Today, ESPN NHL commentators Sean McDonough, Ray Ferraro, Mark Messier and P.K. Subban were joined by media for a preview discussion of the Stanley Cup Playoff, which begins Sunday, April 20, across ESPN platforms.

A TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION IS BELOW:

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us today. Today we have Sean McDonough, Ray Ferraro, Mark Messier will be joining us soon, and P.K. Subban to preview the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, which will begin across ESPN platforms on Sunday, April 20th.

I’ll get us started. What is one storyline or team you’re most excited to follow as the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin, and what’s a team or storyline you feel isn’t being covered as much?

SEAN McDONOUGH: Thank you. I think for me right now it’s Washington. Maybe it’s a recency situation because we just had them at Columbus on Saturday, this past Saturday, but I think they far exceeded the expectations a lot of people had for them. They’ve gone through the Ovi GR8 Chase and all of the stuff that came with him becoming the all-time leading goal scorer in the league.

They haven’t played very well lately. I thought they would be much better in the back-to-back matchup against Columbus on Sunday than they were on Saturday, and they really weren’t much better, even with Ovi back in.

I think how they fair in the playoffs given the terrific regular season they’ve had for most of it is what I will be most interested in here at the beginning.

RAY FERRARO: For me I was with Sean, and it was a long day for Washington on Saturday, so I’m really curious how they are going to get going when they’ve had such a great regular season and guys have career highs all over the board.

It’s a different game for them last year. Last year they got bounced out in four, and this year there’s expectations to make things different.

I would say I’m interested in the West, which looks like a murderer’s row, except at the end of the day only one team can get out of there. I’m curious how that is going to play out.

I’ve just had this gut watching Vegas play. They just look like a playoff team. Like, they look like a team that is big enough and skilled enough, and I think Jack Eichel is playing as well as I have ever seen him play. I’m curious to see how — Vegas is in a pretty good spot, I think, given the way that Edmonton and L.A. are going to go at it again. I think they’re just going to be sitting there.

They’re going to have a hard first-round series, but I really like Vegas. I think we kind of expect this level of success from them now already. I think we’ve kind of uncovered it how good they are.

P.K. SUBBAN: I agree with both Sean and Ray on all these teams, especially Washington, a team I’ve kind of been high on all season. I also agree with Ray in saying that they haven’t played great down the stretch. I’m optimistic about them, obviously, just because I know they’re well-coached, but it’s also, like, okay, has this chase drawn too much out of them, or has this raised their game to another level and they’re just kind of patiently waiting now to start playing playoffs and ramp it back up again?

They’ve been a team that whenever it’s been called upon them to kind of step up and get things back on track, they do. Whereas in a team like the Rangers always has to be in rhythm to really have success. When they get out of rhythm, it can get scary.

Washington is optimistic, but the team that I’m really going to be watching now that we’re looking at the league as a whole and the playoffs get so tight is Colorado. I really believe that outside of Vegas, Colorado loses first round or even second round, I’m sitting here being pretty disappointed as management there.

I think that they have a great team. For them not to win a Stanley Cup this year, I think it’s going to be on their goaltending. Mackenzie Blackwood has been a guy that hasn’t really found his way yet in the National Hockey League, but has found his way into a really good situation in Colorado and has an opportunity. That’s the best team he’s ever had in front of him, and it may be the best team he’ll ever have in front of him. That’s a really pretty good defense. It has really good offensive players, guys that have won before.

So, to me, Colorado, that’s the team to really watch in the playoffs. In the West that’s the only team I really think can take out Vegas that’s deep enough to do it. I don’t think Dallas can do it unless they show me differently, but I think the team to watch is Colorado with MacKinnon and Makar and 4 Nations picking up Coyle and all these guys potentially getting Landeskog back, which is going to be a huge boost for their team.

I think just Colorado is going to be a team that I’ll be watching closely.  

