Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Lightning on the Brink After Game 5 Loss -Wesley Lawrence on Wild vs Stars

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Lightning on the Brink After Game 5 Loss -Wesley Lawrence on Wild vs Stars · Backchecking the Bolts

• Jason Linkes: Coming up, I'm back checking the bolts. Going into this series, we thought Tampa had the advantage in depth in the bottom six, but in this series, it has been the complete opposite. It has been Montreal who's gotten the majority of the bottom six scoring. Who on the Lightning has disappointed you in this series? Just as far as, know, you got to start getting something out of these Yanni Gord lines, you know, even the Gergensen's line. I know they're not out there to score goals. But as we're seeing, you know, if these top two lines are going to cancel each other out, it's got to be the bottom six. finds it has to find a way to put the puck in the net. 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. It is the back checking the bolts instant reaction to game five Montreal with a three to victory over the lightning in Tampa. The lightning are now on the brink of elimination for the fourth straight year in the first round. Let's bring in raw charges. Justin Godfrey, who you can read each and every day at www.rawcharge.com. Justin, it's the same story in this series. It's they can't seem to solve Jacob Dobish. What was your first impression? I just thought Montreal played a really good game last night. They keep doing the things that they need to do to win these games. Whereas the Lightning are quite getting to that level. I think for the most part, the Lightning have played pretty well. ⁓ We broke it down in the preview yesterday over at Royal Charge that this has been a pretty even series. And what did you expect out of teams that were basically neck and neck in the regular season? But in these games, For whatever reason, especially early on, know, Montreal has been able to find the goal as opposed to the lightning getting the chance, but not being able to put the puck in the net. Going into this series, we thought Tampa had the advantage in depth in the bottom six, but in this series, it has been the complete opposite. It has been Montreal who's gotten the majority of the bottom six scoring who on the lightning has disappointed you in this series. It just, far as, know, you got to start getting something out of the, you know, these Yanni Gord lines, you know, even the Gergensen's line. know they're not out there to score goals. Um, but as we're seeing, if these top two lines are going to cancel each other out, it's gotta be the bottom six. finds a way, has to find a way to put the puck in the net. Good to see Dominic James score. I think he's been one of the better players in this series. Um, and the fact that he just took it straight to the net and scored is a good sign. You know, outside of the faceoff dot, I thought James had a really good game. Then you had Gage Gonzalez who looked good at times, but he was also responsible for that first goal against, know, he got beat along the wall. So they're again, doing a lot of great things, do a lot of good things, a lot of things that are good enough to win. But at the end, it's just, you know, for lack of a better way of putting it, just hasn't been good enough. You know, they haven't found that second switch that you need sometimes for these, these playoff type victories. Justin, I want to read some stats off to you. Anthony Cirelli, no goals to assist. Darren Radish, one goal, one assist. Braden Point, one goal. Corey Perry doesn't have a point all series. At what point did these guys need to be drivers and not passengers? mean, I think you kind of throw Sorelli out of that. mean, they go in and, you know, they tell Sorelli, hey, if you shut down the Cole Caulfield, the Nixazuki line and don't score a goal, that's fine. That's fine with us. We, you know, the theory is that the lady have enough depth around them that they could score, you know. But like Braden points stuff on the bucket of net, you know, off the mic, we've talked about Kucharoff lately at his playoff struggles, if you will. Goal goal in his last 19 games. mean, that's three series now, four series where, you know, he's still getting points. He's still getting assists and stuff like that. you know, do you remember anything he did last night? Really? I mean, he kind of was taken out of that game. had, you know, a couple of looks and he had shots on goal, but a lot of his shots are coming from the perimeter, which He's got a great shot, but it's, it's not dangerous. You know, he's just not getting the, those, you know, in quality in close chances. And so at some point, someone's got to step it up. You know, it's been all Brandon Hagel. been Jake Gensel, you know, God forbid what the series would look like if Hagel wasn't six goals deep. had mentioned about shots coming from the perimeter. Is this as simple as the lightning just need to get to the net and get some dirty goals? I mean, we've been talking about it, you know, pretty much all series is that's how you're going to, you're a way you got to get, got to generate these high quality chances, but let's face it. There's another team out there, you know, let's give Montreal their due. Their defensive structure has been fantastic. The entire series, they just don't get out of their, their shape, you know, they drop back, the defenseman press just enough to let the forwards catch up. So there's no gaps for the lightening to exploit. mean, one thing for watching that game from basically behind the net. Is there's just, the space just isn't there for the Lightning. They love to drive the net. They love to drive into the zone, curl back, you know, and drop it back to the defensively coming. And with the way the, the defenders are playing for Montreal, they're pressing them just enough that they can't get deep. And then the forwards are right on top of them. So that drop pass isn't there. The Lightning love to work it from side to side, diagonally in the