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Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Game 3 Recap (3-2 OT Loss) + Bob Grove Interview | NHL & Penguins · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts. They look like they were trying for home run passes and you had mentioned the breakaways. Demidov had one, Caulfield had one in which he fanned on and Anderson coming out of the penalty box had a breakaway, tried a nice forehand but Vasileski stood tall. Was this a strategy do you think of Montreal? In two ways. One, the home run pass is a possibility against Tampa. Two, if Tampa's guarding against the home run pass, it's gonna push the defenseman back off the blue line and create more space in the neutral zone. Do you think that was the case? Yeah, definitely. I think we saw a little bit of it in game two. They were trying to shoot for some of these home run game passes. One of the big advantages Montreal has is their speed. Their fours are way faster than the light in the defenseman. So it's something that they should take advantage of, honestly. Once they get possession, one of those fours should be flying down the zone. And if the lanes are open, you'll try and hit them with that home run pass. The Lightning have done a really good job of preventing that through two and a half games. Welcome to Back Checking the Bolts. Back Checking the Bolts is your cup of coffee to get you the latest on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join host Jason Linkus and the managing editor of Raw Charge, Justin Godfrey, as they break down the Lightning's most recent games and go beyond the highlights, telling you what the box scores didn't. It's time to drop the puck. Well, hi everybody. Welcome to back checking the bolts. We are here for the game three instant analysis, that instant reaction off of that three, two overtime loss to the Montreal Canadians. The Canadians now lead the best of seven series by a two, one margin. We also today have Bob Grove. Bob has covered the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last 30 years in TV, radio, as a journalist. He is a member of two hall of fames in Western Pennsylvania. He's going to get us the lowdown on the penguins flyer series. this the end of the big three in Pittsburgh? But he's also going to give us his thoughts and reactions on the lightning. Now let's bring in Justin Godfrey from raw charge. My co-host each and every episode. can read them at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, this was a frustrating game for the lightning fans because It's two to one, Hagel scores and the game just turned. What were your thoughts? I think you kind of point to that series right there or that moment in the game as kind of the turning point. If I had to pick out one turning point, you know, it's one to one. Hagel makes great play, the neutral zone picks off a pass from Jake Evans, skates it in, risks it right by Dobish, lightning route two one. You get a little Justin. Justin, I want to stop you there. That was not a good goal for Dobrish to go up. No, it wasn't. mean, it's kind of reminiscent of, you know, the goal he gave up against a Hegel in game two, where he will just kind of turn and fired it from a bad angle. Dobrish gives up this goal. We get a little, little, you know, scrum at the end because Kuturov is kind of gliding through. The crease he's going to join his teammates. He's got his hands raised. I don't know if he said anything to Delvish, but Delvish did it for him, didn't appreciate it. You know, of fires his a little right jab into the ribs. know, Chernet comes up to you say, Hey, don't do that to Kuturov. There's a little scrum. Delvish picks up his second penalty of the game, by the way. So he had four penalty minutes on the game. And Chernet goes off the ice. It's four on four, a little more open ice. You get the lightning come back into the zone right away after that. Kuturov sets up Ryan McDonough for a holding chance and McDonough kind of passes on it, tries to feed it back to Kuturov. Kuturov turns it over, leads to an Ivan Demidov breakaway. Vasilevsky makes the save. Great. Awesome. Lightning come right back down the ice. JJ Moser is cutting through the middle of the ice. He gets hit with a pass. He is in alone. Shoots. Somehow Dobish gets a right pat on it, keeps the puck out. To me, that's kind of the turning point right there. If the Lightning score on that, if Moser puts that past Dobish, you know he's rattled at that point. Lightning are up by two goals. The crowd's going to be taken out of the game. Lightning are going to be feeling it. I think it just kind of, you know, the momentum of that game changes. Instead, you know, Dobish makes the save. And honestly, the Lightning really didn't do much after that. I mean, that's five minutes, six minutes into the second period. They got 12 or 13 shots on net. They get four shots the rest of the way. Macha really takes over the game. Kirby Doc eventually ties it and then Hudson's shot in overtime finds a way, zips past six different players, all kinds of shin pads, elbow pads, sticks, and beats Vasileski over the blocker and it's 3-2 final. It's a 2-1 series and Lightning are kind of facing a pretty important game for now. Justin I want to take you back to that Hegel goal and you had mentioned the little bit of the skirmish between Kucherov and Dobish This game was not very physical up until that point Considering how physical the first two games were game three the first 25 28 minutes I don't want to say a finesse game, but it wasn't physical It was back to kind of the game one with the dumb penalties high stakes trips things like that. It wasn't the quote unquote, over-aggressive penalties that we saw in game two. And