QUESTION: This is a question that’s kind of market-based, but I would love all of you to answer. Jon Cooper said last week that he thought that Brady Tkachuk had a break-out in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Are you guys looking forward to seeing Brady Tkachuk and what he can do in the playoffs?

RAY FERRARO: I’ll jump in. Brady is a terrific player. I thought early in the year when the dust kicked up in Ottawa and Travis Green came out and defended him and said, Hey, look, this is our leader, this is where we’re hitching our wagon to — not that Brady needed any more air in his tires, but it just felt like he was able to kick his game into the next gear.

Then he gets to the 4 Nations, and I think more people get a chance to see him because he’s in Ottawa, and Ottawa hasn’t made the playoffs in his career. It’s almost like I’m almost expecting him to be unleashed.

The toughest part for Brady, I think, is going to be to keep a little bit of emotion inside, because he’s an absolute menace when he’s on and healthy and playing, right? He’s big and talented. He pulls his team into every fight. There’s nothing that he’s going to back down from.

Of the Tkachuk brothers, I think he is most like his dad. It’s like he’s walking through a room, and he’s knocking tables over all over the place. The team has no choice but to follow.

I mean, I know everybody is super excited in Ottawa, and I’ll be stunned if Brady doesn’t have a really good first-round series.

SEAN McDONOUGH: I would agree with Ray. I think he and Matthew became two of the most popular people in America during the 4 Nations Face-Off. I think, as Ray said, we saw his entire skill set: the hockey talent, the feistiness. He is a lot like his dad, and his dad was a great player, who in my opinion belongs in the Hall of Fame.

I’m looking forward to seeing him in the playoffs. I think he had a colorful quote, which is a part of their family as well when he talked about nobody has probably spent more time watching his brother play in playoff games without having played in one himself than Brady. So, I’m glad that’s going to change.

To the moderator’s original question, I think that’s another big part of the beginning of these playoffs. We’re going to have the battle of Ontario. We’re going to have the battle of Florida in all likelihood. P.K. mentioned, you know, Dallas and Colorado. There are some really compelling matchups and some great storylines right out of the gate.

P.K. SUBBAN: Yeah, and to jump in and piggyback off Ray and Sean, I think that the playoffs are tailor-made for Brady Tkachuk and his game and his mentality. You know, to Ray’s point about him harnessing that energy the right way, I think I’m starting to realize — and maybe I realized it a little bit sooner because I was a high-energy player, played with the same type of passion and wanting to win and pull everybody into the fight, and I think people have to also understand that’s just the way he is. That’s the type of player he is.

Being that way has put Ottawa in a playoff spot. If he doesn’t have that mentality and that attitude, Ottawa is nowhere near a playoff team. I don’t care how good they are, right? They’ve had great teams over the years, but they’re in that position because everyone bought into the way that he plays.

So, I’m looking forward to kind of seeing him get into that situation again and really come into his own and show what he can do on that level, but I got a long leash for him with his emotions because I know the other side of it. You turn that down too much, and you’re not the same player.

I’m willing to give him a little bit of a longer leash just because of how productive he is and how much he puts in. You know, I’m willing to watch a player struggle at times knowing that he’s putting in that much into it. I’m really looking forward to Brady and watching him and Ottawa in the playoffs for sure.

QUESTION: This question is for Ray. Jim Hiller is a fellow BC guy. I wanted to get your thoughts on the Kings and the job that Jim has done in his first full year as an NHL head coach?

RAY FERRARO: We had Jim on our podcast a couple of weeks ago, which was really cool to hear him in just a wider forum than a press conference here and press conference there. When he was the interim coach last year, he took over when Todd McLellan was let go. The Kings were a pretty defensive plug-it-up, grind-it-up team, and hard to change a few things.

They made some tweaks to their system. They made the big trade with L.A. — or with, rather, Washington with Dubois for Kuemper. While at the time it felt like we’re not happy here, you’re not happy there, we’ll just switch, Darcy Kuemper has given them really good goaltending.

