#this whole ep was so funny. evil genius LMAO

[spiceberrie]

film club — mt19’s playoff run

[image ID:

first tweet - @PTPJacob: My favorite Tkachukism is when he skates behind the goalie in the blue paint just to piss off the entire opposing team without actually doing anything wrong

reply - @GiancarloMattei: I enjoy it because he looks around for someone to hit him and sometimes they never show up so he just pushes someone.

/end image ID.]

the hockey pdocast did an episode revolving entirely around the nhl’s anti-hero unkillable pest destroyer of dreams toppler of titans mindgamer of the world etc etc tumblr’s poor meow meow of the week chucky.

i ran it through OpenAI Whisper for transcription mainly bc of archiving reasons and also i think pdo’s brand of fictionalization of the game makes for useful lore/reading. i cut some stuff about forechecking because i do not know enough about zone exits... and it does not serve my evil fujo interest.... and also the speakers aren’t differentiated because i cannot tell their voices apart sometimes LOL

this is by no means the whole 51 minutes bc it started to get illegible at some point. i just edited and trimmed the text output. all content credit goes to pdoguys but this is mostly because it's nice to have alternatives for auditory needs reasons :)

wordcount: 7175

So here's the plan for today. We're going to do a film club. We're going to do Matthew Tkachuk, a player that we've been planning on doing this for a while. Full disclosure, we had this one scheduled for Thursday yesterday, and then something came up and we had to push it back a day. And that's why there wasn't a show yesterday. 

Initially I was worried because I wanted to do it as kind of like a primer for the Eastern Conference final before that series started. And I was like, I don't know what's going to happen in this game, especially with Matthew Tkachuk, anything could happen. He could either have an amazing game or he could do something and get suspended. I'm like, I don't know if this is going to age very well and if we're going to be able to do the show on Friday. And then the timing turns out couldn’t have been better because he scores the overtime winner to mercifully end Game One of the East Final before it reached the fifth overtime. And so it turns out there really are hockey gods and they're looking down upon us here today. 

But as the game went on, you started to see that classic Florida forecheck that's been so good — and really for me, the story of the postseason — start to shift the tide of that game. And Matthew Tkachuk, who's frankly been at the absolute helm of that forecheck this entire postseason —  for it to be him was super representative of the Florida experience. Well, if I could think of two teams who pace themselves less over a course of 60 minutes than these two teams, it's like they go full blast pretty much every single shift, right? So for them to then have to play essentially an extra game in the same evening is very physically taxing. And also on the note of the adjustment, I think we're going to get into this with Tkachuk himself, but I thought that he made some clear adjustments as the game went along because, I was sweating it for a while and I thought in regulation, it was one of the worst games, if not the worst game I've seen him play this postseason. 

A lot of the stuff he had been doing in Rounds 1 and 2 in terms of waiting for the puck to come to him, doesn't really work against this Hurricanes team because they pressure so hard man-on-man that when he's waiting along the boards for the puck to come to him, by the time it gets there, someone on the Hurricanes steps in there and either pokes it away or gets in his space much quicker than what he had been used to in the previous rounds. So he made a bunch of turnovers. I think at least a handful to Brett Pesce, who'd felt like he was all over him. And then as the game went along in the overtimes, it felt like he really got his footing, got his bearings. And by the time the fourth overtime came around, he was setting up a handful of grade A chances and kind of looking much more like the Matthew Tkachuk we'd seen in the first two rounds. So I thought that was pretty notable. 

Circumstances beget that forwards fulfill different roles. Not every forecheck is the same. Not every breakout's the same. Hockey's a chaotic game. I may prefer to be F1 in the series. Got to be F2 in the circumstance. That's just the way things go. And there's not always a defined and set role. You got to know how to play every space. But I do think that it was extremely interesting that what we saw last night was Tkachuk play the role of the straw stirrer, the front forechecker in the Florida system, less than ever last night. Because Carolina is executing this very simple breakout to neutralize that man. They want to take as much time and space as they can. And it's just a very simple D-to-D structure … But it renders that top guy less effective in most controlled circumstances.

So where do they move Matthew Tkachuk now to have the most level of effectiveness?

It's in the middle two of the Florida system. It's a one, two, two. They put him in the middle. And it did, to your point, it didn't go well. You kind of saw him almost be more reactive, where Tkachuk at his best is an unleashed animal. I think we can both agree with that. The guy is just the epitome of controlled, smart, aggressive hockey. But as the game wore on, and you saw it in the OT goal, he began to attack himself in that middle of the ice and go from reacting to proactively getting on the puck and making circumstances for the recipient of that second breakout pass really difficult. 

So all this is to say, we could probably start here. You could focus on the individual skill. Great. Good shot. You saw it. Overtime shot looked perfectly placed. You could focus on the aggression and the forechecking and sort of like the tempo he brings, which is a tangible impact of the game. But I think you got to start with the head first, the brains. We've talked about this, he always seems to have that anticipatory next step on everyone he plays with. And no matter who the opponent is, he's just moving at a pace. They just can't seem to keep up from a decision-making perspective. 

And he has to, right? Because if he plays the foot speed game, he's going to lose every single time. So he almost has to adjust in that way. And that's a great point. I mean, this forecheck of theirs, I don't even know what the tally is up to this point, but it's got to be in the double digits, of goals they've created this postseason within seconds of forcing a turnover in their attacking zone and other team's defensive zone. 

…

And that's a really good point you make there because I naturally envisioned him as being that aggressive F1, right? Who you just picture him barreling in and sometimes throwing those kinds of reverse checks even to try to dislodge a defenceman from a pocket and force of turnover that way. But now that he's playing on this combination with Bennett and Cousins, sometimes it works where he can kind of defer to those guys to use their wheels to go in there and disrupt. And then that allows him to be almost like a safety net, right? He's standing there in the zone and then he can read where the play is going,

…

And I think like for Tkachuk, even in the evolution of last night's game, it went from constantly being physically engaged with someone and thinking that that was the right move to playing off of them and then attacking and closing and giving them this false sense of space that they have the space and time to make their play. And then coming in with an active stick or a hip check or a body really quick closing to be able to disrupt it. He almost, you talk about a safety net in the quarterback's eyes, it's playing off the ball too. And giving that quarterback the sense that the route is open and when it's not, you have the jump, you know what's about to happen. I just thought it was interesting to see that play out again through the course of last night. It's difficult to notice live, but I think on re-watching some of those overtimes, you start to see him stalk you like a shark in the neutral zone, right?

Well, and for forwards, I think it's really difficult to properly, I mean, for every player, evaluating defense and properly attributing who's responsible and then how we weigh that compared to the offensive side of things is always difficult, right? And I think part of the problem for me, I liked the trade when they made it in the off-season because I thought it was a very shrewd move from a business perspective, of not only divesting themselves from two diminishing assets that are in their thirties and are due for a big payday, but also locking yourself into a longer runaway with a guy who's 24 years old or whatever and just basically having the rest of his prime, right? 

So I really liked it from that perspective. I wasn't entirely sure what we were going to get from him at this season because first off, the counting stats offensively were unlike anything he'd done previously, right? And part of it seemed to be inflated by the ridiculous play-making season Johnny Gaudreau had beside him and some inflated percentages.

...

