The Stanley Cup Final is now down to a best-of-3.
What a game, what a finish. Yet again, it was Leon Draisaitl potting the OT winner as Edmonton stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to top Florida 5-4 in Game 4 to even the series up at two games apiece.
It’s absolutely sickening to see star players make big plays at important times —at least in these parts.
Carter Hutton filled in for Jay Rosehill on the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take as we kicked things off by dissecting Thursday night’s thriller in Sunrise. If you’re the NHL, you’re ecstatic over how the first four games of the series have gone. In addition to three of the four games needing overtime, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce showed up for Game 4. Right now, in terms of celebrity status, it doesn’t get much bigger than that. Any way you slice it, the power couple were treated to a wicked hockey game.
At any rate, after that, we got into Connor Hellebuyck’s dominance of the NHL Awards market. The Winnipeg Jets superstar netminder won his second straight Vezina Trophy. Just for good measure, he became the first goalie since Carey Price in 2015 to win the Hart Trophy, too. Furthermore, Anthony Stolarz finished fifth in Vezina voting after receiving a single second-place vote. Naturally, we discussed how the Leafs should handle the Stolarz negotiation this summer. On July 1st, the 31-year-old will be eligible for a contract extension. Luckily, there’s lots of comparable signings that have come together over the past four to five months around the NHL, so in theory, it should be an easy contract to hammer out.
Then, brought to you by Charm Diamond Centres, TSN’s Craig Button dropped by the show. Firstly, we continued the conversation about Stolarz. For the record, Craig’s comfortable giving the 31-year-old term and money. Meantime, we also hit on Knies contract talks, Marner’s future, and who the Leafs should target this summer. Full credit to him, Craig came equipped with three names that would be firmly on his wish list if he were Brad Treliving. Lastly, we talked some Easton Cowan, who’s fresh off winning a Memorial Cup in his final junior hockey game.
Lastly, for the CRISPI HOT TAKE OF THE DAY, presented by the Ninja Crispi 4-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer, Producer Vick called the incredible broadcast tandem of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph the best in the league. Hard to argue with that!
Zack Phillips will co-host the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Join us at 11 AM ET for a full recap of this weekend’s festivities and a run through of the latest news and notes in Leafs Nation.
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