What I like about what Jim has tried to do there is he’s tried to make them more than just a counterpunch team, tried to be more aggressive offensively. They don’t score as much as he or the Kings would probably like them to score. They’re never going to lose their DNA, which is that they’re a hard defensive team to play against, but I think they’re a little more offensively inclined than they were in the past.

I think Jim’s view, as he explained to us, is that two goals isn’t going to get it done. They need to score more than that, but they can’t forget what they are.

So, I think he’s done a really good job. I’ve been quite impressed with L.A. I mean, their home record is astounding, and if they don’t know Edmonton by now, they’re never going to know them, right? This is like, “Uncle.” This is four years in a row.

I got the sense from his comments, they feel good about their game. They feel good about trying to knock off Edmonton this year.

QUESTION: This question is for Mark. Ray was talking about Dallas and Colorado and the West. I’m curious your thoughts about the Western Conference and how brutal a trip it is through that for Vegas, Colorado, Winnipeg, all those teams? Mark, just your thoughts on the Western Conference and how brutal it is.

MARK MESSIER: Yeah, I think the Central is unbelievable right now when you think about the path forward for any of those teams. Then you’ve got Colorado and Edmonton, and you’ve got Vegas. It’s a war of attrition.

We keep saying it every year, and we’re reminded every year of how difficult it is to get through two months of the playoffs and why sometimes it can be a misleader in your regular season success with the type of team that you have built.

For any team that’s going to come through the West this year, they’re going to have to be a big, strong team that can withstand that kind of not only physical stress, but the emotional stress because we know the games are going to be close, obviously.

Yeah, if I had to pick somebody coming out of there right now, I don’t know, to be honest with you.

QUESTION: The injuries the teams are facing right now, Miro Heiskanen, Logan Thompson for the Capitals, and Aliaksei Protas. How do you think some of the injuries are going to affect these first-round series?

MARK MESSIER: You cannot have a player of Heiskanen’s caliber and not have an affected team. He is not one of the players that you plug-and-play with the next guy in line. I know it’s a common theme that when a player goes down, next guy up gets in there and does his best, but that kind of player, a generational defenseman, that’s a different story.

You think about when they’re going to play a Colorado, if they play Colorado, or some of the other teams with guys like Makar, he can balance that out. Not many teams have that luxury. I’m hopeful that he’s back for Dallas because they’ve got a really good, strong, young team.

They’ve had a great year, but without him, I would have to think it’s going to be difficult to get through that Western Division to get to the final.

QUESTION: Question on Connor Hellebuyck. He’s had a bit of playoff demons in the sense that his performance there has not been quite as stellar as it has been during the regular season. At the same time, he’s really elevated his game this season, including during 4 Nations. What have you seen in his game, and how is he positioned for the playoffs? Anyone can jump in.

MARK MESSIER: I’ll just say from my perspective, confidence is massive. Getting through the 4 Nations and how well he played there has got to be a huge boost for him himself. You know, we always say that coaches don’t carry around five-gallon buckets of confidence and hand it out at will. You know, confidence is earned by success and failures.

For me, the kind of year that he’s stitched together for himself this year is really, really, really impressive. 4 Nations, at the highest level he didn’t back up an inch. Never flinched. If I’m Winnipeg, I’m really, really excited about that.

I think he’s got more run support this year from the team. They’ve scored the goals to give him some leeway, but I don’t care if you are Grant Fuhr or Ken Dryden or anyone else, if you are working on small margins of error, eventually it’s going to go the other way on you.

If they can continue the way they played, I think Winnipeg has played maybe the best — I can’t say the best, but one of the top four, five teams all year as far as winning as a team and winning different ways. It hasn’t been all Hellebuyck. They’ve played excellent structurally. They’ve got great scoring, timely scoring, depth at position.

I’m hopeful that he can find that success he had in the regular season and during the 4 Nations and bring that into the playoffs for the Jets.