And I think some of these things from the forecheck to the anticipation to moving them in the right direction constantly accounts for why those numbers are the way they are, right? Because you don’t necessarily think of most wingers as driving defensive results, but especially one who's kind of as plotting as he is, and with his foot speed, being able to do so, right? I think generally we think of a guy who skates really well and can pressure opposing puck carriers. Those are the guys who are good defensive forwards, but he does it in such a different way. I think that's why it's kind of tough to wrap your head around how he's doing it. 

That's a good call. And I would also argue too, that the impact is there, but I don't know how much it's happening in the defensive zone. I feel like he's present there, right? Sure. But I think overall it's that disruption that occurs between the blue lines that allows to flip the play on its head and make these chances that really grossly benefit Florida, right? In the exchanges that he finds himself in. I don't have it in front of me, but I think looking at his playoff run this year, his goals-for percentage for Florida's at even-strength are over 80% right now, it's strangling. 

Well, let me give you, I'll set the scene here. Let me give you all the rundown of his postseason metrics so far to give people an idea of it and then we can talk more about what we're seeing on tape on how they're doing it, right? And kind of build off of this conversation we started with. 

So he's got six goals and 11 assists, eight of them primary — … that's overall 17 points, 10 five-on-five points, which are tied with Roope Hintz for the league lead this postseason. He's got 28 high danger chances taken, which leads the team according to NaturalStatTrick. And then by the data that I've tracked, he leads the team with 45 shot assists, which is— second on the team is Brandon Montour with 33. And a lot of that is like simple little power play passes and not actually being a massive playmaker like Tkachuck is, but then he set up directly 30 scoring chances in 13 games for the Florida Panthers. 

Second on the team is Carter Verhaeghe with 15 to just give you a sense of how much of the puck is being funneled through him. And then he's making the decision of who it goes to in the offensive zone. . 

... 

And what's impressive to me, beyond all of that, because obviously all of those numbers … you're doing a lot of stuff right. It's who it's coming against.

So in round one, he plays 40 minutes against Brad Marchand. They're up four to nothing in those minutes. In round two, he plays 35 minutes head to head with Marner and Matthews. They're up four to one in those minutes. 

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[on game 1 against carolina] But that overtime winner came on a forecheck where they forced Burns and Slavin into making a mistake in their own zone. And those two guys through the first two rounds had been about as clean and infallible as you're going to get. Right. I've been talking about how I think Slavin should be like one of the Conn-Smythe favorites, how he had preposterous five-on-five on ice goal numbers himself. And so he's doing all of this against the other team's best players too. That's what's impressive about it.

Yeah, man, there's still a lot to take in there. First of all, the pair that he did that against last night and overtime, they had been basically infallible. But I think that it is a testament to the style of play and how it can cause you to see ghosts, right? Like in both of the length of a series as a whole, and then individually in the microcosm of a game, right? these teams love to have timing-based and route-based breakouts that work very similarly to how routes in football work.

You know, there's guys jutting through the neutral zone, very high rates of speed. You got somebody trying to get an object from them to the other guy, like through a body of opponents. Florida's ability to just destroy that and force teams to play a style of hockey that they don't have an interest in, that requires more work, coming back deeper into the zone, playing puck support in a way that most people probably don't like, taking a lot of flair out of your game, stifling a little bit of your creativity, all the way down to the timing disruption. 

You know, you have to have the right mix to be able to do this, right? You have to have the right mix. Any line he's on, he's the straw that stirs the drink, but the rest of the mix has been right too. It's been players that can get up ice and jump on loose pucks quickly. It's players that can make the most out of transition opportunities. It's other players that have sort of like followed his lead and jumped in.

I mean, if you look at the raw turnover numbers that Corey tracks to the All Three Zones project, Carter Verhaeghe has been through the roof this postseason in his own ability to get up ice and create turnovers with forechecking. We've both said last show that these forechecks are really sort of defining the way that the game is played now, but when you start to look at the nuance of it and how Matthew Tkachuk fits into it specifically, you got to give credit to the staff for allowing them, them being the players, to go out and feast like this, because it's so much easier to play on the front foot in this game. When you're pressing the play and you're the one forcing decisions in hockey, you're always going to have more wind than the other guy. When you're forcing the other guy to chase you around or to go after loose pucks, that's what this whole thing is about. You become this reactionary opponent when the face of a style of play like this, and you begin to chase. It winds teams so viscerally, and I kept thinking to myself, the longer this game goes, and I know Carolina had chances late into that game, Bobrovsky was unbelievable. I mean, Shana Goldman pointed out his performance was second all-time in goal save above expected in the analytic era, but you could see as the game went on, it just became so taxing. 

His understanding, to me, him being Tkachuk, how to make you skate the most is almost uncanny.

The way he presses you from an angular lane perspective, he forces you to reroute yourself or to take the long way to get there and be physically engaged with him the entire time.

If you have a goal in mind for your breakout, or just even as an individual player, there's nothing worse than having to take that extra mile in what should be a routine step for you. That's, I think, really what it is. It's playing your favorite video game on a difficulty level you've never even seen before. It's going to drive you crazy. Your muscle memory, all that, throw it out the window. It's like playing Tetris on level 99 speed. Most people don't know how to react with that as the starting point. I'm with you on that in terms of the combination of skills and why they've gelled so well together. At the same time, though, if you had told me at the start of the season that a line of Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, and Nick Cousins would be getting these types of numbers, I would not have believed you. 

Because I think heading into the year, I was like, all right, well, they're bringing him in. They're going to pair him up with Barkov, in the interest of seeing how those skills mesh together. They haven't really done that. Then during the regular season, they had Verhaeghe on that line instead of Cousins, and their numbers were through the roof. I think they were up like 50 to 25 at 5-on-5 when they were out there together. When they started the postseason that way, they sometimes, throughout these games, either if they feel like they need to create something offensively in an isolated situation or situational in the offensive zone, they put Verhaeghe out there with him. 

I love every single time they do that because him and Bennett create so many of these opportunities. Verhaeghe's finishing is such a boon next to them. I understand why they're not using them full-time that way, because Verheggie is very useful for Duclair and Barkov on the other line. 

For him to be driving this line in this way with two guys who I do not think would be getting anywhere near these results without him is what's impressive. That's what makes him so effective.

I know if I'm describing it, he's a play connector. He allows all of this stuff to come together. Without him, it's a bunch of spare parts that are moving in different directions, but all of a sudden you put it together and everything seems to flow much more smoothly from their end of the ice through to deep in the offensive zone. 100%. He is the equivalent of a good midfielder in soccer, the way that he can connect all of your parts together and make the whole thing work. 

The forecheck is the straw that stirs the drink. That is what makes this whole system, this whole thing work. That is where I think his presence is felt the most. I guess what shocked me, and we've touched on this already, but what shocked me is seeing how this is a team that lacks a lot of gross star power. If you look at the situation that we're in here, you wouldn't say Florida could keep up with, name-wise, a team like Boston or Toronto, but what shocked me was how much the impact of one really good player in the right environment could have. 

You think about these stories in other sports, especially the NBA, I think, where you have one superstar that can make a run and do the superhuman to topple a supergiant with all these max contracts on it. This feels like that. This is that in hockey. 

I don't know, frankly, that I could really go back in time in the modern, I don't know, you want to use the term, like, analytic era. Can you think of a story like this where a player became so... I go back to 1999 when Jaromir Jagr beat the Devils and upset them as an eight-seed and did it all by himself on one groin. I think about that sometimes. 