again, like for the first 15 minutes, I thought the Lightning played pretty well. ⁓ And when they get to that game, I think honestly, they're a little bit better than Montreal. Montreal got their early goal, which I think was important for them. You're in that environment, that crowd is fired up. It's probably the best crowd in hockey in the playoffs. They go down and, ⁓ know, Tachiné kind of gets open. in the middle of ice and just wrist it past. think that was what three or four minutes into the game. So you got the crowd into it. You play well. The lightning kind of weathered that a little bit. had a little pickups, but I thought they kind of pushed play after that. They come back, they score. Braden Point gets a goal. Thank God. Hallelujah. You know, he's off the Schneid. ⁓ The power play looked good. ⁓ Especially when they scored, I thought they looked good on their second chance. Kind of. fell off the wagon a little bit after that, but you know, I thought the lightening were again up until the, Hey, well, I thought the lightening were hanging right in there and probably had a little bit better with the play. then it just went, you know, actually the other way went downhill right after that. So there's going be abs and flows in these games. going be having some flows in the series. It's just two really good teams going against each other. So that's what happens. Justin, I want to talk about how the Canadians attack the lightning. They looked like they were trying for home run passes. And you had mentioned the breakaways. Demidov had one, Caulfield had one in which he fanned on, and Anderson coming out of the penalty box had a breakaway, tried a nice forehand, but Vasilevsky stood tall. Was this a strategy you think of Montreal? In two ways. One, the home run pass is a possibility against Tampa. Two, If Tampa's guarding against the home run pass, it's going to push the defense and then back off the blue line and create more space in the neutral zone. Do you think that was the case? Yeah, definitely. I think we saw a little bit of it in game two. They were trying to, trying to shoot for some of these home run game passes. One of the big advantages Montreal has is their speed. Their fours are way faster than the light in the defenseman. So it's something that they should take advantage of honestly. So they get possession. One of those fours should be flying down the zone. And if the lanes are open, you'll try and hit him with that home run pass. The Lightning have done a really good job of preventing that through, you know, two and a half games. And I do think, you know, three different, the three breakers were all kind of different. The only one where I think the Lightning really got caught was the Demidov one and that's a four on four play. So there's a little more open ice, you know, you're not quite, you know, in sync like you normally are with five players out there. So they took advantage of that. Uh, you know, the Caulfield one was kind of interesting. You know, Gord's trying to knock down the puck at the blue line, you know, kind of jumps up, hits him in the glove and it just happens to bounce out of the zone right to a Montreal player. And he's able to spring Caulfield behind the defense. Um, and then, know, the Anderson one is he's coming out of the box. The lightning shot goes wide right to a Montreal defenseman. can just hit Anderson, you know, on the fly, but three breakaways. It's something that Montreal should be trying to do. Um, and like you mentioned, like. At the very least, you know, it's going to pull those lightning defense back into the neutral zone. So they're not going to be able to pinch up and keep the plucky and kind of cycle it down low. So yeah, you know, it's a good strategy to have the, know, the one problem is if you do miss or if that toss gets picked off, you know, you're going to be down a player, you know, in it, in your own defensive zone. So the lightning kind of the, have to stay aware of it. And, um, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Montreal keep doing that, especially, um, on home ice. If you were to tell me going into this series, the Nick Suzuki Caulfields-Lefkowski line, five on five would be as ineffective as they have been. I would say the Lightning would be up two to one or three zero in this series. Now we know the first game was decided because Montreal was red hot on the power play. But the other two games, that top line has been ineffective. Tonight, it was that fourth line for Montreal, Kirby Doc. Bulldog and techie a they won the game for Montreal tonight. They were awesome. Each guy on that line was a plus three. And you'll tackle that first point for, you know, the first point that you made, ⁓ as far as the Suzuki line. ⁓ I really thought honestly that St. Louis would try and break up, get away from that Anthony's to rally matchup. ⁓ that shut him down through the first few games. Honestly, he did it. ⁓ Caulfield's number one. you know, opponent for the Lightning was Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli. ⁓ so those lines kind of matched up. ⁓ one thing they did tonight is they kind of canceled each other out. ⁓ I don't think the Cirelli line, ⁓ was quite as effective offensively as they were in game two. And then when you have these top lines kind of, you know, canceling each other out, it does become a battle of the bottom six. And that Tessier line was the best line for both teams tonight. Kirby Doc had a really bad end to game too. He caught a lot of flak from Montreal fans. He had the, he didn't get to the red line in overtime, dumped it in. And that was the icing that led to the faceoff. The faceoff comes out. He can't shut off JJ Moser. He lets Moser get around him, which opens up the lane for