SEAN McDONOUGH: What Mark said, when we were starting the 4 Nations Face-Off, that was a big storyline because of the pressure. To me, exactly what Mark said, hopefully he has shed this question about whether he can handle that kind of pressure in the big moments because I haven’t played in Stanley Cup Playoff games, but I’ve called a bunch of them now. The 4 Nations Face-Off was as pressure-packed and as intense as any playoff game. I would put it right there with Game 7 that we did last year between Edmonton and Florida.

So, for him to play at the level he did in the 4 Nations under that kind of pressure and intense scrutiny, I think bodes very well for the way he’s going to play in the playoffs. He’s the best goalie in the world.

RAY FERRARO: At the start of the year Scott Arniel talked about how their team — and I’ve never really heard a coach speak like this, but he said they were embarrassed by the way that they played in the playoffs last year, and that was really their driving marker through the summer and into the season.

Tying to Hellebuyck the disappointment, in the coach’s words, the embarrassment of last year, the focus that he generally has — like, he is a dialed-in guy. 4 Nations stuff, I think Hellebuyck — I’ll be more surprised if he plays poorly than if he plays really well because I think it’s his time to play really well.

At the very first statement we all had we talked about what we were looking forward to, and all of us kind of glazed over anybody in Canada. Winnipeg is a really good team with the best goalie, and one of these years Toronto is going to punch through. I don’t know if it’s this year, but they play a heck of a lot different than they did in the past. I think a lot of that’s around Craig Berube. Those are two teams I don’t think we should sleep on.

QUESTION: I guess my question is more specific to the Oilers. We mentioned injuries earlier. The Oilers, you know, they’ve just got a bunch right now. I’m wondering if you sense trouble coming for them in the playoffs?

P.K. SUBBAN: Well, other than Mess, and I’ll let Mess chime in a little bit whenever he’s ready, but I can start. With Edmonton I haven’t really minced any words in terms of some of the offseason decisions that they made, and it’s not just the decision-making. It’s just where they’ve left their team.

I think that they’ve always kind of been a top-heavy team, and last year might have been the most balanced that we’ve seen them, especially as the year went on with the development of Broberg and Holloway and those guys.

To see those guys depart kind of as they’re establishing themselves in the league, I just don’t see how Edmonton can recover from that. They’ve just been trying to recover from that. Those depth players, those young, youthful players are important ingredients in every Stanley Cup run. Any team that we’ve seen win needs to have those younger players that have come in and overachieved and are in that three, four, year window where you can monetize their growth on cost-effective contracts.

For them to lose those two players, when you know that you got to pay McDavid and Draisaitl, I don’t think there’s any way to recover, and they’re relying on older players and guys are a little bit lengthy in their careers now to step up against teams like the L.A.’s that are hungry, that have young players that are champing at the bit to get over that hump. That’s what you’re colliding into in the playoffs.

It’s a much different feeling for the Oilers now going into a playoff round than it was three, four years ago. They’re not the same team. There’s an expectation there, and everybody is gunning for you.

So, I’ve found myself more frustrated with the team just because they have so much talent on that team and players that are capable, but I don’t know. I mean, I’m interested to hear what Mess thinks. I’m just not as optimistic about Edmonton as I have been in the past with how strong the West is.

MARK MESSIER: I’ll just jump in on that. I’m looking at Florida trying to get back there three years in a row. It takes an unbelievable toll on the team physically to get there once, and don’t forget, while you’re getting there the first time, there’s been a lot of work that’s been done even to get there the first time. So now Florida loses, comes back and wins. They made a bunch of changes. Can they get back?

Edmonton last year has been knocking on the door. They finally break through last year, and you can see the toll that it took on that team this year. I think they looked very fatigued to me, probably more emotionally than physically.

Maybe the blessing in disguise was for him [McDavid] getting hurt and having to sit down for a minute because my guess is he doesn’t like to sit down. I think they learned last year how hard it is to win and how many players that it takes to contribute in order for a team to move on and get to win a Stanley Cup.

If Ekholm is out, that’s bad news for the Oilers. I don’t know the severity of his injury, so I don’t know how long he’s out for, if he’s back for the playoffs or where that stands right now, but he is a key piece to their team the way it’s constructed on the back end.

