0:20

Hello, everybody.

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Welcome to the Besu

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and Gadet Notebook Playoff Edition,

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Tuesday edition, or April

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22nd. I'm Marc -Antoine Godin

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in Montreal with Arpenbessu in

0:33

Washington, following Game

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1 in the first round. You were there, my

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friend. What did you think of the game? Do

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I just go on a

0:46

soliloquy for the entire podcast?

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No, please try to do something

0:51

different today. Yeah, that's it, exactly.

0:53

I shouldn't stick to my brand. My

0:56

big takeaway from the game is that the

0:58

capitals missed an opportunity. You

1:00

know, the Canadians came out for that game. And,

1:04

and Caden Gulley equated it to how

1:06

he felt before his first NHL game. He

1:09

said it was the same feeling. Didn't

1:11

know what the speed of the game was going to

1:13

be like. Didn't know what the physicality was going

1:15

to be like. It took about three minutes for Tom

1:17

Wilson to show him how the physicality was going

1:19

to be like when he kind of fumbled the puck

1:21

behind his own net showing the nervousness and then

1:23

Wilson made him pay for it by. plowing into them.

1:27

The Capitals were all over the

1:29

Canadians physically, territorially,

1:31

scoring chance -wise.

1:34

They had every advantage and

1:36

the Canadians looked every bit the

1:38

part of the youngest team

1:40

in the NHL inexperienced. All the

1:42

narratives that were coming into it, all

1:44

the narratives that Carberry was trying

1:46

to dispel about the Canadian Spencer Carberry

1:48

who As an aside, as a

1:51

writer, it's going to be very difficult to

1:53

not quote Spencer Carberry every single day.

1:55

I mean, Marte Saint -Louis has found his

1:57

match in terms of a quotable coach. So

1:59

this is like an all -time series in terms

2:01

of quotable coaches. But it's like

2:03

it is in John Cooper's territory. It's

2:05

big time in the sense that,

2:07

you know, so this quote I'm about

2:09

to tell you about, I typed it out. The

2:12

quote was 258 words long. I

2:14

was like, this quote is really good. I

2:17

unfortunately can't even come close to using

2:19

all of it because it would take

2:21

up basically, you know, a

2:23

quarter or a fifth of my story would

2:25

be that quote. Anyhow, um,

2:29

so prior to the game, you know, I,

2:31

you know, I checked it out and, and

2:33

the capitals remarkably, not only did they have

2:35

91 points last season, just like the Canadians,

2:37

not only did they reach the playoffs on

2:39

the final game of the season, just like

2:41

the Canadians, not only did they have a

2:43

negative goal differential, just like the Canadians, they

2:45

had the exact. same record as the Canadians

2:47

last season wins, losses, overtime

2:49

losses, all the same. They

2:51

were the Canadians a year

2:54

ago. And so

2:56

given that, I

2:58

asked, I asked Carberry after the

3:00

morning skater, I was like, seeing

3:02

as you were quite literally in

3:04

their shoes last year, what

3:06

can you take from your experience

3:08

last year to use against

3:10

them this year being now in

3:12

the shoes of. the Rangers

3:14

against Capitals. And he

3:17

gave a great answer. He was just like,

3:19

you know, like the one thing is that

3:21

we had a lot of momentum. We

3:23

entered the playoffs feeling really good about

3:25

ourselves. We thought we could beat the

3:27

Rangers. If you had asked me a year ago prior

3:29

to the series, do you think you could beat the Rangers?

3:31

My answer would have been unequivocally yes. And

3:34

then within in game one, what the Rangers

3:36

did is they took that belief away and

3:38

just took it away. And I went back

3:40

and look at that game and. I

3:43

don't know what the run of play was like

3:45

in the first period, but much like the Canadians, the

3:48

capital survived the first period.

3:52

And then in a span of a little

3:54

over two minutes in the second period, the

3:56

Rangers pumped three goals in and made it

3:58

three nothing. And that was it. Believe

4:00

God. And so he said, what

4:02

we have to do is what the Rangers did to

4:04

us last year. We have to go into game one. And

4:07

take a chip away at their belief because they

4:09

are riding high. They have a lot of positive energy

4:11

right now. They have a lot of momentum. Frankly,

4:13

he didn't say this, but frankly, a lot more

4:15

momentum than the capitals had who kind of limped

4:17

into the end of the season because they clenched

4:19

for so, so long ago. We

4:22

got chip away at that belief. And

4:24

ultimately, that's not what

4:27

happened. That's not what happened at all.

4:29

In fact, they won

4:31

the game. But if anything, They

4:33

reinforced the belief because the Canadians

4:35

come away from that saying, we had

4:37

a terrible first period. We

4:40

looked like a bunch of children on the

4:42

ice. Second period, we kind

4:44

of recovered somewhat, played it more even.