Moser to shoot. So, you know, he did not have a great game. think there were people calling for him to be benched, calling for him traded, shot into the sun, whatever, you know. ⁓ But he comes out and he, know, him and Tessier, you know, they kind of mixed up those bottom six a little bit. They dropped Tessier down to that fourth line and they just had a really good game and they outmatched whatever the Lightning were throwing out there for their bottom lines. If you look at the playing time, it was kind of a weird, weird lineup for the Lightning. The third line started out as, uh, Huggins, Gordon, Paul with the fourth line of James Perry and Sabrin. Sabrin only played three minutes and 36 seconds. He took one shift in the second period, one shift in the third period, one shift in overtime. So basically the Lightning were playing almost an 11-6 rotation, which is something we saw earlier in the season when Curtis Douglas would rotate into the lineup. You know, he would only get four or five minutes of ice time and ⁓ Coach Cooper would kind of use that fourth line almost as a blender, rotate players in, Gensel would drop down and play with the other two forwards. We saw that tonight. So that fourth line was kind of mixed up a little bit. ⁓ they did eventually drop Kuturov back onto the Sorelli line after he started up with, ⁓ Braden point. ⁓ so the lines were kind of mixed for the lightning. was kind of a weird lineup for them. Nick Paul missed a lot of time. didn't notice this until after the game and I was kind of looking at the shift charts. ⁓ but he missed a big portion of the second period. was not quite sure what happened, but he was back out in the third and overtime. So the lightning just kind of got outplayed on the bottom six and Montreal took advantage of it. So in a close series like that, it's, it's really tough. ⁓ You know, to win if you can't win any of these line matchups. had mentioned Sabrin only playing about three minutes and change. Is there a chance that Cooper goes back to all of her Bjork strand for game four? I think it would either be Bjork strand or Geeky. Um, you know, if he's going to play him like that, I would rather have somebody who's a little bit more offensive minded. You know, Scott Sabrin is who he is. Um, I don't think he had an effect on the game. I don't think, you know, He just didn't play enough to, to go out there and cause any kind of ruckus. The beautiful thing about these series, it's a game of adjustments. ⁓ you know, Mark, you know, the lightning adjusted in game two, Marty adjusted in game three, kind of mixed up his bottom six came out, ⁓ with the victory. So we'll see what the lightning do in game four to kind of counteract, ⁓ the results of tonight's Justin for the lighting, who did you like tonight? And who did you think just did not have a good game? I love Vasilevsky's play tonight. I thought he kept him in this game. Um, I had mentioned it on, on our kind of quick hit for raw charger on Instagram today. I thought he was going to be a big key to this game. And, and he was, mean, without him, like, they're probably down four to at some point by two at some point, but he made a some really key saves. Again, his save percentage isn't going to be outstanding. I think it's finished below nine, you know, 900 today, but he just keeps making these keys. He saves, ⁓ keeping this team in the game when they're faltering. So I thought he had a really good game. Real quick. The save on Demidov late in the second period. I still don't know how he got over for that one. Yeah. It's, that's kind of the, always been his thing. It's like, he just makes these saves where, you know, he seems, especially lately in his career, he's been a much more positional goaltender. He's very efficient with his moves, but then every once in he just busts out one of these. You know, post to post kind of moves where, you know, human body's not supposed to bend like that or move like that with such power and he makes a save. So I really liked his play. really liked Dominic James's play. Honestly, I thought he had two or three really good chances. He was probably one of the more dangerous players that Domesh made two or three really nice saves on him. He kind of got in kind of got in unnoticed a little bit. plays with a lot of speed. So I think those are my kind of my two favorite players from the lightning tonight. Overall, I don't think anybody had a horrible game. I'm sure that, you know, the stats will say something different, but, ⁓ yeah, ⁓ love to see point get a goal. I do think that the Surrelly-Hagel line, even though they scored, maybe not as effective as they'd been in earlier games. ⁓ and again, you know, not quite sure what went on with Nick Paul and why he was out, but, ⁓ yeah, that line kind of disappeared a little bit. So overall, it was funny because. I think Cooper caught it the worst game of the three for the Lightning. I would say it was the worst half of a game. thought that they're going to put the first half wasn't that bad. Justin who on Montreal stood out in your eyes. I did Tashie. I thought Tashie was their best player and Lane Hudson. mean, this kid, I thought he, think he's had a quietly really good series on the defense. He's been there most notable defense, most notable defenseman. ⁓ he's up to two goals now. He was a goalpost away from winning the game in regulation and game two. uh, late on that power play. think he's kind of the key to the, the Canadian's power play. His ability to move the puck from the point is kind of what Kuturov does down low for the Lightning. So, you know, he's got the weapons with Caulfield, Suzuki and, uh, Slavkovsky. So he's kind of the quarterback to get it to the right spot. The guy who's open and all kind of flows