neutral zone. That's not there. ⁓ there's just nothing in the center of the ice right now. And you know, that's credit to Montreal for that. some point the Lightning had to figure out a way to break it or, or just change the way they play and just start driving the net. You know, one of the nice things about the two goals is both were almost identical. They're shots off the, you know, off that right wing and it worked. think you get Dobish moving around a little bit. He loves to come out to challenge and then drop back. So he's a big dude. That's a lot of open spaces. I think the, ⁓ Gensel goal was, you know, proof of that, you know, he's kind of moving around and that opened up the five hole. Little bit more of that. Some more shots off the rush, maybe, but you got to be getting to the rebounds and you got to be getting them. got to somehow figure out how to move those defensemen out of the middle of the ice. Let's go back to the dominant James goal. One, nothing. James comes in. It's one to one. The building's on fire. You have some momentum and then they give up a goal right away. How much momentum. How much of a drag was that out of the Tampa Bay? It just sucked the energy out of the building. I think you could see the Lightning kind of hang their shoulders a little bit. Montreal just basically scored all the momentum goals, right? They scored the first goal of the game, they scored it early. They scored that goal 11 seconds after the Lightning had tied it up. And then they scored in the first minute of the third period. I those are all big momentum goals. It's all the stuff you don't want to give up. You don't want to give up the goal of the first turn. First two or last two minutes of a period, you don't want to give up a goal on the next shift after you scored. And it's been, you know, a little thing here, a little thing there. Like, like we said, he like, Gajer, he's got beat on that first goal. He just frankly got beat, you know, the guy skated around him and you can't have that second goal. The dock goal I think was, you know, Vasilevsky makes a nice poke shot, but it hits his skate and Doc's able to kick it to his second and put it in. The third goal was a bad line change. mean, Yeah, Vassey has to have that shot. It's not a difficult shot. know, it's, it's a good location over the glove, but you know, he makes that save 99 % of the time. But the fact that the lightning allowed Tessier wide open, mean, late Hudson had a long stretch pass that, it wasn't one these quick ones either. He's like, had to putt, Hudson had to putt for a while. Looks up, he's like, okay, yeah, they're going to give this to me. Great. And you know, he hits it right on the stick blade. Tessier is in alone, there's nobody challenging him and he just beats Basilewski. you know, it's these little things that keep breaking down on them. And every time it happens, it's in the back of the net. So they're not getting those bounces, the lightning. They've had their looks, they have plenty of looks. mean, if you look right before the Tessier goal, they put one off the post. Kucherov is right there, the puck's there. He just has to sweep it in and like us around the green, he just kind of duffs the shot, you know, the stick goes under the puck and rolls over the top. You know, we've all been there, right? little birdie chip and it just kind of, yeah, you fluff it. So brutal. I just, and let's talk about the face off that in the third period, saw it. No, no, we don't have to. Yeah. Well, I think we do because Jake Evans was out there constantly in the third period. And I think the final stats was he won 87 % of his face-offs. We had talked about this at the trade deadline. know I was a big proponent of them going out and getting a Luke Glenn Denning type of person. That Sam Carrick guy that you could throw on your bottom six to win face-offs. Puck possession is so important in the playoffs. You had mentioned Sorelli off the air, won 50 % of his draws. Did anyone else do? anything in the face-off circle. was somebody else who was like six and seven in the draw. So they're like 45%. But you looked at like Dominic James is 0 for 8. I think I added it up. Like if you pull out Cerelli, the rest of the folks were 25%, I think on the draws. And if you've ever been to a Lightning game, one of the stats that they keep up on the Big Jumbotron is the face-offs. And you just look at it throughout the game and Montreal's constantly at 70 % on the draws. think. During our discussion, came out that, you're probably a little bit more of a proponent on, on face-offs. Um, but the lightening just weren't winning any of them. Like they weren't winning the important ones. weren't winning the ones in the middle of the ice. So weren't even contested. Yeah, a lot of them were clean wins. Yeah. A lot of them were clean wins. And you know, you mentioned it out there as well, you know, at the end of the game when they're pushing, if you can't win one cleanly there, it's just so tough. And you know, Montreal was able to clear a couple of times off of face-off wins, but. Part of it's Nick Paul wasn't in the game. Let's face it. Game. I thought game four, the Lightning were okay. I even game three, think they were okay in the faceoff. He just takes so many important ones and Cooper was using him as that faceoff guy. You know, he was putting Nick Paul out there on the power play to win a faceoff. He was putting him in the defensive zone with, you know, people who aren't his line mates just to go out and win a draw. You know, it's kind of tough for the Lightning an hour before the game. You realize he can't play. They said illness. So hopefully it's a temporary thing and he's back for Friday's match, but. You know, you take him out, you put geeky in and you have the, a young kid. He's not savvy to the ways of the face off dot maybe. And, and I got schooled. you know, wouldn't it been nice to pick up a Glendening, some, somebody like that? Sure. I'm guessing the price was just too much to pay for the Lightning and you kind of, you know, that's true. Yeah, was cheaper than