4:46

And in the third period, we dominated

4:48

and we got to overtime and we

4:50

were one shot away from winning this

4:52

game in what was far from a

4:54

perfect game. And the Canadians, I think

4:56

we would agree, need to play perfect

4:58

games to win this series. And they

5:00

didn't do that in game one and

5:02

they still had a chance to win

5:05

it. And so I think

5:07

if anything, their belief was stronger as a

5:09

result of this game, even though they

5:11

lost. Well, actually, they

5:13

played a game that's exactly on brand with the

5:15

way they played the whole year, or at

5:17

least since Christmas, you know,

5:19

this Christmas, starting off slow

5:21

and then ultimately coming back,

5:23

keeping their best attacks and

5:25

their best period for the

5:28

third and rallying. Never stopping

5:30

to believe in themselves. That's

5:32

that that was pretty much

5:34

them and it was just

5:36

magnified because of The bigger

5:38

moment and how heavy the

5:40

caps, you know came on

5:42

them yesterday In the first

5:44

period It's I mean, there's

5:46

nothing there's nothing surprising about

5:48

the way that the capital

5:50

started the game I think

5:52

that the Canadians were ready

5:54

for that too. They expected

5:56

it but I'm

5:59

just looking at I

6:01

remember once Josh Anderson talking

6:03

about how, you know,

6:05

he could be so dominant

6:07

physically in certain games. And

6:10

he said, you know, it's just hard

6:12

to do it nonstop. And

6:14

I'm thinking and I was looking at those that

6:16

caps team. And I was

6:18

thinking, well, could they could

6:20

they play nonstop like this throughout the

6:22

whole series? It's possible. But

6:24

if they did, man, they

6:26

would deserve to win that playoff

6:29

round, no doubt about it. It

6:31

lasted half of the game. And

6:33

then from the second of the second

6:35

period, it started to come down

6:37

a little bit. And at some

6:39

point in the second period, there was just a

6:41

Vechkin that was hitting. The other ones had already scaled

6:43

it back a little bit. And by the third

6:45

period, it was gone. So I

6:48

think that the minute that the

6:50

pressure, the physical pressure that

6:52

the Capitals are bringing comes down

6:54

a little bit, the Canadians

6:56

need to pound. Yes, they need

6:59

to match the capital's physicality

7:01

or at least their forecheck and

7:03

be able to establish the

7:05

forecheck the way that the capitals

7:07

did in the first period. But

7:10

as soon as the physical advantage

7:12

that the capitals have, they tend to

7:15

not use it to the full

7:17

extent, the Canadians need to to

7:19

grasp that little extra time and space

7:21

that's given to them and make the most

7:23

out of it. If they want to

7:25

win, yes, it's going to go through. But

7:28

it's going to go through that

7:30

little bit of time and space that

7:32

the caps can give them because

7:34

you saw, you know, after in the

7:36

first period, guys like Hudson, for

7:39

example, was totally handcuffed, couldn't do anything

7:41

with the puck. But as soon

7:43

as they're started to be a little

7:45

bit more. room on the

7:47

eyes and guys could actually make

7:49

plays and and break out the puck.

7:52

More comfortably, the

7:54

game started to shift. So it's

7:56

it's really being it's taking advantage

7:58

of what's given to them by

8:00

the capitals. And in that sense,

8:02

I feel as though, yes, they

8:04

lost the first game, but it's

8:06

it's not lost at all for

8:08

them. No. And

8:10

when you consider the fact that the

8:12

Guli Hudson pairing, I mean, you know,

8:15

again, You know carburettes

8:17

went into great detail about

8:19

the Canadians and the one thing

8:21

the one of its biggest

8:23

takeaways one of his biggest fears

8:25

entering the season series Was

8:27

just how effective the Suzuki line

8:30

was with Guli and Hudson

8:32

behind them that group of five

8:34

He said that they have

8:36

it as the best line in

8:38

the league since four nations

8:40

which It makes sense tracks, you

8:43

know, it's so But considering Three

8:45

of the guys that in that

8:47

group of five were playing their

8:50

first ever playoff game and It

8:52

showed for much of that game

8:54

for all three of them Slavkowski

8:56

Actually, no, I shouldn't say that

8:58

because the goal that Suzuki scored

9:00

I think was a was a

9:02

big result of Slavkowski creating that

9:04

chaos in front of the net

9:06

That that pile of humans that

9:09

that's Suzuki smartly outweighed and waited

9:11

and then moved to get into

9:13

an open net basically was

9:15

largely because Slavkovsky was there.

9:17

And so he deserves credit for

9:20

that. But generally didn't have

9:22

a very sharp game. Let's say.

9:24

A bit underwhelming. Yeah. The

9:27

other two adjusted though. And

9:30

I think Slavkovsky on that play was

9:32

also an adjustment. Like, OK, if I'm

9:34

having trouble handling the puck, I got

9:36

to go do this. And he did

9:38

that. It made a difference. He

9:42

deserves credit for that. Yeah, so

9:44

but Three of those five guys

9:47

were playing their first playoff game.