through him. So I think he's been pretty good in the series. I thought Domish. You know, outside of the Hagel goal, I thought he tracked the puck a lot better tonight. Something I noticed in game two, he was having trouble kind of seeing the puck. I thought he saw it a lot better tonight. So I thought he had a really good game. And again, the guys in front of him just blocking a ton of shots. mean, he ends up with 15 shots against 16 shots. think Canadians had 19 or 20 blocks, depending on, know, which website you're looking at. So it's just one of those things where, you know, defensively they're just really in sync with. They're not going to let him face a lot of shots and. They just ask him to make the saves on the ones that he does have to pace. as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, we have an interview coming up with Bob Grove. Bob has covered the Pittsburgh Penguins for over 30 years. Let's talk to Bob right now and get his thoughts on the Flyers Penguins. And he's going to give us a little insight on his thoughts on the Lightning and the Canadians. Hi, we are here with our guest, Bob Grove. Bob Grove has been a Penguins historian 30 years covering the team through journalism on the post and pregame shows for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Grove. Bob, thanks for joining us today. Jason, thanks so much for having me. I look forward to talking with you. Bob, the Penguins have made news this year, one as a surprise team in the regular season, but also in the playoffs has been probably the biggest disappointment of all 16 teams. Give our fans a little bit of a synopsis of what this season looked like for the Penguins and how they surprised the NHL vaulting the second in the Metro. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, going into this season, lots of people in Pittsburgh and certainly around the National Hockey League felt the Penguins were going to be a lottery team. know, Gavin McKenna was at Penn State and they said, you know, the Penguins should probably have a shot. at getting him and maybe he's the next superstar that they will build their team around. That's where the discussion was preseason. Rookie coach and Dan Muse and zero expectations. And what happens is Muse does a terrific job. General manager Kyle Dubas, all the moves, pretty much every move he made turned into goals. know, giving Anthony Mantho a one-year contract, he leads the team in goals. Again, you know, so he made the trade for Igor Chinakoff. He'd just been spectacular since he got to Pittsburgh. He dumped the Tristan Jarre contract from the Penguins books, which a lot of people thought would never happen. And the goaltending is still a problem. But I mean, it just, if you think about what Dubas has done and then what Muse did with all the players he brought in, they went and they drafted Ben Kindle and a lot of people at the draft thought the Penguins were reaching a little bit. They liked Kindle, but didn't think he was going to go that early. Even after they drafted him, no one thought he'd make the team. He made the team and he stayed all season. He had a really good rookie season. So everything went well for them. They put up 98 points. finished second in the Metro and no one expected that. And now they play the Flyers, you know, obviously their biggest rivals and it's all falling apart in the span of three games. the Penguins clinched second in the Metro, they had three games left in the season and they decided to rest a couple players. They did play a number of the guys against Washington when they had the Ovechkin quote unquote possible finale in Washington. But did they take the foot off the gas and did they lose their edge a little bit heading into the Flyer series? Well, there's been a lot of speculation about that. personally don't, I personally don't buy that theory. think it's look, you're getting to the end of the season. We all know that Sidney Crosby got hurt in the Olympics. He came back and played, but he probably at his age. So, right. He'll be 39 this summer. You can give him a couple of extra days rest down the stretch because you can't improve your playoff positioning. Same with Malkin who turns 40 in July. Same with Chris LaTang, same with Eric Carlson. I have no problem resting guys, but to your point, Jason, when the Penguins clinched that was in New Jersey, they haven't won a game since. So it's open for speculation whether, you know, that's really what hurt them. They didn't stay together. They didn't, didn't, they just didn't have the momentum they needed going into the playoffs. I personally think that was the right thing to do. I think resting them, given the age of the key players on the team was right. And instead the focus for me is that they just weren't ready to start the series on time and they, they, and they haven't responded at all the way Phillies played them. Phillies making them play a harder way and the Penguins, they haven't shown really any disposition to try and play the hard way they have to play the way Phillies looking at them in the neutral zone. Is it as simply as the Penguins just have to dump the puck in and for check? Are they just trying to pass through people consistently? I've noticed that on the power play. They're throwing a ton of cross-ice passes that don't hit, but are we seeing that in the neutral zone as well? Yeah, absolutely. And look, and one of the things that happened when Mike Sullivan was coaching here, you know, his theory was always North South, North South, North South. That's all we talked about. He wants to puck in the Penguins zone the least amount of time possible. And so what that meant was his defenseman got it. It wasn't about, skate with it, hey, create with it through the, you