The Edmonton Oilers' identity change, goalie Stuart Skinner's ability to handle the Florida Panthers, Gustav Forsling's evolution as a top defenseman in the NHL and how Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov can be the best center in the Stanley Cup Final.
All of those topics and more are discussed this week on the new episode of the "NHL @TheRink" podcast with former NHL player Ryan Callahan, now an analyst with ESPN.
Callahan joins co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke to talk all things Panthers and Oilers with the Stanley Cup Final set to begin at Florida on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Callahan raves about Edmonton becoming a top defending team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a reversal from what it had been previous to this run. But he questions if Skinner can handle Florida's aggressive shot-volume attack.
After watching New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin be arguably the best player in the Eastern Conference Final and still not good enough to get his team past the Panthers, Callahan wonders how Skinner will fare under similar pressure.
The conversation with Callahan includes his thoughts on how Florida can try to limit Edmonton center Connor McDavid, the impact of coaching experience at this point in the playoffs, how Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch has successfully empowered Edmonton's role players and a terrific answer on why penalty kills outperform power plays during the postseason.
In addition, Rosen and Roarke break down the Cup Final with their thoughts on the matchup, the storylines going into Game 1 and their predictions for the series.
They have a particularly agreeable yet strong discussion on Barkov vs. McDavid.
They also discuss the NHL careers of forwards Joe Pavelski and Blake Wheeler, and answer the question of whether one, both or neither are future Hall of Famers.
The "NHL @TheRink"podcast is free and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms. It is also available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