that. But again, you know, where were the Lightning and the Waiver claim, you know, order. So maybe they didn't put a claim in it for him, but, ⁓ know, we'd Philly picked him up, right? ⁓ yeah. You know, he's done it in the playoffs, right? I mean, you, ⁓ you've probably watched a lot of that series and you know, Glendetti is out there and he wins a draw here or there or he ties it up. Like, and that was Cooper's big thing early in the series. It's not all on the center, right? It faced off for a team win and. What he wanted to see is if you're not going to win the draw, at least make it tough for the other team. And I thought they did that kind of in games three and four. Um, they weren't winning the draw, but they were at least making it difficult for Montreal to get possession cleanly out of the face-offs. Then get back to that in game six. Like it's funny, like as bad as they played in games five and games three, I still think they win the series. They haven't been that far off and you feel like if they do get a little momentum, if they do get a puck to go their way, they can win two in a row. They can go up to Montreal. The pressure is on the Canadians right now, right? They're a young team, but now that fourth win, it's so tough to get. they're going to adapt. That building is going to be rocking. And I think the Lightning would stay in the storm early. You know, kind of get to their game and they can pull another one out and then it's game seven, all bets off. So we'll see how it Well, Nick Paul was out of the lineup because of a knownness. Let's say he's back in. Connor Geeky heads back to the press box. Any other lineup changes do you think you might see? Cause right now I don't, I mean, the lightning don't have the magic elixir that's in the press box right now. Someone coming off of an injury, a rookie that they can throw into this lineup. The lineup is what it is. What changes do you think John Cooper makes heading in the game six? I think a lot of it will depend on either Destu status or know, Victor Headman status. One thing the lightning really missed, no, let's be 100 % clear. Victor Headman has had a bad year. He has not been on a percent. He has not looked like Victor Hedman, but the one weapon in his arsenal that he's always had is that stretch pass from one, you know, from the lightning zone to the other, to the offensive zone. Nobody's better at hitting a hit and a forward, you know, across three lines, you know, what used to be illegal, know, the old three line pass, you know, back in our day, you couldn't do that, but the old two line passes. Exactly. Face off back in your own zone. Yeah. I think some somebody who can do that. stretches that Montreal defense a little bit and kind of pushes some of those gaps that we were talking about a little bit. If, if point could get behind the forward lines and challenge a defender one-on-one because Headman hits him out of the other zone, that's something the Lightning have, have used to their advantage in the past. The problem with Headman is I think if you start Headman in game six, you got to go 11-7. You don't know what his conditioning is. You don't know what the status of his injury is. Can he play 20 minutes? And so I think now you're pulling out of another forward. now you're down on 11, seven, which the light even done in the past and they've been okay with, but I don't think that's his preference right now. We had a guy like Bjork strain playing. thought for your extra and the kid plays so hard. thought he played hard every shift he was out there and he can't buy it. You know, he can't buy a shot right now. I think you texted it, you know, during the game, it's like the band. Okay. Just can't buy a shot. He can't buy a goal right now. I thought he played really well. I thought he created a lot of chances and. Um, which is good for the lightning cause they need that defensive effort, but do you pull him out for an 11-7 rotation? That could be the only thing I really see. Cause like I said, there's nobody like Scott, Sabran's not going to make a difference, right? Declan Carlisle is not going to make a difference. Steve Santini is not going to make a difference. You know, it is what it is and they just kind of find a way to win with who they have. Well, Bjork Strand had a nice play actually in the first period and hit the crossbar off the post and The guy is just snake bit right now. Just an earlier today, we were joined by Wesley Lawrence of Defending Big D to talk about the Minnesota Wild Dallas Star Series. If there's been a series as tight as the Montreal Tampa series, it's been the Wild and the Dallas Stars. Let's go to that interview right now and see what Wesley has to say about the Stars and the Wild. Here on back checking the bolts. always try to give you a views on different series, different teams. And today we are pleased to be joined by Wesley Lawrence, defending big D.com. You can find all of his writings and on the star gazing podcasts. Wesley, thanks for joining us today. Hey, my pleasure. was, I was much more excited about doing this about 24 hours ago and, uh, still excited. Don't get me wrong, but a little bit more, uh, a little bit more depressed than usual, but yeah, it's been that kind of year. That was a tough game last night. It was a game that was in the balance. Boldy got the goal late in the second period. What was the determining factor in that game? And the reason I'm asking this, Wesley is the power play has been Dallas is cog all series. They have nine power play goals, but they only have four goals at even strength, three goals at five on five last night. What was that X factor that turned this into the favor of the wild? Mistakes. The first, their first goal was Tyler Myers rushing a pass up the wall that turns into puts it right on. And I apologize. I forget the name of the wild player on the blue line puts it on a wild player stick immediately goes to Capri soft down low. There is a then kind of compounding era. Harley and Myers looked like they can't figure out who to cover that. The end result of that as