know, working your way up through the neutral zone. No, was stretch passes, get it up to the forwards, get it in the offensive zone. That's the way he played. Muse comes in, he changes it. And that's why you've seen the change in Eric Carlson this season. You know, Carlson under Sullivan, that was not his game. But Carlson has had the green light to skate with the puck, to be creative with it. And the Penguins have come up, they've really changed the way they attack this year. by coming up through the neutral zone, making a lot of passes, entering the zone with possession, that kind of thing. And the Flyers have taken it away. The Flyers are sitting back in the neutral zone. look, everybody, if you're a hockey fan, you know what happens here. When you're trapping like that, or you're clogging the neutral zone, there's only one solution. It's not a solution the Penguins enjoy. They don't want to just dump it in and go get it. But that's what you have to do. You got to start winning board battles and you have to have smart thumps when you get in, et cetera, et cetera. The Penguins did none of that in game one. They sort of got around to a little bit of it in game two, but you know, by then they'd lost two games on home ice and the series was basically hanging by the nail, you know, for them. So ⁓ it's been very frustrating for the Penguins and that explains for me a lot about why they're not scoring any goals in the series. Bob, you and I talked off the air about this possibly being a deja vu series and unfortunately for the Penguins, it's deja vu 2012 in the first round against these same flyers all over again. What similarities are we seeing between those two series? Yeah, the 2012 Penguins, you know, remember, so Sidney Crosby had had his concussion. You know, he had come back earlier in the season, and he stayed out a little bit longer, then came back later in the end calendar year 2012, and the Penguins looked really good. The Penguins had a terrific team. They go into a first round matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers, which they lose in six games. They came back to win games four and five, but they fell behind three-nothing. And it was just insane the way that the Penguins lost control themselves, specifically. You'd seen a little bit early in the series in 2012 against the Flyers, but especially in game three, suspensions came out of that. The Flyers knew every button to push with the Penguins to get them off their game, to frustrate them, to make them angry, to make them take stupid penalties. And we're seeing the, not to 2012 levels, but we're seeing the same behavior from the Penguins. And look at, you know, what happened to Brian Ross. I've never seen Brian Ross as angry. as when he was driving connecting into the ice after connecting the elbow to him for no reason. And that was a penalty that put the Flyers on the power play and helped change game three. And so, and look at the way game two ended in Pittsburgh, the Peng was taking a flurry of penalties at the end of it. know, LaTang was in there. You know, you can say just turn the other cheek when you get the usual cheap shots from the Flyers and just keep playing. Easy to say, hard to do and hard for this team to do. I try to tell people who are not familiar with the Flyers-Penguins rivalry that if you're from Pittsburgh, the Flyers are just not public enemy number one. They've been that way since the existence of the franchise. I was 13 years old before the Penguins actually won a game in Philadelphia. That was in 1989. And I mean, it was big news in Pittsburgh because they broke that. I think it was a 44 game winless streak at the spectrum. But Bob, tell people just how big of a rivalry this is. Yeah, Jason, the Penguins went 15 years without winning a game in Philadelphia. And it's the longest such streak in NHL history and remains so for one visiting team, not winning a game in another rank. So, you know, the Penguins, their rivals early on, early, early on, when they got in the league were the Blues who were in the same division with them and the Flyers were too. But the Flyers quickly became the number one rivalry and have always been so really since the mid seventies. And I mean, so if you can, you can go back to, you know, just all those regular season games in the spectrum that really fueled some of the, some of it. mean, it really was not until later that they started meeting in the playoffs. You know, the Penguins in 89, you know, they get into the playoffs, they have control of the series. They lose in seven losing game seven at home. You know, they lost the first few series they played against the Flyers in the postseason. Now they won three of the last four going into this one. But it looks like they're going down again. But the Flyers, the rivalry between these two teams is easily the most intense for the Penguins and it's the most intense for the Penguins fans. mean, I think, you know, the Penguins fans get up for games against the Rangers and the Islanders for sure and the Capitals, you know, and that rivalry was fueled mostly because they met so often in the playoffs. But it takes about 10 seconds of any Flyer-Penguin game for every Penguin fan to remember how much they hate that team. I still, I still hate Tim Kerr from back in the day in the 89 playoffs. What do you have 10 goals? Oh God. killed, he killed them. Just a big guy and the penguins couldn't deal with them. They couldn't keep them away from the front of the net and, know, he ate them up. It's probably a big reason why Craig Patrick went and got all Samuelson two years later. They needed someone to clear the net for Barasso. Yeah. The penguins next year are going to look much different. There's a lot of free agents, Anthony