To me, this is so uncanny. I'm not here to diss Florida. This isn't Diss Florida Fest. Right? But this is a star player being a star player and having this massive, unimaginable impact and toppling all these giants along the way. I just feel like this narrative and this scene is so grossly unheard of in hockey. I just don't see this thing happen all that often. It's just for a player of Tkachuk's ilk that seemingly lacks some of the flair and finesse that you would expect out of the high-end talent that are capable of that, that makes it even more uncanny and all the more bizarre and fun to watch.

...

To piggyback off what you're saying, though, is him coming in totally changed, not only the identity or whatever you want to say, but also how they play in certain ways. I think that's what they were trying to accomplish as well beyond the business and the financial thing and planning long-term. It was they clearly wanted to diversify their attack, change the way they play without necessarily completely removing some of that rush element, and they've accomplished that, and they deserve credit for it. Every time a team makes a run like this, we get a bunch of dissertations about, oh, this is what this actually means about team building in whatever year it is, and I don't think we necessarily need to spin it in that fashion. 

...

No, I agree with that. I think that's what makes this so fun. There are some things you could look at and be like, I don't know. There's an uncanniness to this, like you said, but it's an example of me of a really good player being really, really good. You end up with a couple David and Goliath feeling out of the result and it's been, I don't know: That's good for the sport, in my opinion, market side. 

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I think Tkachuk might be one of the most, if not the most unique player in terms of skill-set in the game right now. I just can't really think of a lot of analogs for the combination of things he does. A lot's been made so far this postseason.

Dallas Akins was on the broadcast on Sportsnet during round two. He, during one of the intermissions, was talking about how much of the game, especially in the postseason, is played along the boards, how important that wall play is. That became a big topic of discussion.

In thinking about it and watching these games, there's probably no better player in the league right now at leveraging that to make successful possession plays than Matthew Tkachuk. 

…

Well, I think probably the most impressive part about it to me is he never looks. If you're an opposing player trying to get some kind of tell about what's about to happen, where this puck is going to go, good luck. I don't think I've ever seen him telegraph this stuff and it's his ability to make... 

What I would almost call it scoops and digs on the puck because he's not looking to make a tape to tape pass in most of these circumstances. I love the use of the term runway because it's exactly what it is. So you're engaging with him in some form or fashion, you think you've got him tied up, he could even use his legs most of the time. He's just looking to kick that puck into the area that you're not because you've come to him, you've drawn to him. And he knows that at the point he is in that system, he is, like we've said earlier, he's that connection, plays that role of uniting the front and back ends of your team together. 

That's how he's doing it. In a world where time and space is as limited as it's ever going to be in the game of hockey, in the postseason, you have to be able to make these plays with a high level of effectiveness and is the smallest amount of time and the smallest window as you possibly can. So you see the play come to him, there's this physical engagement, you're expecting this long drawn out war, but he takes his stick on the backhand between his legs and just pushes the puck out to a teammate who's streaking through the neutral zone at 100 miles an hour and boom, here's this clean zone entry and it was a guy that you never saw coming.

So you're 100% correct and it's the ability to do it just based off of what his peripheral vision is telling him and trust in his teammates being where they should be. That's another big part of this too, is he's trusting that these guys are going to be there because he's not stopping and turning and looking and doing the traditional things that a lesser player would do to telegraph that pass. So all very just within the flow and the puck is with him for such a short period of time, but the touch he's putting on it is so important in the grand sequence of the event. 

…

And Corey Schneider is tracking his regular season. I thought it was really interesting, the percentiles of how this works where he is in the 97th percentile in zone exits, one of the best forwards in the league at doing so. 

He's only 65th percentile at zone entries, which makes sense, right? He's like, generally the guys who are the best of that are the burners who can just carry the puck in themselves, but he's in the 98th percentile in rush assists leading to shots or chances. And so at the other end of the ice, what he also does is he kind of posts up around that blue line and a similar effect where he can get it to a Bennett to then skate into it and have a rush chance himself. And it's so fascinating how he positions himself in these high leverage spots on the ice along the boards and is comfortable making these plays under pressure. And I don't know, it's really cool. 

Daryl (?) always talks about how one of the most important skills or things that we need to talk about in hockey is improving the conditions of the puck, right? It's like you get the puck, it is either in a bad place on the ice or it's bouncing or it's kind of tricky to corral or someone's coming to pressure you. And what you do with it in terms of settling it and then making a play so that when you pass it to a teammate, they're in a better position. You're not just handing them a ticking bomb basically, right? Where they're going to get hit with it in open ice. He does that so well where he improves the conditions every time, like he knocks a puck out of midair, settles it, and then passes it to a teammate. And they're so much better off for it, right? It's like one of the most teammate friendly skill sets I think you can have. 

We probably ought to focus on that a little bit more as one of his most underrated skill sets is the hand eye that comes in with him being a forechecker because he's flagging a lot of stuff down to your point. Everything he does is about forcing a defenseman to go the opposite direction of the way that they're going, which inherently kills their momentum, right? Because if you're a defenseman skating forward with the intent of playing offense and someone generates a turnover, you have to stop and go backwards to play defense, right? The other person that's coming at you doesn't have to stop, right? They have the puck. They now hold a distinct advantage over your head and he's taking a lot of really good defensemen and making them look bad, but they're looking bad because of the circumstance, right? The game is changing on them. 

The tide shifts from offense to defense because of those plays he's making at the defensive line and the offensive blue line. I love the idea of him just being a facilitator of the play, right? Very rarely he’s the guy that is going to draw the puck across the line himself, but he's the one working it out of the defensive zone and then making himself available across the blue line to then redistribute the puck once the entry is complete. So they're really vital. I think that kind of role is, again, and I've said this now a couple of times on the show, the amount of brains you have to have and understanding of the way the game is played and the flow of it and putting a puck in an area that is either advantageous or disadvantageous for your teammate. To do all of that at the level of speed that he does it and it's just so seamless he doesn't delay anything, right? He makes these really important plays and decisions as they're happening without slowing a single thing down. 

That's what makes him so difficult to mark in the offensive zone. Maybe this is transition for you, but he so often seems to be skating in a direction and way that is just totally the opposite of everyone else. You look at him and you think, what is he doing? But it's in preparation for whatever the next thing is. He's not thinking about the now, he's thinking about the two steps from now and going against the grain to get there in a lot of ways sometimes. It's funny to watch to me because you can always sort of notice him because he's doing something that you think to yourself, where is he going or what is this? It doesn't make any sense in the moment, but then a bang, bang play happened. Oh, okay. I get it now. 

No, I'm with you. The only way to describe it is in the neutral zone. It's like a basketball player posting up and backing down a defender. I don't ever recall seeing someone do it in the neutral zone as much as he does and how comfortable he is with that in mind. Strategically, it's smart because you're protecting yourself and the puck in the sense that for the most part, we still see players can be reckless sometimes, particularly along the boards. They don't care if they see your numbers, they're going to run right through you and push you into the boards and take a penalty. But for the most part, it's not the game that it was 10, 20 years ago where it was just free range and it was like the wild, wild west. 