Capri soft gets a pair of shots about three feet away from Jake Ottinger and Zuccarello taps it into an empty note on the other side. And I think in a series that has been so defined by tight margins, with the exception of Dallas is game one, show. If you take out empty netters and kind of late game noise, this has been a one game, sorry, a one goal series throughout the entirety of it. So this is, this is one of those series where you cannot make a single mistake. And Dallas coughed up a puck and led to a goal. And then Dallas took too many men on the ice bench, minor that led to a goal. you just. When you, when you are a light scoring team reliant on your power play, the last thing you can do is give the other team easy chances. And they did that a couple of times and they've done it a couple of times this series. And you can trace a lot of the ill that has befallen the Dallas stars falls on. And this is not me throwing shade on the wild to be very clear. They've been, they've been valued for their, you know, for their, results, but a lot of the bad that has happened, you can kind of look at blown coverage, easy mistakes. bad penalties. it's been a series where Dallas has found ways to make it harder rather than easier. And that's, that's kind of why we're looking at a three, two deficit right now. Coming into this series, Dallas had a lot of injuries. A big one is the second line center, Rupe hints. Tell everyone how big of a loss that is for Dallas. Yeah. I'm going to go one level deeper because it's hints and it's also, and it happened so long ago. People have forgotten that Tyler Sagan's also done for the year. So this is, this is a team that was built on and, know, quibble a little bit Dallas sort of has it's, it's not so much a one C two C as a one a one B and it's, it's Wyatt Johnston and Rupa hints. And depending on matchup and game situation, sometimes it's the Johnston rotten and duo that's this kind of driving the bus. Other times it's hints Robertson, sometimes it's intense rotten in and Johnson. Anyways, it's that foursome. And by having those two lines, when you have hints. And when you have Johnston in place, it means that, that then you have a third line built around Matt Deshaun and Jamie Ben with a little bit less of an offensive burden on him. ⁓ Justin Ritkovi and some of the depth players and a lot of what Dallas has really flows from two powerful offensive lines and then complimentary pieces losing Sagan earlier in the season. That was their depth, right? That that, was their extra center losing hints, right? You take the number one guy off of any team in the league, all of the sudden. You look at the performance who scored is the it's the Deshaun Robertson line and Dallas has gotten awfully one note without hints because everybody has to step up kind of everybody takes one step up the lineup. And now you've got a guy like Radik Fox who is a defensive specialist, a penalty kill guy, somebody that's really sort of built to, bring that level of play. And all of sudden as a star is when you're looking at him and saying, well, I hope he, I hope his line can generate a little bit of offense. And that's just not the way this team is built. So hence is. He's one of those rare, you know, both and he plays both ends of the ice. He can be on your power play. He can be on your penalty kill. He is, he is fast. He can match up with anybody. He is good at everything. He is a good passer. He can finish. He does everything. And so taking him out at just everything is just a little bit harder for the stars in terms of speed. He is right up there with Connor McDavid. mean, he can absolutely fly, but he made a really good point. You made a really good point with the fact that you're taking guys that now when you have to bump that third line guy up to the second line, instead of playing 14 minutes, you're playing them 18 minutes. Instead of playing a guy 18, you're playing them 21, 22. You're putting them in positions that honestly expose them a little bit. And how does Dallas overcome this? The power play. ⁓ and also credit to, you know, it's one of those classic examples of don't believe your sample size. Matt, Matt Deshaun has been maligned as a playoff struggler for years and years. Well, look at the good he's been great. And, it's really the chance. So Dallas has survived because Matt Deshaun has stepped up in a big way because the power play is, I mean, even when they don't score, should, this is, this is as good. This reminds me of like peak McDavid Oilers level power play. They are, they are dangerous every time they get the puck. And then Jason Robertson, he's, he's working now. I think he scored in his last seven playoff games. And those are the guys right in a series of tight margins. Dallas has been able to score when they get even last night, right? They make a dumb mistake, give up a goal, one to nothing power play, haste, them with a one-timer all of a sudden it's tied up and they've been able to lean on their special teams and they, they attack in so many different ways with such a variety of, you can't even that's the same group doing, you can't shut them down. And so the series, like what's been working is defensively, the team has just decided that you can't shoot from the middle of the ice, which is. you where all the goals are. And then on the power play, when they get a chance to convert and that's why it's not worse than it is. It's amazing when you look at the stats right now through five games in this series, they are clicking at 39.1%. That's unbelievable. And it is. And it's also the thing I would say is if you're, if you're, if you're a Huck, a puck nerd, right, watch some of the power play. It's not. It's not a one trick show, right? It's not, they don't yet. There's, there's a lot of special in the regular season, know, Johnston set a franchise record for power play goals, right? It's him in the middle, him in the bumper, but this is a team that they score from the point. They score from the wall. They score from down low. It's it's rotten in it's Robertson. It's Johnston, it's