9:49

So again, this was an opportunity

9:51

to take advantage of what carburet

9:53

himself considers the best group of

9:55

five in the league since four

9:57

nations and and neutralize them to

10:00

some extent which they did for

10:02

45 minutes of that game or

10:04

or 50 minutes even of that

10:06

game and really it took You

10:10

know, I think I think the Canadians power

10:12

play looked actually decent. The goal

10:14

itself wasn't a result of their

10:16

power play creating and being like

10:18

very and causing the capital. But

10:20

I thought I thought they looked

10:22

OK for the opportunities that they

10:24

got. But it took a

10:26

bounce to get the Canadians to wake up.

10:28

I mean, if you look, you

10:31

know, natural statuette has

10:33

like a running kind of

10:35

coursey meter on on

10:37

their site. And if

10:39

you look at it from that

10:41

goal onward, so it's a line,

10:44

it's basically a line graph. And

10:46

it's in the capital's favor, definitely

10:49

in the first period. End of

10:51

the second, it started to go towards the

10:53

Canadian's favor, but then started the third back up

10:55

towards the capital's favor. Caulfield scores

10:57

that goal on the power play, and

10:59

it's a straight shot down. Like it's

11:01

basically like the Canadians got all the

11:03

momentum from that point on. I

11:09

like the power play. Yeah, I

11:11

thought it was good. I thought it was good.

11:13

It was a positive. And even even that

11:15

goal, yes, it was a lucky bounce. But but

11:17

when Linie took that pass, he

11:19

didn't just fire a shot on goal to

11:21

score. He was putting a shot

11:23

to an area like he was trying to

11:25

get a tip or it was it was kind

11:27

of a shot pass. So yes,

11:29

it was a lucky bounce. But if

11:31

Linie had just thrown like a typical one

11:34

timer on net, that bounce doesn't happen.

11:36

You know, like he Kind of

11:38

realize that and and this is

11:40

kind of a thing like his

11:42

one -timer is not It's not

11:44

sharp right now. Like we talked

11:46

about it already, but it's not

11:48

Logan Thompson made the one save

11:50

in the first period off a

11:53

one -timer But that wasn't his most

11:55

violent shot that we've seen anyhow

11:57

But from that point on And

11:59

that gave but they gave kings

12:01

all the confidence they needed and

12:03

and so it's Considering

12:06

how 60 % of

12:08

their most dangerous

12:10

grouping played more than

12:12

two -thirds of the

12:14

game, basically on

12:16

their heels, it's

12:18

hard not to see this as

12:20

an opportunity missed by the caps.

12:22

Yes, they're up 1 -0. Yes,

12:27

they held on to home

12:29

ice advantage. the

12:32

Canadians are going to need to make some

12:34

adjustments going into game two. But I think

12:36

the Capitals need to realize that they had

12:39

the Canadians at their worst and did not

12:41

even come close to putting them away. Like,

12:43

I mean, they, you know, Sam Moldenville deserves

12:45

a lot of credit for that. But still,

12:47

it's this is this. If

12:49

I'm in the Canadians dressing room, I see

12:51

this as being like, wow, we played just

12:53

about as poorly as we could have played

12:55

for a big chunk of that game. And

12:57

we still could have won it over time.

12:59

Yeah. If we start. not

13:02

even on time, but just closer to on

13:05

time. We just start like, yeah,

13:07

but at the same time, I mean,

13:09

we can do it. Their lack of experience

13:11

is not going to go away just

13:13

after one game, though. I mean, you say

13:16

it's a missed opportunity for the Capitals.

13:18

I hear you. I understand what you're saying,

13:20

but it's not as though all of

13:22

a sudden after game one, they're on par

13:24

and it, you know, they're still on

13:26

par with experience, but they're not, they're not

13:28

wondering what it's like. They're not

13:30

going into the game being like, I

13:32

mean, Gully was like, I had no idea what to

13:34

expect. This is Caden Gully. Like this is like, this

13:37

is not just some green rookie

13:39

who doesn't know what he's doing.

13:41

Like this is like a borderline

13:44

young veteran on this team where

13:46

he's entering the game, not knowing

13:48

what to expect. That's

13:50

gone. Like that,

13:52

that feeling, the whole thing

13:54

that Marty saying, you know, we need

13:56

to. You need to practice that you need

13:58

you can't practice that feeling you to

14:00

live it. Well, they've lived it

14:02

not for long. It's only one

14:04

game I agree with you. It doesn't

14:06

erase their lack of experience, but

14:08

it erases that feeling that feeling of

14:10

unknown and that feeling of I

14:12

like they were timid going into the

14:14

game because they were like and

14:16

spent the capitals encouraged that timidness because

14:18

they Were hammering them all over

14:20

the ice it just it it was

14:22

it was so foreign to them

14:24

that look shell shot I think that's

14:26

there anymore. Yes, they're going to

14:28

a lack of experience Yes, the capitals

14:30

definitely have an advantage there, but Their

14:34

biggest advantage was that timidness was that

14:36

that that Canadian that version of the

14:38

Canadians coming out for the first period

14:40

Not knowing what to expect and looking

14:42

every bit like it That's

14:44

gone. Well, you may