You see someone, you're just shoving them no matter what direction they're facing. So in this sense, if you're facing the defender, then they can definitely run through you in a legal way more so. And so by turning his back to them, it's smart because he buys himself time to do that kind of like the peripheral surveying and scanning. It's a lot of notebook passes, but he's clocked where his guys are or where he expects him to be before he gets to play, right? There's a lot of scanning, which is a popular scouting term these days that he does. And they almost use him like a playmaking center in the NBA, like Nikola Jokic where it's like, they pass the puck to him, he turns his back in the post and then they send cutters in both directions in Cousins and Bennett or sometimes a Montour, if he's out there with him to then provide passing outlets and options for him.

And then he basically gets to decide who he wants to get the puck to, whoever's open and distribute that way. And it's such an interesting way to run a breakout scheme and kind of a neutral zone set the way that they do. And he's uniquely qualified, I guess, to do so. But it's just, it's interesting because, and that's why I said, I wanted to do this and how unique and how there was no analog to it because it does just visually look a lot different than what you see most teams do.

Yeah. Well, I don't know that I could, I mean, I couldn't sit here and name, you know, players like that who will turn and invite pressure. Sidney Crosby's done that. 

Yeah. I mean, he'll keep you glued in the back pocket. And he's like, yeah, I'm comfortable with you there, this entire shift, but more so behind the net, right. And like, when you think about it, that's, that's a shift, right? Like,

it's a bit of a different skillset than just standing there at center ice along the boards, which obviously a center probably wouldn't be doing more. 

So anyway, but Crosby is probably the best example in terms of comfort level being in that type of position where the defenders placed. Yeah. But I love that. I love what you said about like the step ahead scanning, you know, I mean, that's great. I mean, because, again, I can't stress enough that, if he waits a second too long in all of this, the idea of being able to make an area pass or just put the puck in a place where your teammates got the best crack at it and they have speed to get there: that's gone. It's you lose it. You know, that's a momentary thing. You know, that's something that happens in the second that it's happening based on the flow of the game. 

And you lose that if you don't have that sense. So, and I think we probably ought to give a shoutout to his ability to play. You know, we've alluded to this too, but that lends itself to what he can do in the offensive zone. Right. And I think that whether it's him making the cut or him distributing the puck in the cycle, that line's ability to elongate an offensive zone shift, use an active D, right. There, there's a lot of understanding that's going on there in terms of, again, where everyone's supposed to be, what's the best angle to take to get there. And I love watching Tkachuk specifically walk out of the corner to the front of the net with the puck, which seems to be a huge preference of his, to try to get to the corner. And he's got a lot of distribution options on his way there too. Right. So it's not always just a crash and tuck opportunity. I mean, I think he gets pretty creative with it, but all these things tie together, you know, to make him sort of the more dynamic puck distributor that we've seen in a while in terms of approach and, like you said, the sort of post-up technique that he does where he knows somebody's — he wants to be engaged with physically, frankly, you know, he wants that. Magnetizing other players to himself just opens up space for everybody else. So he seems to really welcome that. 

Where, it’s almost— he likes to initiate that first contact or feel where the defender is because then it locates everything for him, right. And then puts it into place, and then he can act accordingly off of it. It's always like a subtle little touch or a little bump.

And it's never anything that would get called, right. But, in a sense, it’s kind of like, the defender doesn't have the puck, and sometimes he does it before he gets the puck. So it's like, you're initiating contact. 

It's interference, that grey area, but in the grand scheme of things, it will never get called the way it should. I mean, they let much more egregious things go, especially in the playoffs, but yeah, it's all of it. It’s very — there's a certain evil genius to it. And then there's a certain more subtle kind of creative genius to how he does it. 

And he has to, because he won't be able to take the puck like Connor McDavid in his own zone and go coast to coast. So he has to do it differently. 

You can get away with a lot more in motion, right? Like you're really going to get caught when two people are standing still and you take their legs out from under them or something like that, you know what I mean? That's where you really get in trouble. He is so good and masterful at in-motion contact. So he scored a couple of goals like this, this postseason, where he'll come through on a cycle, barrel through an area and just like you said, shove someone, right? Like at the moment that the puck's going to arrive, like he's preemptively moving them out of the way so that he's the only one that can get the crack on the puck. 

And it's happening in a window that's, well, first of all, he's not egregiously tackling anyone, right? I think that's like, getting physical with someone and like using the same, I mean, — I'm not trying to explain away interference, but I think, you know, what makes it different to me is he's doing it in such a smart way, right? He's in motion. He's moving through an area and skates in the same place as somebody else happens to be skating. And he's going to win that physical engagement. He gets a little extension on him, sometimes there's a shove there, but he knows how to move people to create space. That's the takeaway, right? Like it's the same thing. It's the same idea. It's proactively striking under the defense that's going to try to stick lift you and take away your time and space. If you move them out of the way, they're not there. They can't do that when you get the puck. 

But also the reality is that if you're the first person to initiate the contact, that generally does not get called. But then if there's a retaliation after, especially one that goes above and beyond, and then an embellishment follows, or a reaction follows, that catches the official's eye. And generally like they notice the first one, and then they're watching. Then if the second thing happens as a retaliation, that's what gets called. And that's how you get into a spot where Matty Tkachuk is drawing 10 penalties this post-season and taking only five, which is also another massive advantage for his team, right?

It's part of the game, for better or for worse. And sometimes it can be very frustrating if you're the other team, because you feel like they're getting away with a lot more than you, and then they're not getting called for. And then you do something and you're immediately called for it. It's very frustrating, but that's kind of part of the cat and mouse game here. Yeah. I guess cat and rat game. If you want to go with the radical meaning.

I'm happy he's had an opportunity to showcase. Like I said, you know, I think that we talk a lot about all this stuff and, and lost in all of that. I think the icing on the cake here is the fact he's a good shooter. 

He's a good shooter. You know, he scored 40 goals this year. We haven't even mentioned it. Like we haven't even mentioned it, but this postseason for me with regard to his shot has been— what I think is his bread and butter. It’s like, I will sacrifice everything I need to in the world of velocity to put it exactly where it needs to go. There's a lot of really good innovation from him in ways that he can— keep his blade flat to keep the puck on the ice and the wherewithal to know when that's appropriate in loose puck situations versus clean shot situations. And you know, the tool is nice, but the discernment of the tool, right? That's what sometimes separates you and gets you to the 40 goal plateau. And discernment has been probably his best tool in his shot this year. It's the right selection. You know, you could have all the fancy clubs in your bag, but if you don't know how to use them, they're no good. And he knows how to use all of them. 

So that is the icing on the cake to all of this. He can create these opportunities, and then as a finisher, where he often finds himself, given how close his proximity to the mouth of the net is, and where you can usually find him, when the cycle gets going, he is just clinical with knowing what that situation calls for and what the circumstances. 

I'm glad we did this because we've been talking about doing this one for a while, but also I feel like a lot of, and I'm responsible for this as well, a lot of the playoff coverage so far through these first two plus rounds of the Panthers— has been what the Bruins and the Leafs have done poorly to lose or get upset in people's eyes, as opposed to what the Panthers might've done kind of force their hand or put them in those situations or win these games and what they did right. And now you look up and they’re are seven wins from the Stanley Cup along, certainly a long way to go from that. I think this series against Carolina is going to be especially hellish, with a lot of back and forths and twists and turns. It's going to be a long, hard fought one if, if game one is any indication, but, you know, I thought this was going to be a bit of a step back year for them as like a calculated bridge— to take a step back and then lock in a player long-term that's younger and then use the future years to add around him. And I guess they did technically in the regular season, right? It was big surprise. They almost missed the playoffs, but now you look up, and they're obviously having the success and having this magical ride through the postseason. So it was good to finally direct a bit of the attention or praise their way, I guess.