Haskin and like, it's, it's a five man unit that can do so many different things and attack in so many different ways. It is their Thanos. They're inevitable. And there's just, last, ⁓ last game right down to there's offsetting penalties and they pull their goalie to create a five on four and they score on it. That was Robertson's goal in the third last night. So they just, they have such a variety of players and styles and ways to shoot and places to shoot for the extra man that it just doesn't, it doesn't really matter what you do against them defensively. They're going to do something else and get a chance. Wesley. want to talk about Jason Robertson. He's one of those guys in the league. You never hear him talked amongst the top five, but when you look at his stats and when you watch him play, he's as consistent as Ron Francis was back in the nineties. You're consistent 80 to 90 points score. He's hit the hundred mark before. Tell us a little bit about Jason Robertson and what makes him special. He is. He reminds me a lot in terms of how he scores of Brett Holt. And that it's not an overwhelming physical attribute, although I'm sort of getting there on his wrist shot. Like he it's, just brutal. He's one of those guys that understands where to like, and this sounds stupid. You'd think you listen to this and think, everybody should know this, but, guys don't just functionally in the context of a hockey game, Jason Robertson knows where the shooting lane is, knows where the passing lane is and knows where he needs to be. And he's one of those guys that can consistently put himself in a position to execute. And he seems to understand like, you know, a veteran leads the league in goals, not because he shoots 40%, but because he shoots 400 times. And Robert, like, it's, right. Hockey is a, you know, you don't, you can't wrestle if you don't weigh in. Like hockey is a sport where you don't score goals by being more precise. You score goals with volume. Nope. Nobody really influences their shooting percentage. And Robertson seems to really understand that. And he's a guy that will go through stretches where he's getting five, six, seven shots a game and just, he, he consistently gets to the right spots, gets his shot off, reset, rerack, try it again, try it again, try it again. And you get to the end of the game. ⁓ wow. Yeah. Yeah. He had a goal and two helpers or he had a couple, had a couple of goals tonight. He just does. He executes that so consistently well that he's just always dangerous. Coming into the series, there was some talk whether Philip, Philip Gustafson. or Jesper Wollstad would get the start for Minnesota. Well, they went with Wollstad. Were you a little bit surprised by that considering Gustafson has the experience? No, because Wollstad played against Dallas a couple of times here. He played very well. I think Minnesota was perfectly, I think they were ready to go back to Gustafson if it didn't work. And I think it was one of those plays where they had two excellent goaltenders. Wollstad had been better recently, right? They kind of went with the ceiling. If Wollstad goes, he kind of, to me, He seemed to have the higher potential, right? So I think that Minnesota went into it thinking we're going to ride the hot hand. We're going to play the guy that could really be something special. And if it doesn't work, we're going to go back to Gustafson and nobody's going to blink. And I think that's exactly what we've seen is Walsh that has been fantastic. He's a big piece of why Minnesota is succeeding. And if you, if you look at, know, yes, the obvious storyline is Dallas can't score it even strength. And that's, that's totally fair. But if you look at. you know, chance generation shooting. If you look at some of the underlyings, Dallas has actually been quite good at even strength. And the story is the last time I checked Minnesota's PDO was like 1.05, 1.04 or something like that. So Wallstead has been a big part of why the series looks the way that it does. So the fact that they went with him was a mild surprise. The fact that they've stayed with him is not, it'd be, it'd be stunning if they didn't. The stars are down three, two in the series. Their backs are against the wall. In the last three years, they've made it to the conference finals. lost twice to Edmonton and in 23, they lost to Vegas. How has Dallas played when they've had that must win situation? Sadly, they've played better in that situation when, when going, think they've been, they've lost nine of 11 of their last game ones. Dallas tends to play very well in close games because their style tends to be well suited. They, are very tight defensively. They are, I think they know that they have high level offensive talent. So Dallas as a team is very content to soak up pressure and wait for a chance. think this is one of the kind of side sneaky benefits of having an excellent power play. If you know that it's there, if you know that you can convert when you get a chance, it's easier to get the team to buy into clogging the slot and making, you know, manning your defensive assignment. It's easier to keep everybody home and doing the things that keep games tight when your team is confident. Okay. Well, when we get a bounce, when we get a power play, when something does break our way. We, we can, we're, likely to capitalize. And so I think in tight games, Dallas is defensive structure and Dallas is sort of the presence of elite players in their lineup. You know, looking at, just finished speaking about Jason Robertson, guy like Miko Ron and look what he did in the postseason last year. Miro Haysken and his fantastic Thomas Harley has won, you know, a bunch of big games. Wyatt Johnston, think has, I think he's ended like three series before the age of 23 kids. Phenomenal. this is a team that is. I mean, it look at, mean, talk about like talk about unsung heroes, look at Wyatt Johnston's career arc and it'll blow your mind. But I think that's why Dallas comes into a, you know, an elimination game with some level of confidence because Hey, we want