Tampa did get better, and moving on from Stamkos and getting Gensel instead was a great move by Tampa. I'll admit that. But coming into this series, people were talking as if Tampa was the deeper team, the better team.
I don't know how you can look at the forward depth on Florida and you look at the forward depth on Tampa and see a deeper team like Zemgis Gergensens and Luke Glendening and Mitchell Chafee and Darren Radish. Those are the guys that Tampa is running out there up against. They're on the bottom six on a lot of teams in this league. Yeah. They have... Erod...
Started the series on the fourth line, moved up to the second line once Mackie Samaskevich started getting dropped. I don't know how people looked at this series before and said, Tampa's the deeper team. The Panthers were always the deeper team up front and on defense, and then they got better goaltending as well. It was a perfect recipe for a quick series.
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Chapter 4: What are the wins and fails of the week in the NHL playoffs?
Picking the Panthers. Bob Waschusen, thank you for your service for picking the Lightning, by the way. We're friends of the show. I hope you pick the Maple Leafs.
And John Butchergross, you should know better. You should know better. Let's go to our wins and fails of the week brought to you by Jägermeister. Serve it cold or don't serve it at all. Jägermeister. Damn. That's cold for more. Visit the Jägermeister.com. Please. Drink responsibly. Dave. I've got two wins of the week.
Two of them. My first win of the week comes from Dallas. There was a guy behind the bench. The Stars were playing the Avalanche. And Jared Bednar's doppelganger was sitting behind him, right behind the Avalanche bench in Dallas. I just thought it was awesome. He's got the video up here for those of you watching on YouTube. He looks like Ray Romberg. See? Yeah. Well, that's the thing.
He's got the suit. He's got the hair. It's not like an exact lookalike, but it's a lot of fun. It's more like an SNL lookalike than it is an actual lookalike. But it did remind me of like 10 years ago when Paul McLean was the coach of the Ottawa Senators. There was an actual doppelganger of his behind the bench. And I think we have a picture of it. We can pop it up there.
But this one was like extremely accurate.
This guy looks more like Andy Reid than Paul McLean. That's Andy Reid shaking his finger at a plate of donuts saying, don't mind if I do.
I think the guy in the stands looks more like Paul McLean than Paul McLean looks like Paul McLean. Wilford Brimley, actually, is what he looks like. Diabetes. Diabetes. Okay. My second win of the week. Last week, the Carolina Hurricanes, well, this week, the Carolina Hurricanes dispatched the New Jersey Devils.
Andrei Svechnikov had a hat trick in game number four after the Hurricanes had lost game three. And what did the Hurricanes fans do? Because the Carolina was in Jersey.
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Chapter 5: What coaching changes are happening with the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers?
Yeah.
Svechnikov gets home, his front lawn is littered with hats. Fans went to his house and threw a bunch of hats on his lawn to signify his hat trick, because he was out of town, they couldn't do it at home. I thought that was so cool. I love that. There's a picture of it. It looks like an Easter egg hunt for hats. I just thought it was so cool that the fans did that. I love things like that.
I love that the player can get ingrained in the community. Maybe Miko Rantanen could have seen this a few months ago, but he seems happy in Dallas. We'll see what happens in Game 7. But I saw that the other day, and I absolutely loved it.
Boom!
Knocked him down. Knocked Alexander Carrier down, and that allowed the Capitals to get the puck back. And on the ensuing entry into the zone, They might have to score. Brandon Duhame ended up coming off the bench and on a line change and was able to score on that one. The Capitals will win games four and five to finish off the series. And again, we'll take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
And speaking of Hurricanes, my win number two is coming. This is prior to puck drop. Game five. This is Steve Smith Sr., and he had the honor of firing off the air raid siren, as you can see on the video here. He did it so well that he just did not stop. I mean, the stamina. He got a little carried away? Yeah, he got a little carried away.
Steve Smith Jr. is ripped. Holy cow. I mean, you have to be the hockey jerseys. Don't they look baggy on most people?
Steve Smith did so well on that, by the way, that again, he refused to stop. And the Carolina Hurricanes handler there had to tap on the shoulder and say, hey, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, easy. Ethan, you'll win.
My win of the week comes from the Stars Ab series. Guys, we forgot to touch on Gabriel Landis-Cogg's return to the ice last week. That was a big omission by us. So I want to give him his flowers here. He scored his first goal. And the amazing thing about this return, first of all, I want to talk about what happens after this goal. Amazing celebrations. Watch this couple in the crowd here.
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Chapter 6: How is Canada reacting to the Stanley Cup playoffs this year?
No, that's a win. That's a win for Danny GQ for sure. Win for Danny GQ for sure. My fail of the week, our friend Danny got married.
Our fail of the week is marriage. No, no, no. That is definitely a win. Congratulations, Danny. Our fail happened at the reception. It happened on the dance floor. And it happened to Mike Malley. Ethan, you were there.