Yeah, agreed. And again, I have to reiterate that I think the lesson learned for me was star player value, you know, and how I'm not surprised to see him have this level of impact, but to, you know, for the mix to be this right. That's been the crazy part for me. 

[grlfriends]

revolutionary girl utena review

ep 1-5

the plot is actually kinda different from what I thought ?? in my mind the plot was: utena was a girl in a princess school who each and every princess would be "conquered" (for a lack of better words rn) in a ceremonial duel by a prince who fancied them, maybe she didnt wanna wanna marry anyone or she liked Anthy already but anyway in my mind utena showed up in the ceremony with duel clothing and then, in a very brave tm like-scene, she would openly declare she refused to be conquered by anyone and tbh I'm not even sure how Anthy would come into the plot... but back into what actually happened in the episodes everything so far is very introductory and just showing what mechanics will be explored further down the line I think?? the op is really good too

also every boy so far reminds me so much of knights of the zodiac?? maybe it's just the design I guess...) and nanami can get these hands, jealousy is a disease and she's the sickest person on earth for all I know

dont ask me why bit I just feel like room of mirrors - gfriend has a very well fitting vibe for it but I'm not exactly sure why hm.... 🤔🤔

ep 6-12

ok so why does this school just have random animals around 😐 I could understand the horse but a bull and a kangaroo?? what ...

touga just says the most random dramatic things and then just casually says anyone who believes in friendship is a fool ?? the guy wouldnt last a day in the naruto universe tbh, he kinda irks me in some way but I'm not sure why so I'll live with this strange feeling for a while I guess

↳ okay so watching ep 10 made me especially kinda creeped out, I know I've watched only 10 eps so far but like can he fall downstairs and break a neck or something already ...

also haha what if I watched that bet on it fmv and gave myself a bunch of spoilers would that be funny or what 😍 this is why i cant have nice things yall.... hope my memory goes to shit when sleep so I dont remember about it this week while I finish it

I feel like the main thing on the episodes are parallels, one way or another I always feel like they're setting up parallels and giving me clues for a bigger picture and a deeper plot arc that is still to come and the bet on it fmv just made this impression stronger, also I wanna say it's done in a good way, one that is both mysterious (??) and "honey you've got a big storm coming" at the same time 🤔🤔 much to think about honestly

↳ just saw ep 11 and even though I already knew this was coming sooner or later it still felt like crap seeing utena lose to dick head, at the end of the episode when he says anthy was always just reflecting utena's own wishes for himemiya (in another way bc I dont remenber the exact words) it felt like 😐 bc yes I knew that (the way she was working her thoughts was simply a copy and paste of what utena was saying) at all time I kept those essays about anthy in my head, I dont think theyll be truly relatable to what I'm seeing rn but yeah anthy rights (even though I know you betray/cheat on utena down the line bc of the bet on it fmv but I'm sure you had your own motivation)

↳ saw ep 12 bc I just couldnt handle being in a cliffhanger and yeah it happened what I absolutely thought it would lmao not that it was that difficult to foresee but yeah, I kinda liked how utena did it for her instead of being like "oh I wanna save anthy from touga" and treating her like a damsel in distress (I know that's kinda her position as the rose bride for what I've been told so far and that this is a subject spoken about in many many essays on tumblr but yeah) bc so far she's been treated as a trophy and a way to get something else, for the green haired guy it was a way to see something eternal, for miki it was a way to hold on into his "shining thing" and for touga it seems (so far) like a way to manipulate (just like he does with nanami) and just mark his position as above everyone else as he seems to view himself?? man I might be saying random stuff rn but it kinda does makes sense in my mind with the information I've had to this point

ep 13-25

honestly 😐😐 through 9 whole episodes I felt like they were trying to make the side characters deeper and show their hidden face and motivations but it felt so shallow...... not even actually shallow, just not deep enough that it would make me care about these characters and the fact there was no actual build to showing us why we're getting to know these characters backgrounds was just kinda meh too, didnt really help that all episodes had all the same formula and the same timing just for the developers made in those episodes be forgotten at the end and also just that pink haired guy could be like "ah failure again", it felt like watching the same episode over and over again, it was really tiring and like?? girl help I do not care about these characters at all, I feel like it could have been done well (like the keiko ep in comparison to the furuba chapter that deals with the yuki appreciation (??) club president graduating.... the way this ep was done and setup didn't really bring me any emotions) overall not to my taste and tbh I feel like I could have skipped all those episodes except for maybe the miki and juri one so 😑

all nanami focused episodes are the worst so far, she's so boring and I cant stand now annoying she is, the diary episode?? the cow episode?? the episode when tsuwabiki fuels with utena?? honestly I know they're trying to show me a better and different side of her but it just doesnt!! work!! bc i feel no sympathy for her, my biggest wish rn is her and touga just disappearing and no more filler episodes🗣🗣

I thought akio was utena's prince?? but apparently he's just anthy's brother and like.. I'm do done with his little talks with utena and yadda yadda, I just wanna see their duel is that too much to ask I'm dying over here (if this lenga lenga continues until ep 25 i will be so mad bc why were so many episodes wasted on such boring and and not necessary side characters backstories?? idc about them at all man aaaaaaaaaa)

↳ ep 25 was good finally we got what we deserve boys 😭😭😭😭😭 can utena just beat up akio already I'm tired of his ass, he exhales both "I'm a feminist I even take women studies classes #herstory" and "if she breathes she's a thot" energy also he has 0 style that mullet is simply horrible I bet there's a hairstylist community who considers him a criminal bc like 😐 it is simply so bad (q bit less when it's tied up but when it's all lose jesus Christ)

also touga thinks he's suuuuch a genius, sooo smart like king, I do not care about you at all can you shut the fuck up please and can we tall about the pink haired guy episode?? wack. honestly thought it would be more emotional or something, I binge watched 12 episodes with his ugly haircut face and did not even feel a thing he can choke I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ANTHY TAKING A SWORD OUT OF UTENA'S CHEST??? OSCAR WORTHY KINGS❗❗❗and then her lame ass brother being like "oh ho ho idk idk" shut up no one cares no one cares I swear to you no one cares shut uuuuup

ep 25-39

first of all, ep 25 was good but kinda reminded me of the nine episodes (13 until 21) where absolutely nothing interesting happened so I hope I'm wrong also can I just say just seeing the preview of the next episode made me roll my eyes so bad I almsot saw my brain?? bc yeah I'm fucking tired of nanami fosuced episodes she's so annoying oh my god nobody cares about a goddamn egg and much less one coming from her let her die or something pls she's so annoying there's nothing I've learned about her that was not against my own will I'm basically rotting over here 🤒

↳ ep 30 has me thinking Akio has a foot fetish or something 😐 bruh leave utena aloooooone I already know your plans and schemes you're not fooling anyone that's embarrassing for u and also... utena you're not very bright are you.... you start seeing every duelist you face with the same exact car and then when you see akio has the same car you didnt even stop to think about it that 1+1 equals 2 ... girl help yourself 😐

↳ yet again another nanami focused ep 😐😐😐😐😐 even though I do understand her better now I still don't find her particularly enjoyable to watch, call me a woman hater but like. idk she's still a bit annoying to me (but touga is straight up evil and is manipulating her so I feel bad for feeling like that tho.....)