it tight. We want it a little bit chippy. We're okay with being, you know, a small number of scoring chances. We're okay with one or two power plays. We might, you know, we might get one or two goals out of one or two power plays. So think Dallas is. well disposed towards an elimination game in general. So I think that's kind of why they tend to play well with their back against the walls. That's just their system is better in those situations than it is. And, we, guess we'll let, let's open it up. Okay. Wesley, we're going to play fortune teller here. You are head coach Glenn Gullitzen. What's the one chess piece move you can make to turn game six and game seven. Oof. I have a terrible answer for this. Because I just, at this point, I don't think that there's, I think that your move is you have a, you have a team with, with guys with pedigree. have a team of guys that have been there before you have a team of guys that have one series before Dallas doesn't really have that like ACE prospect or black ACE sitting around to kind of inject into line up. There's no, you know, that, was Maverick Bork and he's a regular there. They're too beat up to have that guy that sort of iced out of the lineup. So I think if you're the stars in a lot of ways, your path forward here is keep at it and hope, hope you get the bounces that you seem to do. I, know, there's, there's just, think you maybe look at you're going to ride your, instead of going with a top four, I think you look at, know, your, your top four is, some combination of Hayskin and Lindell and Harley and you really lean on those guys and you're, you're kind of down, you're downing the minutes of like Tyler Myers, Lee and Michelle. Hope Nils Lundquist's sneaky, huge piece didn't make the trip. I think if you're Dallas, you, you're really pushing minutes onto your top three defensively. And then offensively, I think you just, you, you try, you want to get into the slot more, but in terms of like roster moves and lineup tweaks, I think at this point, you got to do what got you here and you hope that you get something greasy plat past wall set and maybe Miko gets untracked and. You know, maybe Wyatt find something and you hope that some of the guys that have been there before shake out of whatever's going on versus a situation where I don't think there's anything like, and again, this is going to sound like sour grapes. And I think Minnesota is doing an excellent job. They're a fantastic team. That's why we're where we are. I don't think Minnesota is doing anything special to stymie the Dallas stars. I don't think there's a secret sauce that they're employing to beat the team. They're just, they're throwing, they've got their top six. Right. And they're, throwing Kapras off and Baldy and Faber and Hughes and a little bit of Eric's neck as well, but they're throwing their top guys out there. And so far their top guys have been one goal better than Dallas's top guys. And at this point, if you're Dallas, you hope that that changes. You almost are waiting for Miko Rantan to have that game seven moment like he did last year against Colorado, where he single-handedly turned the third period of that hockey game. Absolutely. You're hoping for that. ⁓ you're hoping for Thomas Harley. He's a guy that, know, Miro Haysken and missed extended time last year with a Mark Stone induced knee injury. And a lot of Dallas is a relatively thin defense, right? Top heavy, but the bottom is a little questionable. So a lot of fans thought they were cooked when he went out. Well, Thomas Harley stepped up and played, played his out of his mind after four nations. So if you're a stars fan, that's, that's another spot where you may be able to find if he finds another gear, all of a sudden you've got a two headed transition monster and you're going to start putting some good pressure on Minnesota. ⁓ Wyatt Johnston's been quiet. talked about him earlier, like that, whole rotten in line, right? It's so it's for the most part, it's been rotten in Johnston and Justin Ritz Kovian. ⁓ although Sam steel pops up there from time to time. think if you're the stars. Yeah, you've got the rotten in factor. You've got, you've got a couple of lottery tickets in the lineup that haven't come up good yet. And I think you, you continue to put them in positions where they might, and you hope for a good spot. Cause conversely you're looking at Minnesota and the guys that you expected to drive the bus driving the bus, right? They're playing Quinn Hughes, 36, 37 minutes a night, Brock Faber as well. Then it's Capra soft and it's boldly and that's the story. And if you're the stars, you, you, you know that this is a strength on strength situation. You know where it's coming from and you try and minimize them and maximize your own guys. Let's head over to the rest of the Western conference, Colorado. Wes, as you and I talked about Colorado, basically run that series in three games. Yeah, it was, it wasn't particularly close. ⁓ and I think the terrifying thing for the rest of the conferences, they have time to get healthy in the past. Colorado, they are, mean, they're, they're, they're a wagon top to bottom, but they're a wagon that does have to, you know, McCarr and McKinnon are the guys, right? And in the past, they've been undone. None of that neither has missed significant time, but you know, they've, they've been banged up. in the past and, and, know, the Chushkins missed some time, Gabe Landisgog. It's, it's really impressive that he's playing. So if, you're an opponent of the Colorado avalanche, you are looking an absolute horror at the fact that, you know, they've had, there's, there's an adage, right? To win a Stanley cup, need a short series. Well, guess what? The number one seed in the entire league is going to have a week off before round two. And that just, that sucks for everybody that doesn't like the avalanche and, you know, the other series Vegas and. And Utah, you know, those are, and this, could be proven very wrong, but those are sort of secondary series. don't know that, that the, of those four