A different player than Heiskanen, but no less important to a team than Heiskanen is Ekholm is to the Oilers. Yeah, look, you have all that success like they did last year, and I’ve seen it happen before. The players on the bottom six, the role players, the glue guys, the character guys are often way overlooked of the importance that they play in the role getting there.

We saw those guys come alive and those players come alive last year, especially when they got down 3-0. They put a huge push on. So, it will remain to be seen now with the changes that they made whether they’re the right changes.

Without a healthy, rested McDavid and Draisaitl, it would be obviously tough, but without Ekholm, that’s going to be a big hole to fill.  

QUESTION: Question for anybody here: Who do you feel is the team with the most pressure that has to make something out of this playoff run, otherwise there could be big changes?

RAY FERRARO: Well, I would say that there’s probably a lot of pressure, as there is every year in Toronto, you know, with Marner coming up to free agency. I think there’s some pretty obvious pressure when you think about that.

I think being one of the top two teams in the league all year, Washington will feel a different kind of pressure. There’s an expectation that last year was just a great story that they squeaked in and what a plucky team and all that. Now this year they’re in a different spot.

I would assume they feel a lot of pressure. Then you get over into the West. I mean, all those teams think they can win, right? Winnipeg thinks they can win. Dallas and Colorado have talked about it all year. Vegas is the same. Only one of them is getting out of that side.

Pressure is funny, because it’s only what you choose to take on. We’re going to all talk about and we’re going to write about the pressure on this guy or that guy or this team or that coach. It’s interesting to think that, oh, if you don’t win, there’s going to be these massive changes. Change is not easy. There could be teams that want to make all kinds of changes if they bomb out in the playoffs, but it’s not that easy to make those changes.

So, I don’t know if there’s one team that you would say, oh, if they don’t get out of the first round, that’s it, the coach is gone, they’re going to trade the star and all that, but there’s varying degrees of pressure. Mess would know best of us, but some guys and some players can hang better with it than others.

SEAN McDONOUGH: I think the team nobody is talking about is Carolina. I don’t think from that standpoint, to your question, Mark, about the — you know, I don’t think Rod Brind’Amour is in any jeopardy of getting fired if they don’t do well in the playoffs, but the last few years when we’ve been on this call, it’s been a very trendy pick to pick them to win the Stanley Cup or get to the final. Now nobody is talking about them, and they still have a pretty good team, but they have the same kind of team.

They tried to add Rantanen, and we saw how that went. I just don’t know where they are right now and what the future looks like if they don’t have a successful run in the playoffs. It seems like not a lot of people are picking them to have a very successful run in the playoffs this time around.

P.K. SUBBAN: Yeah, it’s pretty clear to me. If you go through the teams in the West, specifically this pressure in Dallas, they got Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin that have been a part of that core. Obviously Joe Pavelski has moved out. They add in Rantanen. They add in these guys. They have Duchane there. They have players. They haven’t been able to get over that hump. With Robertson and Wyatt Johnston, they have some good, young players, but it doesn’t get any easier there.

There’s pressure on them, but is there as much pressure on Colorado or Vegas? I think that all those teams kind of have that excuse because they’re playing against one of the top teams in the world in the first two rounds. You know, we face the same thing in Nashville.

Those teams have a different type of pressure, but when it comes to the real pressure, there’s no more pressure than what’s going on in Toronto right now, and I agree with you that in Carolina. For that reason specifically is that the way that they’ve built their teams.

Toronto has built a team in a way that hasn’t proven to have any success in the playoffs. The only team that’s been able to do it of those top-heavy guys is Chicago. Colorado obviously had the big guys, but they got their payday after. It was Chicago and really Pittsburgh. Those guys all took pay cuts.