↳ ok last 2 eps to go but listen. I thought the akio duel would have happened much sooner, maybe on ep 33 max but well didn't this age well lmao ngl, it did seem a bit too slow paced for my personal taste but also I feel like there's a certain level of drama that comes with slowing the pace down....

↳ aaaaaa yall I'm kinda 😢😭 over the ending omg........... even though it took the best of me to keep going in some parts I still enjoyed the ending aaaaa I thought i wouldnt really like it bc I just usually dont enjoy this type of ending but stil 😢😢😢😢 wait for me utena 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 girl I cried and then anthy walking in the end god utena and anthy holding hands 😭😭😭😭 akio can suck my dick

there's obviously many things I've missed or that I kinda didnt really pay attendance to so please dont take this serious, I was just writing as I watched the episodes so it's more like a thought compilation than anything, still I can see why there's many essays written about it and why it is held as a masterpiece by so many people

[shizekarnstein]

mdzs :DDD

Considering my first venture into this fandom was thanks to the drama, I'm gonna include it and the donghua, because all three versions have something I like. CQL: the galaxy brain to wonder hey but if we just... add Jiang Yanli and Wen Qing to the lessons at Cloud Recesses. Or make Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji really close since the beginning just to make the separation and angst even worse??? And the donghua team being like... but what if they accidentally met as children huh??? And Wei Wuxian was even more op??? Yes yes to all of them.

My favorite female character:

There's just like... 5 lmao. Oh well. The show corrupted me so I'm gonna say Wen Qing. Her dedication to her family and values, her inner strenght, how good she was (and she wasnt even aware of it), how she always tried to do her best even struggling against her deranged sect leader. How even when brought low by the crimes commited againts her and her kin, she never thought of revenge and tried to live her life with her head held high. Just... Wen Qing. A good woman, a great doctor and sister and friend, who didn't deserve anything that happened to her and her people.

My favorite male character:

Wei Wuxian. Listen with Wei Wuxian it was love at first sight too. He's lovely, charming, so damn brave, giving his everything for the people he loves and asking nothing in return. His sense of justice, that awareness that comes from having experienced the plight of those who have nothing more than their lives to claim as their own, who saw very clearly how those who congratulated themeselves on being good and righteous were nothing more than the very thing he jad fought so hard to overthrow, and decided to act. His quick mind and genius, the marvelous and forbidden things he was able to do due to pressure and thinking outside the box. I love him for how much he suffered, how that pressure made him crack and how utterly unfair his lot in life was. Wei Wuxian owns my whole heart.

My favorite book/season/etc.

I really don't know how to answer this. All I can say is that... the extra chapters are definetly not on that list 😂.

My favorite episode:

For CQL: 26-27-28. Because drama and angts and dates in yiling and everything. Oh and also the golden core reveal bc Wen Ning snapping is just beautiful.

Donghua: I love the first episode of s1. It was perfect and an equally amazing introduction to the story. Also... ep 15 bc Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian, with his hair loose and loyal zombies and op powers and his crows and evil green fire 😍.

For the novel my favorite parts were Yi City (bc I love heartbreak) and the second siege of the burial mounds (the Wens 😭😭😭😭).

My favorite cast member:

Xiao Zhan and his sunshine smile and utter devotion to Wei Wuxian. He's the true founder of the Wei Wuxian's apologists and I think that's very sexy of him.

My favorite ship:

🐰 wangxian🐰. Do I really need to explain why??? IT'S ABOUT THE YEARNING AND MUTUAL DEVOTION.

A character I'd die defending:

Wei Wuxian because there's people in all corners of the fandom that are downright mean to him. I really get the impression they don't spare a single thought to understand him and nope.

A character I just can't sympathize with:

Wen Chao and his horrid mistress bc they are cartoonish villains, but not even funny. Sect Leader Yao bc every time he opens his mouth everything turns even worse... and nobody calls him out for being a disgusting yes-man without a care in anything but himself!!!! Grrrrr. Jin Zixun bc he's lame and destroys everything he touches.And finally Jin Guangshan bc he's not only disgusting and evil but also a horrid father and rapist.

A character I grew to love:

Jin Ling and Jin Zixuan lmao like father like son I guess. At first I was like who is this angry little boy?? And for his father it was the same. Who would have thought I'd cry like a baby over both of them?

My anti otp:

Fanon verse: Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen. There's few things that make me exit a fanfic as fast as seeing that ship in the tags. I just don't vibe with it.

[mariska]

OH ALSO. since i have now seen every main chucky/childs play movie (except the 2019 attempted reboot one idk if i rly care enough about it to see it knowing that it just kinda got scrapped plot wise anyways LOL) here is my Official Mariska List Of Fav Chucky Movies

#1 - Seed Of Chucky. absolutely fucking bonkers, never seen anything like it and i doubt i ever will, it was so funny and Glen/Glenda was a wonderful character addition to the series who i sincerely hope shows up again sometime soon. where r they hiding that kid. bring em back i miss em. one of my fav movie plot twists that will ever exist is 'oh u thought this was celebrated superstar Jennifer Tilly? nah thats Tiffany the killer doll from Bride Of Chucky. Jennifer Tilly simply does not exist anymore.' LMAO

#2 - a tie between Bride Of Chucky & Cult Of Chucky. both very different style and genre wise but really good in execution i personally feel like; Tiff was obviously a genius character addition in Bride and i truly believe Ms Tilly revived the series in a way it needed to be able to go on as long as it has since. there are too many women protagonists in horror that i watch where it feels like they have to justify her anger, terror, killing etc etc and Tiff is such a great character because she and Chucky are truly a horrible awful match made in hell LMFAOO, they are both just horrible irredeemable serial killers and i genuinely love that. Let Women In Horror Just Be Evil!!!! now, Nica is obviously not that same brand of Evil Just For Being Evil but i think she is also a great addition to the series and im excited to see where they take her (or....yknow. maybe just Fiona in general since idk that shes really technically playing Nica anymore lol) with new movies/eps of the ongoing show (which i havent started yet but am very excited to). Fiona is an incredible actress and i think it was a great writing idea to make a role for her where it makes sense for her to be related to the main character in-universe as well as in real life; the whole ending sequence of Curse Of Chucky was really interesting i think and i love that as the series goes on we're getting to explore more of the backstory and lore of Charles™️ pre-doll possession. i could talk about Cult of Chucky for years on end; i absolutely loved the cinematography, throwbacks to older movies in the series and horror classics in general (ESPECIALLY the very 70's style split-screen/overlayed clips sections, really really cool and made me immediately think of the prom scene in Carrie or some scenes/themes/characters from the original Omen), and My God....Femme Chucky. i will NEVER recover from that. THAT is gender. also i really enjoy the social commentary in so many directions in Cult; the whole Chucky/Child's Play series has a lot of genuinely well written critiques on public perception of very heavy topics (the very corrupt adoption/foster care system in the US, military industrial complex, the consequences of glorifying/making 'celebrity' status out of serial killers, i could go on and on tbh) which is really refreshing for horror as a genre since it usually doesn't address any of that kinda stuff. its definitely not perfect rep by far, but personally as both a physically and mentally disabled person (and as someone who often has to use mobility aids to function though i am not a full time wheelchair user so that isnt my exact case) it was very refreshing to see that representation in Nica's character as well as having a spotlight put on the infantilization of disabled adult women/people perceived as being women or feminine and at the same time, the demonization of us, because they really go hand in hand very often and comedy-horror is the last genre i would've expected to get that validation of my life experience with. also i wish i looked as cool as femme Chucky and would love the opportunity to give Jennifer Tilly a kiss. hfksgddgddgsjfh