teams, Vegas, Utah, Edmonton, and I'm none of those teams are on the same level of Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota. They're just, they're just not. And so let me ask you this is the second round Colorado, whoever they face, is that your quasi Western conference final? I think injuries are always going to be a question mark, right? Because Colorado will also have to get through a very good team in round two, whether that's Minnesota or whether that's Dallas, but I think so. I just think with, with Edmonton, the goaltending hasn't come together. Do you really look at, look at how they're struggling against Anaheim defensively and then put, you know, Kadri and McKinnon and McCarr and Hey, and the shoes can like, do you really think that they're going to be better defensively against any of the teams left in the bracket? And then you've got Vegas, who's their goalie? Chris Doblox going back to Connor Ingram. Yeah. And honestly, like he doesn't know what else to do. He's, he's got, they, they, they, they knew they had a problem. They shot their shot and they got Tristan Jarre. That's, know, they are who they are. they're Edmonton, think is one of those like, and I said this, you know, one of the years they beat the stars. Edmonton's always going to be frisky because of, because they've got Bouchard, Drisital and McDavid. And when you have like three of the top 20 players in the world and two of the top five, you can, if McDavid goes nuts, almost doesn't matter what you do. And you always have that card, but it really has gotten to the point with Edmondson where it feels like that's your path. And it's really hard to make David a series four times in a row as we've seen over the last three seasons. What about the Utah Vegas series? That, that, that one is a peculiar one because you look at games three and games four. Vegas five on five was the much better team. Utah has just been the more opportunistic team and it's the overtime goal in game four. Yeah. And I think part of that is Vegas is a, you know, they've, they've also had problems in the crease is car is Carter Hart really a guy that you expect to be the starter on a Stanley cup contender. I think those teams are more limited. I think they've got more question marks on the roster. They're, clearly good. Um, but I, again, I think that that series is more chaos puck and I think a part of me really wants to see like Utah and Anaheim in the second round. Just, think those games will be the perfect level of insanity over under seven and a half for which just per team or combined, right? But I was about to say it's going to be flying up and down the ice or so much young talent on both of those teams. They're probably both a year early, but it would be a, it'd be really fun to watch. It would be, but, again, the reality though is barring some dramatic turn of fortune in the other half of the bracket, none of those four teams are going to be favored in a matchup against the, you know, they're, they're just not. And things happen. Hockey is hockey, but in terms of teams to really pay attention to right now, it's, it's Colorado's world and we're all living in it. And maybe the survivor of Dallas, Minnesota, that's going to be an excellent team with some wear and tear. Maybe they do the thing where they jump on a team that's been off and steal a game or two early and turn it into a really fascinating series. But the bracket right now has set up to maximize. This is why you win the league. Right. This is maximize Colorado's advantage for the playoffs and they look they look incredibly strong. Wesley tell us about defending Big D. Yeah it's our it's our humble little fan community. We've been we've been keeping track of the stars for a while now. It's we've we've. ⁓ this is where the podcast we host stargazing is centered and it's just a nice look at to a team that doesn't always get the same high profile attention as some of the others. And I don't, I'm sure that as a, you know, a bolts podcast, you don't, you don't always get, think the respect that you're afforded either compared to some of the teams that, that move the needle. it's, it's our opportunity to shine a light on the fact of, you know, right now two of the playoffs top five leading scorers are Jason Robertson and Matt Deshane. And right, know, Miro Hayskinen is one of the best defenders in the league, non-Macar category. Like it's our chance to, to give a little focus onto, um, onto those players and, and a team that has been, you know, three time Western conference finalist right in the mix again, right? were, they were like 15 games undefeated this season, neck and neck with Colorado. It's, it's been a, this is a powerhouse and it's, it's our opportunity to give a little focus and a little bit more attention to them. The stargazing podcast, can get it pretty much everywhere. Podcasts are found, correct? Yeah, everywhere. ⁓ yeah, we, we record during the regular season. It's once a week, but during the playoffs, we're, going after every game. Yeah. We're on all the platforms, stargazing. ⁓ you know, Mark Zimmerman is my cohost. is a fantastic stack. I really, really, think blends well. There's the, the stuff behind the scenes with the eye test on the ice, which I think is equally important. So I, I hope that we do a good job trying to make. some of the underlines accessible and not getting so far into our own heads about it that we lose sight of the will and the skill that wins the games. then, know, Kathleen Tibbitts, our producer just does a phenomenal job putting it together. So it's, it's, we've been, it's, it's been a fantastic podcast. I've really enjoyed doing it and I really love covering the team. Well, out Defending Big D, DefendingBigD.com. Wesley Lawrence, thank you so much for joining us today. Let's talk a little bit later on in the playoffs. pleasure. Hopefully my team will still be around to do that talking. Hopefully ours well as well. Thanks again for your time. My pleasure. Justin, let's take a look around the NHL. The Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of one