Manta, his 33 goals, as you mentioned, who led the team. Ryan Shea, who's been a very solid defenseman. He's a free agent, but the big name is of is of getting Malkin. Malkin is a free agent. There's been talk that he's, he wants to come back. I think he does, but Kyle Dubas has not given him a contract yet. Do you think they work something out? I don't see him coming back, Jason. I mean, just, I mean, this has been, you know, lot of fans have been talking about it all season and they're thinking about it all the time. It's in their mind because as I said, Gino turns 40 this July. And if you think of what Kyle Dubas is trying to accomplish in Pittsburgh, the way he stockpiled draft picks, he's trying to make the team younger. It had to get younger. He's done that, but he's not, he's not done doing that. They still need to get even younger than they are and quicker than they are. Giving a 40 year old guy a new contract just doesn't fit in that scenario. And it's probably taken playing time away from some of the younger players that they'll need to rely on in the coming years. Yes. You know, Gino is an all time penguin. He's a hall of famer. People have, they have such fond feelings for him. It's going to be hard to watch. But, and look, I'll say this. Gino's had a terrific year. And he missed some games here late. Yeah. He had a suspension, you know. Anger management with him is always, you know, that's always part of his equation as everybody knows, but ⁓ he had a terrific year this season. But I just don't see them giving a 40-year-old a contract. I just don't think it's going to happen. And we'll have to see whether he wants to continue playing or, you know, play in Russia or, you know, play for another NHL team. I'd be shocked if the Penguins resign him, to be honest with you. Eric Carlson has a $10 million cap hit for the Penguins. Initially was 11.5, but San Jose took a little bit of that back in the trade. He has one year remaining on the deal and you'd mentioned how well he's played under Muse. He's the team MVP, but in the previous couple of years, they've looked to possibly deal him. Do you think they look to deal him in the off season? I don't think so. I mean, I think Kyle Dubas says he's even really kind of talked about the fact that he doesn't anticipate moving him prior to his final year in Pittsburgh. And if they're going to get the level of play, look, this is one thing about rebuilding and you know this, Jason, you can't just stalk your team with everyone who's, you know, 20 to 25 years old. You can't win like that. need to have to, yeah, you have to have some veteran presence. And if you can get another year, anything like this season from Eric Carlson, You're just going to let it play out. mean, the Penguins have the cap space and I don't see them trying to move them unless, you know, caveat always is somebody approaches them and makes them a deal that just blows them away and they say yes. But I think he'll be back. He's been, you mentioned it, he's a team MVP and late in the season when Crosby was out injured and Malkin was out injured and suspended, he just took over. I mean, he won them a number of games. He's not had a great series against the Flyers, but I think he'll be back. was awesome in March. He especially in the time when the Penguins, I think they played 17 games in 31 days or was it was something to that extent when they really had a lot of games in a lot of days. He was great. And again, I agree with you. He's the team MVP. was the reason why they're probably second in the Metro. We talk a lot about the lighting here. We were breaking down the Tampa and Montreal series right now when we're doing this interview, they're tied at one. Give us your two cents on this series and where you think it's going to go. Well, it's been tremendous theater. I I watched, you know, both games and I love both of those games. I picked Tampa to win this series, but I knew it was not going to be an easy series. And so we'll see because going into Montreal, you know what it's like going in that place to play, especially the way. that crowd gets behind them. I don't think there's an atmosphere like it in the NHL, quite frankly. And they have a team now that they really believe can win. You I think the Montreal fans know they're not cup ready yet, but they're getting closer. Yeah. I mean, so, I mean, you just think about Caulfield, the way he plays, and he is so much fun to play and putting together a 50-goal season, you know, they've actually, they need more from... him and some other guys at five on five in this series, I would say. Agreed. Yeah, so that's one part of Montreal's game that actually could get better. So that'll be harder for the Lightning. But the Lightning are my pick to get to the Cup final in the East this year. Look, Carolina looks like a total wagon. I thought Ottawa was going to lose that series, but I thought it was going to be a long, tough series. I mean, Carolina is just killing them. I mean, they're just, they're just, they're putting a blanket over them. They're just, they're playing so well. But even that said, I look at the Tampa lineup and I, you know, my only question at this point is a little bit of Vasilevsky because he had an awesome year. could win the Vezina again. ⁓ but let's be honest, the last couple of playoff seasons haven't been that great for him. And, you know, even this one's so, so, so far. So, but if he gets back to dominant form, Like I look at look, Jake Gensel, what an incredible player. What a finisher. ⁓ you know, and I think Braden point for me, even though everyone knows he's a great, I still think he's one of the most underrated players, a guy who just doesn't get talked about enough. And they've got the guy behind the bench and