You were actually on the floor. One of the all-time party fouls, Roy. I don't know how this happened, but all of a sudden, I hear a spill, a crash. No glass was broken, luckily. That came later when Sebastian the Ibis came in. The guy broke his glass. And you hear the video, Sebastian the Ibis. He does the C-A-N-E-S. And then you hear a glass crash right on the floor. Mazel tov, by the way.
But Malley, one of the all-time party fouls, spilling a drink right in the middle of the floor. Yes. He had a good time, Mally. We all had a good time. It was a great night. Wonderful night. Yeah. You had a problem with this.
I was just wondering. Danny and I are still getting to know each other, so I understand why I didn't get a wedding invite. But I have Ethan. I have Roy. I have Rose. Y'all went to this wedding. Y'all had a plus one. Where am I?
I did not have a plus one.
My plus one was at the house because I came straight from the panel. From where I was, with me. Yeah.
Okay, that's it.
I missed out on game three because of it, and I was happy because I ended up going to game four, which was way better. Yes. We have another fail of the week, Roy. We've got to get to it real quick. We've got to get to it real quick. Rose, this was really bad. That's bad, man. You jinxed them. Rose jinxed them.
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Chapter 7: What is the status of the Edmonton Oilers and their playoff prospects?
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Terce Lone works for NBC Sports California. She is the San Jose Sharks reporter, and she's joining us right now here on the Hockey Show. We're going to talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs with her. Let's start with what's going on in Canada. The Maple Leafs managed not to choke.
Despite the fact that the fans almost jinxed them by chanting we want Florida and then them losing two straight afterwards. Now, they put themselves in that situation. And I would not have had sympathy for them because they're not learning. They're not learning at all. But now that round one is over, give us a sense of what the mood is in Toronto.
Well, I live a little bit outside downtown, but I understand that the streets were pretty packed in spite of a lot of rain last night. So this is a city that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1967. This is a country that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1993. So fans here are really hungry. And like you said, the Leafs have this kind of playoff curse that they tend to get in their own way about it.
And then fans are really quick to also jump on that. So It almost happened. But I think last night they looked it was very decisive and it bodes well for the next round, which is going to be a challenge for sure.
What is the excitement like north of the border right now? You're just generally a Canadian right now, Tara. Five Canadian teams made the playoffs, which is, I'm sure, awesome. They all hate each other, but it's cool for the country. Now it looks like three of them are going to be in the second round.
Is there some legitimate excitement building that for the second straight year the Canadian team could actually play for the Stanley Cup?
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Chapter 8: Who is the special guest Eetu Luostarinen and what insights does he share?
I mean, the other side of the country right now, we got the Edmonton Oilers, who for the fourth straight season has eliminated the Los Angeles Kings from the playoffs. And they did it this time down 0-2 and coming back to win four straight. How is this going to propel them through the rest of the playoffs?
Well, I think that they were really calling upon the team to go beyond their superstars, and I think we started to see that this is a team with a lot of depth. So we know that scoring is not going to be the issue for them. Ekholm will still be out for the second round, so that is definitely the nerves lie in defense and in goaltending.
But as long as the superstars can keep scoring and there's some depth scoring going, And I think I think they can really I think they're favored like third in terms of taking the Stanley Cup at this point. So I think there is a lot of faith in this team.
The Montreal Canadiens, they weren't able to get past the Washington Capitals, but it was a surprise for them to make the playoffs in the first place. Do you believe that this is just a stepping stone right now for the Canadians? Are they going to get better next year?
Oh, I think they're going to get better next year, but I think it was really fun to watch. Obviously, when a team loses a playoff series, it doesn't feel good, and it's no consolation to say, but this was so promising. But it is. I mean, they're such a young team. This is where I would love to see the San Jose Sharks win. next year or the year after.
But yeah, this is a team that absolutely, I think they surprised everybody in such a pleasant way. And I think next year could be really exciting for them.
You perfectly led me into my next question, Tara, talking about going to the next step, talking about the San Jose Sharks. I think you know where I'm going with this. Somebody that you saw a lot this year, a young man that I think is on a lot of our Calder ballots, and that's Macklin Celebrini. I've been high on him all year.
I thought he was one of the most well-rounded rookies I've seen in a long time. His two-way play kind of blows me away a little bit. But as somebody who got a front-row seat and saw him all season, what's your take on Macklin? Do you think he's as advertised with such a high ceiling?
He is as reported. Absolutely. I mean, he was from the first time he stepped on the ice with the San Jose Sharks. You know, what's funny for me, kind of seeing him up close, you know, he and Will Smith are attached at the hip. They're kids, you know, like you just I see them playing soccer together outside the locker room and they're giggling, right? They're children, right?
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