I think the way that these teams have built their team — it remains to be seen that the way that Toronto has built their team and Brendan Shanahan over that time, has that been the right way to build a team? That’s what we’re talking about now that eight, nine, ten years have gone by, and they’ve gone through so many GMs with the same core group of players. I agree, Ray, with what you said, Toronto has played the best hockey that we’ve seen them play over the years because of Craig Berube, but they have to get over the hump. A first-round loss for them, even a second-round loss for me is inexcusable for me in the town that they have.

I think the pressure is always going to be high there, but the other team would be Carolina. Once again, they go and get Rantanen, but they end up losing Rantanen and Necas before they even have a chance to contend in the playoffs. I don’t think they’re really in a better spot than they have been in the past, but that’s my opinion.

I think those two teams are up against it in the playoffs. If there aren’t changes there, then it just kind of seems you see that they’re accepting mediocrity in a way, right? There should be changes if those teams don’t do anything special.

QUESTION: With some smaller market teams in the mix this year, what do you think will help keep the playoffs competitive and exciting for fans? I’ll throw that out to anyone who would like it.

RAY FERRARO: The small market to me doesn’t matter, particularly because if one of the smaller markets gets into a position to punch one of the big markets in the nose, they become the underdog story. You’re going to learn about star players that play on teams that you don’t really focus on during the regular season.

Let’s be honest, right, no Boston, no Rangers, no Chicago. There’s some big markets that are watching. There are some great players that are going to be able to be more fully viewed and understood and exposed in the first round than teams — like we talked about Brady Tkachuk earlier, right? If there was no 4 Nations, how many people would know about Brady Tkachuk, other than his last name because they don’t watch Ottawa much? Well, they would find out about him in the first day of the playoffs because he’s going to be like a bull, and they’re going to find out about him.

There’s players like that all scattered around the league. For a lot of people, they’ve seen Kirill Kaprizov, and they’re going to get to see him again, and the more you see him, you go, oh, my God, that guy is a star.

If Montreal gets in, there’s a 19-year-old kid that played his first game yesterday, Ivan Demidov. He scored a goal and an assist. The building almost fell over in Montreal. It was amazing to watch.

These are going to be the types of players that you’re going to get to see and get to latch on to and go, oh, my God, I didn’t even know about that guy. That’s what the playoffs to me can bring.

MARK MESSIER: Yeah, I couldn’t agree with Ray more. I think that there’s nothing harder in sports to win when you are expected to win, and we just saw a great example of it with McIlroy who everybody knows is maybe one of the greatest golfers out there today. Hadn’t won a major in, I don’t know, 10, 11 years. Couldn’t get over the hump, and the pressure just started to mount day by day, year by year. You could see it written all over him on Sunday.

If you talk about teams with pressure, there’s players that are generational players that want to etch themselves into the history books and be compared to the greatest ever. Well, in order to do that, you’ve got to win. So, if you look at McDavid, you look at Auston Matthews, especially in Toronto with the pressure on the team and what not, I think that’s a different kind of pressure than the team or a player that’s trying to win for the first time.

So, I think there’s different kinds of pressure, different levels of pressure, but ultimately, any team that wants to win and has a chance to win is going to feel pressure. I just think there’s different levels of pressure, and I think some of the players that need to win for their place in history is different. I think we’re going to see that played out again this year. We see it every year, to be honest with you.

When you talk about pressure, to sum it up, I think every team feels pressure. I think there are some teams and some players that feel a different level of pressure for different reasons.

SEAN McDONOUGH: Again, to the question about the markets, obviously Ottawa has ended its long drought not being in the playoffs. I think they’re really dangerous. My colleagues on the call here have talked about the pressure on Toronto. I’m not sure I would want to play Ottawa in the first round. I think a big part of their success this year is Linus Ullmark. Goaltending is the most important position, and he is certainly — I’ve watched a lot of their games this year, and he’s played particularly well, especially lately. He’s certainly capable of doing that in the playoffs as well.

So, to the point Ray was making when he answered this question, I do think people like the underdog and the newcomer and the storylines. I think especially with as wide open as the East seems to be, there’s potential there in Ottawa for the Senators to make a run.