Cooper who's been there, done that. He'll have them in the right way. I just wonder, here's the thing. If they're going to get to the final and if they're going to win this series against Montreal, it doesn't look like headman's coming back here in the first round, but. I think if they're going to make the final, they're going to need him back. I agree with that. I think there's two things. think one, they're going to need headman back and they are going to have to stay healthy on the blue line. They're not particularly deep right now. You had to Stu who got hit by Anderson in game one. He's, looks like he's not going to play at least game three, but behind those players, there's not a ton of depth and especially a lot of playoff experience. on that blue line behind those guys. So have the Emil Lillebergs of the world who this is his first go around. There's something to be said for playoff experience. But when you look at the rest of the roster, there's a lot of cup experience on there. Kuturov, of course, I think is going to drive this boat to where it's going to go. In game three, though, I do think it's going to be interesting to see what Martin Saint-Louis does to free up that Suzuki line that you were talking about. Tampa used Yanni Gord against them and I think very effectively. And I think that in order for Montreal to win this series, like you said, they're going to have to free up Suzuki. That top line has to stand out and win them this series. Yeah. And mean, you know, you're going to get great defensive play from Suzuki. I mean, you know, I mean, that's a given, but they've got to show up on the score sheet more at even strength for Montreal to get it done. But who knows? I Slefkowski is... I can still remember when they drafted him and everybody kind of ridiculed the Canadians. They knew exactly what they were doing. This guy is a horse. I mean, what a player he is. yeah, I mean, it's all of that stuff. You mentioned when we mentioned Tampa, also got to say good for them that Radish is having the kind of season he's having because I don't know where they'd be without him. He's one and like they made all the, that's one of the reasons why I picked them. They've made the moves they've made bringing back Gordon. I mean, he's been fabulous for them. You know, so I mean, this is a team that knows it wasn't that long ago when they were winning consecutive Stanley Cups. They know how to do it. The coach knows how to do it. The GM knows how to do it. They have the players. ⁓ And Montreal is still an up and coming. Like, you know, I see this Montreal core winning the Stanley Cup here in the not too distant future. I just don't think they're quite ready for it yet. And, you know, we'll see how they deal with the pressure at home because it's there. You had mentioned Darren Radish, and I think one of the reasons that he's had the season he's had is because of the injury to head bird to a headman. Because they took him off the power play and he has that one time capability being a right hand shot working with Kucharoff and he's got an absolute bomb. And I think the biggest question for Tampa is what's going to be the salary that he's going to require for a longer term contract. He's 30 years old. Does Julian Breezeball want to invest six, seven million and five years? for a guy who's done it once. Right. That's the big question. this, that's the, you know, watching him in these playoffs is going to be important, not only for the next contract, but just like when a player has this kind of workload that he's had and he's not used to having this kind of workload, how does he, does he, or does he not wear down as the playoffs go on? But, you know, I should say that as you mentioned Kucherov, look, he's, he's going to win the heart. I think he's going to win the heart. and this is a guy who. His skill level we've been watching him now for a number of years. It's still amazing to me like the only penguin You know other than Mario that I could bring up a because I mean Mario skills were off the charts You know, Alexa Kovalov Was somewhat like this, you know, he's I'm not comparing the players, know Kutra was a better player than Kovalov was but Kovalov had a skill level that just made you you know You were just gawking at him some time at game. Yeah, you just couldn't believe that he did what he did And I feel that same way watching Kucherov, ⁓ whether it's taking those one timers from the right circle or whatever he's doing. He just, this guy understands the game. He's got just a unique skill set. He's in the right place at the right time. ⁓ Sharp angle shots, not a problem. Tremendously accurate shooter. ⁓ And he's just, he's just a guy that I don't care what is going on in a game at any time. The Canadians have nobody like him. Well, most teams have nobody like He can just turn a game in a heartbeat. Well, Bob, first of all, thank you very much for joining us today. This has been a thrill for myself, but also this has been a blast talking about the Flyers and the Pens and to get your insight on the Lightning and the Montreal series. You can find Bob's book, The Official History of the First 30 Years of the Pittsburgh Penguins. You can find that in bookstores. You can find it online. And Bob, they can also find you on Twitter as well, correct? Yeah, Bob Grove 91 is the best place to find me on Twitter. And I'm always putting out a bunch of stats and notes going into games and during games and after games. And that's something I started to do when I was on the radio broadcast team in Pittsburgh and I've continued to do so that's where fans can follow me. Well, Bob, again, thank you very much for your time. You can find Bob's Twitter handle. We're going to put that in the show notes. Feel free