#3 - Child's Play 2. the late 80s and early 90's were such a great era for experimental horror and this one being released in 1990 is no exception; i am someone who absolutely loves the bright neon primary color aesthetic of that era and this movie was so much fun to watch even on that aesthetic basis alone. i really liked Kyle as a character and if i had grown up watching these movies as a kid or teen she 100% would have contributed to my lesbian realization way earlier in life than i actually had at like 19 LOL. she and Andy made great found family siblings and i think both actors did a great job with their roles!! also i think this is the first movie in the franchise where they really started leaning into the ridiculously campy comedic concept of a supernaturally possessed serial killer cabbage patch kid, the general pacing of the story felt a lot smoother to me than the first one which is no surprise i think since horror sequels to unexpected commercial hit movies tend to suddenly have a much bigger budget and better resources to work with than their previous installments. the whole final fight sequence was wild, the 80s/90s mcdonalds indoor playground aesthetic of the doll factory and the grotesque-ness of Chucky experiencing like ten different types of extreme body horror/torture is an absolute blast that had me cracking up and screaming at Kyle & Andy to just LEAVE THE BUILDING AS SOON AS HES DOWN LMFAOO CMON GUYS. HE LITERALLY DOES NOT DIE STOP WALKING UP TO HIS WEIRD DOLL BODY LIKE HES NOT GONNA GET UP AND JUMP U

#4 Child's Play (1988) - a classic and a good start to the series. wonderfully low budget 80s horror aesthetic is always fun for me to watch lol. a bit slow with the pacing but that is completely understandable as the first movie in the franchise and also the fact that they definitely needed to incorporate enough atmospheric horror elements to get movie audiences hooked for more before tossing them in the Camp Closet and locking the door behind them LMAO. the mom overacts in like every scene and its so funny i am obsessed with her character, also her friend being like gently tapped by Chucky with a hammer and doing a fucking gymnastic flip outside of the top apartment window is one of the funniest horror movie kills i have ever seen it cracks me up just thinking about it. that woman fucking LAUNCHED herself out of that window dude.

#5 - a tie between Child's Play 3 & Curse Of Chucky. i still liked these and enjoyed watching them, but they both feel very tonally different than the rest of the movies in a way that i personally felt was kinda boring; i personally am not a fan of most general 'action' movies or movies about military stuff so most of Child's Play 3 for me didn't grab my attention enough. i was more involved in feeling like i had to save the main kids from being in a military academy more than anything which is not the kinda mindset im looking to be in when im watching a series like Chucky lol, that's a very personal opinion though, i don't think its a 'bad' movie at all, just not really my kinda thing. same with Curse Of Chucky for slightly different reasons; as a stand alone horror movie it's fine, has kind of a vintage haunted house movie kinda vibe which was cool but it was too much atmospheric exposition for like 90% of the run time for me to fully enjoy it as much as i did with the others. again though, i dont think its a bad movie at all, just not fully my type of story. it did a great job establishing Nica's character and how her lore opens up a lot of doors to explore in the larger universe of the franchise; i am a sucker for established/in-depth backstories (i think mostly because my fav characters in a lot of media tend to be the ones that have little to no canon lore and i've always had a lot of fun writing/making my own headcanons for stuff like that) so i was very excited to see a new point of view added on to Charles Lee Ray pre-doll; you already know he's horrible and irredeemable just from watching all the other movies but the ending of Curse really added a heavy, more realistic sinister edge to his story and it's a good reminder that even though he's the main character and it's easy to kinda be like on his side cus its so fun to watch him cause chaos to everyone and everything around him, he IS a serial killer. he might make passive comments that he isnt 'really a monster' and occasionally kill some real scumbags who had it coming, but...he is ALSO a terrible scumbag who had it coming. i don't think he has an actual set of morals at all, Curse definitely adds to my opinion on that part of his character. in Cult he brutally kills the man who assaulted Nica, but we see a heavy implication of him doing the exact same behavior to Nica's mom at the end of Curse and it's honestly horrifying. in his monologue to Nica he straight up admits it; he takes pride in tearing families apart (another detail that was hinted a bit in earlier installments, like the line in Seed Of Chucky where he mentions killing Tiffany's mom who she was obviously very close with and still thinks about often) and ruining childhoods. i definitely would have enjoyed Curse more if the majority of the movie run time was dedicated to exploring the lore of the universe like the ending is.

[delusionalkiing]

Voltron Season 2 Thoughts

After having some time to process everything that happened, I wanted to do a write up about season two!  I’ll be going over everything I liked and everything I didn’t like (justice for Hunk and Lance plz!!).  I’ll be going over each episode briefly but most of my thoughts will be about the major characters!

Obviously, major spoilers are under the cut!

Episode 1: Across the Universe

Pretty strong season opener!  I’d have to say my favorite parts are Pidge’s junk friends and Allura and Coran’s time loop.  Coran getting younger and younger and poor Allura trying to save him was really good!  Especially when she says she saw him as another father!!  I wanted to cry!  Pidge missing her friends was so painful too.  Liked the Shiro and Keith part too and Keith asking black Lion to help him save Shiro!  Very nice!

Episode 2: The Depths

Oh man I have such mixed thoughts about this episode.  I really loved the underwater world, the mermaids and all the Hance interactions, as well as Lance unlocking a new weapon.

I disliked the continuous pushing of Lance trying to flirt with every mermaid lady... like... this is something I’ll bring up again later but I feel like they really just turned him into girl chasing comic relief.  Justice for Lance tbh.

Episode 3: Shiro’s Escape

I liked seeing how Shiro escaped!!  Though FUCK the Galra /took/ his hand, I always kinda assumed he lost it in the arena or something but fsfjlekjsflsfe SHIRO.  Someone give him a hug.  Ulaz was a really interesting character and the Blade of Marmora’s methods of hiding their bases are super interesting!  The fight was really neat too and Ulaz’s sacrifice was painful too, even though we barely knew him.

I also really liked how it was Shiro that brought up that not all Galra might be evil, despite everything he went through.

Episode 4: Greening the Cube

THE SPORE FIGHT WAS ADORABLE.  I really love moments like this where the paladins all bond together and stuff!  The alien race and their planet and nature tech was really awesome too.  I really love all the aliens races in this show, tbh.  They’re great!

And ahhh Pidge bonding more with her lion was really good!  And her new weapon is really cool and will definitely be useful in the future (and it was!)  I don’t have much else to say about this episode other than I really enjoyed it and the NGE references during the fight!

Episode 5: Eye of the Storm

ALTEAN BIOLOGY LMAO.  I wanted to know more about it but NOT LIKE THIS.

The Klance moments were HILARIOUS, as well as Pidge trying to learn Altean.  Hunk’s cooking did save the day, which was nice.  I just wish later episodes didn’t just focus on this aspect of him...