QUESTION: I wanted to just ask you guys. We haven’t really talked. Mess talked about it a little bit, but the defending champs, the Florida Panthers. We talked a little bit about the Oilers and some issues they may be having, but do you sense struggles or issues in Florida, or is this the same team now even though Ekblad is going to miss a couple of games, and he hasn’t played in a while. Tkachuk hasn’t played since 4 Nations. Bennett just came back. Do you have any concerns about Florida given all the hockey, or is this the same team that could go on another run?

RAY FERRARO: For myself I would say my concern is that their line-up has been all over the map for months. You know, Mess talked really, really clearly about the emotional and physical toll of trying to get this done again. To get there three years in a row.

The changes of their line-up, if you just put roster year-over-year and you see how many people have moved in and moved out. The Ekblad thing is really interested. He’s not going to have played in 20 games, and he’s going to jump into Game 3 against Tampa. I think that’s going to be a really hard thing to do.

Now, he says he feels great. Of course, he does. He hasn’t had anybody run into him in a month and a half. Obviously he’s done it before, but it’s going to be difficult.

Tkachuk hasn’t played much. What’s his level of health? They’ve had periods of play where they look like the old Florida and then periods of play where they don’t look anything like their team.

What’s Seth Jones going to be like in a playoff series again? The whole goal is that he and Ekblad chew up all the minutes on that right side of the defense, and then you just play your third pair a little bit around them. So that’s another thing.

They’re not the same team to me. The team last year had a 35-goal Carter Verhaeghe, and he’s had a really difficult year. Now, can he catch lightning again, because they need him.

I just feel a lot of uncertainty around Florida. I don’t doubt them, but I feel uncertainty, and there feels like there’s a little bit of real positive vibe and feeling around Tampa Bay again. That’s going to be a hard series for Florida, I think.

MARK MESSIER: I’ll just add to the injury thing. It’s possible for players to come back and get themselves back into it, but I think what is discounted oftentimes is the stamina that you build up when you are in the line-up for six months and playing four and a half games a week, plus travel.

You can’t get that stamina by practicing and getting yourself ready, so that is an issue. The team will have to stick around long enough for those – (audio cut out)

SEAN McDONOUGH: I’m just unlikely to bet against Florida. I agree with everything everybody said. It is difficult. We saw when we first got back into the NHL, we saw Tampa Bay make it to the Stanley Cup Final for the third year in a row trying to win three in a row, and they almost did it.

So, it’s possible, but the wear and tear is real, and I think we’re seeing that in what’s been happening with their team this season. To me they’re built to win in the playoffs. I think with as wide open as the East is in my opinion, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they got back to the Stanley Cup Final again.

MARK MESSIER: I kind of agree with Sean. I wouldn’t bet against them. They know how to win. Their core knows how to win. They’ve been backstopped by a great goalie, and the first thing you look at to a team that’s actually trying to win a Stanley Cup, do they have the goaltending that they can ride for two months? That has been answered in spades for Florida.

Can he outdo a Vasilevskiy? That will be another question. The Toronto/Ottawa matchup is fascinating. You talk about pressure. There’s going to be a tremendous, tremendous amount of pressure on Toronto winning their division and then going against the second wild card. All the pressure is on Toronto in that series.

As we’ve seen, Ottawa has played some pretty darn good hockey, and they’re going into the playoffs already battle-hardened playing under that kind of pressure. We’ve seen in the past when Columbus upset Tampa, when Tampa cruised into the playoffs, and Columbus was under — Tortorella was banging away trying to get there, and they jumped on Tampa before they knew what was going on.

This is why it’s so fascinating. There’s a lot of teams that can win. There’s a lot of different scenarios. No shortage of storylines. No shortage of personalities that are going to be entering into this for the first time in their careers, like Brady Tkachuk. The benefactors are us as hockey fans that get to watch it.

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Danny Chi | [email protected] | 213-405-4400
Andrea DiCristoforo | [email protected] | 213-405-4612

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