to follow Bob whenever you'd like to get some information on the pens and the rest of the NHL. Bob, thanks again for your time. Thanks so much for having me, Jason. It's been a blast. Yeah. Justin and I would like to thank Bob grow for taking the time to talking to back checking the bolts. Bob gave us some insight on the end of the Crosby Malkin Latang era, even though it looks like Crosby is going to be back. And so is Latang. Bob doesn't think of getting Malkin is going to return. It will be interesting to see what happens. Justin, let's talk real quick about game four. What changes do you expect John Cooper to make if any? heading in the game for. Yeah, I do wonder if maybe Connor Gigi rotates back into that fourth line. If we see the playoff debut of Oliver Bjorkstrand, maybe just to give the offense a little bit of a kick. I think with Bjorkstrand, you bring him in, you're not going to sacrifice too much defensively. You can kind of roll your four lines again, as opposed to, you know, the kind of the mixed match he did today. That would be about it. I know Charles Edward de Stou is skating with the team. It's not quite clear when he's going to be back, but you know, he's up there in Montreal with him. If he's ready to go, you know, it'll be about four or five days since he suffered that hit. Um, I think you could see him back in for Declan Carlisle. Uh, I don't see had been coming in. He's, he's been pretty much doubtful. Um, and then Pontus Holmberg is, uh, definitely still long-term. You're looking at least, you know, the Lightning would have to get through this series to even think about Holmberg coming back. So the one change I could see is possibly geeky or. York strand coming back in. there a chance he would go with geeky to get a more physical element to replace Sabrin? I mean, you do get that with geeky. is a big guy. He does like to hit people. Um, so you do get, you know, kind of a more offensively minded Scott Sabrin, if you will. Um, but again, he is, you know, he is still basically a young player. He has 21, 22, something like that. So do you want the younger player in there? Cooper tends to not. really trust younger players that much. He does give you a little bit better skating, believe it or not, which could be the difference against Montreal, especially if things seem to have simmered down physically between the two teams. They were kind of on their best behavior tonight. So that was nice to see. ⁓ nothing too dirty, but you never know with these two teams. All it takes is one hit and then, you know, the powder kegs blown back up. But, ⁓ I think both teams are kind of at that point in the series. where they do want to focus on actually winning games and not being the baddest guy on the ice. So I think you're going to see some of that physicality go away and they're still going to hit each other. But you know, the stuff after the whistle is going to go away. So in that case, think geeking may be a better fit. Justin, you had mentioned that the Lightning only took 17 shots tonight. After the game, you had mentioned that John Cooper, when before we came on the air, John Cooper said, Hey, we have to get more shots at the net. Do you think that's then you're going to see the lighting naked concerted effort to do that in game four? think they have to. know it's, it is super frustrating to play a team again, like the Canadians who are so good at blocking passes, so good at blocking shots. they just take away the area in front of the crease so well, but you kind of got to keep at it. You can't change the way you play. Uh, the big thing will be, you know, just recovery. You know, if your shot gets blocked, you got to go after, you got to win the puck battle for the loose puck. That's kind of how you can beat them there. ⁓ I thought in game two, they did a good job of getting in front of dovish, you know, the screening, some shots screening his eyes, taking his eyes away from him. They got to get back to that. ⁓ I thought there was a little bit too much hesitation. ⁓ you saw it kind of develop on the power play. They, they tried to do a lot of kind of backdoor plays or reverse the flow of the puck instead of just taking the shot. mean, if you take anything out of this game from the lightning, take what Hudson did at the end of the game is just shoot the puck. I mean, it's. Sometimes it's just going to find a way in. handcuff them with a shot, Dobish gets out of position, you bang home the rebound. You score that way. You just got to get to the front of that. You got to start getting some of these scoring chances and high danger chances. And just you got to pressure him. think if you pressure him, you can score some goals on him. next podcast is going to be on Monday. We are going to recap game four. Game four is going to be Sunday night at seven o'clock. Hey, please hit that like and subscribe button. We really appreciate it. We just hit 2000 YouTube subscribers and over 10,000 downloads since we started about 10 weeks ago. Really appreciate everyone's support. You can read Justin's recap and his previews going into game four at www.rawcharge.com. I'm Jason Linkus. Thanks for joining us. Have a great evening and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to back checking the bolts. We are free and available on all platforms, including Apple, Spotify, I heart radio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on blue sky at raw charge.com. You can follow the show on X at Tampa underscore bolts underscore pod and on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube at back checking the bolts. If you're interested in advertising on the show or partnering with us, You can find more information in the show notes or email Jason at backcheckingthebolts at yahoo.com.