Not really much else to say about this episode really other than Coran was really funny and Zarkon chasing them was really tense.

Episode 6: The Ark of Taujeer

I found Allura and Keith’s talk in the pod really interesting!  I’m all for Allura having one of one moments with the younger Paladins and getting to know them better.

The design of the alien race made me laugh ahah they look soft.  I enjoyed this episode except for one thing: Hunk’s new power activation.  I kind of have the same issue with how Lance activated his.  Compared to Pidge, there wasn’t a huge focus on connecting with their lions??  Pidge had a whole scene but their power just sorta... happened in the middle of a tense situation and not separate from the fight.  Idk it would have been nice to see them have more of a connecting moment with their lion rather than wham bam new power.

But yeah, that’s about it.  Oh, Red saving Keith and Allura from so far away was great!!

Episode 7: Space Mall

Okay, I won’t lie, all the scenes that take place in the mall had me dying of laughter.  Pidge and Lance’s quest for money, Coran sneaking around, Hunk being Gordon Ramsay (would have been nice to have less food jokes with hunk tho...), and Keith getting distracted by knives lmao.  And the mall cop was HILARIOUS.  I love seeing the younger Paladins able to act like the kids they are despite the war.

ALL THE SHIRO SCENES MADE ME WANNA SCREAM.  Though I’m really glad his connection with the Black Lion got stronger and Black saved him and severed the connection with Zarkon!

Episode 8: The Blade of Marmora

THIS ENTIRE EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, first: The base hiding spot is SUPER COOL and really pretty looking!!  The Blade is also really interesting!  I’ve been waiting SO LONG to get something about Keith’s backstory!!  So of course I was screaming the entire time ahaha.

We were all right that Keith was galra BUT we got it wrong that Thace was his father!  His father is human and his mother is Galra and I LOVE THAT???  I want to know more about her??  Who is she??

And I’m so glad with the whole “Shiro, you’re like a brother to me” line because Keith has always acted kinda distant and like he has no family but he does!  I love that so much!

Also overprotective Red Lion!!!  I love Red’s connection with Keith!!

Episode 9: The Belly of the Weblum

THIS EPISODE WAS GROSS LMAO But I still loved it because of all the Hunk and Keith interactions!!    We finally get an episode with Hunk doing great stuff...  Him distracting the worm and putting himself in danger of the laser thing was so good.  THIS IS THE KIND OF HUNK CONTENT I WANT.

Also Keith saving a Galra was interesting!  I wonder if the Galra soldier will ever come back??  I really want to know more about them tbh...  It was interesting.

But yes, more good Hunk content like this and more Keith interactions with the other Paladins!!

Episode 10: Escape from Beta Traz

I really liked this episode because as someone with severe anxiety, I relate SO HARD to Slav LMAO.  Seeing more of Pidge’s tech genius was great and finding out that Matt is okay and escaped with some rebels is great!  (Though where is her father?????)  

I WAS SO HAPPY FOR THE LANCE CONTENT but it didn’t really go anywhere...  It sort of did with Shiro acknowledging that he’s a sharp shooter but other than that, nothing much else happened with it...  I really hope we get future episodes of Lance struggling with this!!  Please give my son the arc he deserves!!

Also I want the space dog thing it’s so CUTE AND BIG!!!

Episode 11: Stayin’ Alive

Allura!!!  I love her and her interactions with the Balmerans!  AND SHAY ASKING ABOUT HUNK <3  Her fighting the Robeast with the castle until the others arrived with great too.  Also this battle gave me more NGE vibes lmao...

And then at the end of the episode we see Allura being cold toward Keith for being Galra...  Which is understandable but I really dislike how they treat her as being bad for being scared... :/

Also, THACE.  You tried, buddy...

Episode 12: Best Laid Plans

This episode was SUPER TENSE and Keith and Thace interacting was really cool too.  The fighting was really cool and we see that Zarkon is SUPER OBSESSED with the Black Lion.  We still don’t really know WHY but its interesting to see his obsession.

I’m glad Allura talks to Keith and says she was scared and considers the Paladins her new family.  So I’m glad they didn’t really drag this out too much but like... Still not that happy with this plot thread.

Thace’s sacrifice HURT.

Episode 13: Blackout

Oh man this episode... The fight with Zarkon was SO COOL and ahhhhh and Shiro screaming for Allura when she’s injured and ahhhhhh!!!  Allura being a battle princess was SO COOL.  Her fighting Haggar and the other druids was great!!  And the reveal about Haggar... ahhh I wonder who she is???  Does she have a connection to the royal family??  I’m so... ahhhhhhh lmao.

Shiro getting the bayard back and the wings on the black lion....

I don’t really know how to say everything I feel but this was a really good finale.  That cliffhanger ending... WTFFFFF SHIRO WHERE ARE YOU...

Praying for Black Paladin Allura while they search for Shiro...

Final thoughts: 

I dont like how Lance and Hunk were really sidelined in this season.  I really hope that we get lots of character growth for the two of them in season 3!!

And that Shiro won’t die... please... where is he...

Also, it’s good to know we’ll be getting LGBT rep later on!!

CHARACTER THOUGHTS:

I’ll just go over the main characters!

Coran:  I love Coran so much lmao all of his scenes were really great and it’s nice to see him doing a lot of mechanical things!

Allura:  I LOVE HER I was so ready for her fighting in the last two episodes!!  I do wish they had handled her thing about Galra Keith differently...  But I’m happy she got to shine in combat AND unlock new magic???  That was SO COOL.  Also her interactions with Shiro... my heart...  Him calming her down by softly touching her hand was so good...

Shiro:  I love him SO MUCH.  I’m so worried about him!!  His bonding with the Black Lion, his scene with Allura and touching her hand softly, all the great brotherly scene with Keith ahhh this was a good season for Shiro development!  I feel like he didn’t get much development in s1 so this was really nice to see.  BUT THAT ENDING... IS HE OKAY???

Keith:  This was such a heavy Keith season (to the detriment of other characters...) but I was really hoping we’d get answers about his past.  We did get some!  Nice to know his mom is the Galra and his father is human!  His father reminded me of Shiro so maybe they are related??  Cousins or something?  Ugh I want more answers lmao vld s3 give us more answers but don’t ignore the others!

Lance:  MY POOR BOY.  I feel like he was reduced to being aggressively heterosexual comic relief sighs.  I was hopefully when we saw him doubting himself but they really didn’t do much with it... it was over really fast and like... ughhh flesh out his self doubts more please!!

Hunk:  MY OTHER POOR BOY.  I love that Hunk is funny, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like 95% of his content this season was food jokes and talking about food.  I feel like the only ep that really let him shine somewhat was the Weblum episode.  Can we please have more content like that??  Hunk being brave??  Even when his lion got a new power, it was barely touched on, just like Lance’s was.  PLEASE GIVE THESE BOYS GOOD STORY ARCS.

Pidge:  MY TINY DAUGHTER.  I love that her tech stuff got to shine more in this season.  And I’m so glad that she found out that Matt is okay but I don’t know why they didn’t talk about her father??  Like... he’s missing too...  But I think this was a pretty good season for Pidge!

SO YEAH, those are my thoughts!  I really hope we get more character development in future seasons and that the LGBT rep we were promised comes soon lmao