to nothing in overtime last night. They advanced to the second round against Carolina. In the Atlantic division, we're still waiting to see if Buffalo can finish off Boston. What's your thoughts right now in the Eastern conference? know, it's really light enough for Carolina, man. Like Carolina has got to be looking at their chops. They get the time off, you know, they had a couple of people. Nicked up in that, in that series. Now they know they're playing Philly, which should be an entertainment. think it's going to be a really interesting series. You know, you have the, youth and energy from Philly going against a veteran Carolina team that really needs to get it done. Meanwhile, they can watch the Atlantic guys continue to the crap out of each other. Um, you know, Boston's given Buffalo everything they can, they can possibly hope for. The second round is going to be a very interesting round for whoever comes out of the Atlantic. Justin, I think Carolina would rather face Philadelphia. think they got the better matchup rather than facing Pittsburgh. Philadelphia's youth started the show during that series and last night they were not the better team. They just had the better goaltender. Let's head out West. You have Colorado who basically had a easy four game sweep. They're going to be waiting on the wild Dallas stars winner, but over in the Pacific division. You still have two series that are unsettled Vegas one and double overtime last night. They have a three, two lead over Utah and Anaheim is trying to close out the Edmonton Oilers and whoever the hell they decide to throw in that it's not going to be Tristan Jarre. It's going to be Connor Ingram. What's your thoughts on those two series? I mean, it's, it is so funny that, know, you got quote unquote close series over in the West, but it's like the chaos series in Anaheim and Edmonton. It's. The light near just kind of look at that would be like, can we get some of those goals? You know, maybe spread some for us. You know, you watch it team play. You're like, why does it look so easy for them? You know, we're, we're skating through mud here and those students are just going back and down and back and forth down the ice scoring goals over time winners. I mean, Alex, the Lawrence got a couple of goals over there, Utah, Vegas. Like we said it before the series. is kind of a. Nobody knows what the series is going to be like, and it's played out pretty well. You know, Vegas, think it's kind of starting to come through. think they're a slightly better team when they're healthy, not like- better five on five team. Yeah. And it's starting to show, think in that. again, you Utah is another one of these teams that's kind of young. Maybe they haven't been in this position yet. ⁓ You know, closing out series is tough. know, Ken Edmonton, you know, complete the comeback. I think if they win game six, you know, I think a lot of money's going to be put on them, but yeah, it's just been a good, a good first round. It's- It's had a little bit of everything, even the Pittsburgh game last night. I said, it's just a good goaltender pulling through. think that's kind of been the, the one series where the goaltenders made a big difference is, is Ladaar has just been the best player in that series. Ladaar played really well. And honestly, Arthur Shielos played out of his mind. He was tremendous last night. It was a game that if they played that game 10 times. It's probably a four, three game with the high quality chances that both teams had, but it's, it'll be interesting to see a young Philadelphia team go up against an experienced Carolina team and the Carolina team that, you said, looks poised to make a run through the East. Justin, I know you have to recap last night's game. What else is going on at raw charge? Yeah, we got that out. So we'll probably have some stuff a little bit later this afternoon. Just kind of talking about either, you know, the things that You know, Cooper said in this press conference, just what can the lightning do to win game six again? Like I'm not super down about this series right now. It's playing out exactly like we thought it would two teams that are close in, in talent, you know, battling back and forth, making adjustments. Marty made his big adjustment. brought in a Brandon Gallagher who lightning fans may remember from 2014 for God sakes when he did this to them, you know, I think he had three goals in that series. Dale Weiss just absolutely lighting the lightning up from again, from that depth position now from that third and fourth lines. So we'll take a look at that. Hey, game six, let's have fun. Sure. 30 % of the only 30 % of the teams have won after losing game five, but still 30 % of the teams have won. Yeah. That's not a small number to advance the playoffs. You have to win four before you lose four. Exactly. That's all it matters. It doesn't matter if it's seven games or four games, you just have to do it. If you save your best two games for game six and seven, then so be it. So, ⁓ yeah, I think that's the one positive you're going to hold onto is that the lightning, you know, as coach people are always says they've got better in them. And I think we're going to see it in game six. think that's going to be the kitchen sink game where they throw everything out there and, ⁓ we'll see if they can take it to that next gear and pull out a win. then everybody has fun on Sunday. that is all for today's podcast. The lightning, they play Friday night at seven o'clock in Montreal. It'll be game six and we'll be back right after that for the instant reaction. The podcast will drop on Saturday. We'd like to thank Wesley Lawrence from defending big D for coming on the show to talk about the Minnesota wild in the Dallas stars. You can read Justin each and every day at www.rawcharge.com for Justin Godfrey. I'm Jason link is thanks for joining us today 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, iHeartRadio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on bluesky at rawcharge.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.