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Well done. You've sorted through the embarrassment of riches that is the modern podcast landscape and found me Rob Briden on my podcast.

In this series of Briden and I talk to among others, Harry Hill, Ben Elton, Charlotte Church, Steve Cougan and Dame Harriet Walter.

And that's just a few. We tend to chat for about 45 minutes to an hour never longer. It's terrific conversation, reminiscent, sweat appropriate and exchange of anecdotes.

So do join me Rob Briden wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes of Briden and are available early and ad-free on Amazon Music, or by subscribing to Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

Around this time last year, the Florida Panthers were not in the best place.

After posting the best regular season record in the NHL last season, the Panthers ended the playoffs on the wrong end of an all-floor to showdown, getting swept in the second round by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

And for many people, it felt like this organization was at a crossroads.

I think a series lost like this. I'm not saying you have to clean house. What? Does one of the stars have to get moved and they need some kind of dynamic change there? I don't think it's off the table.

But now, a year later, the Panthers are in the Stanley Cup finals and it's largely thanks to one very polarizing man.

Today, Sean Gentilly of the Athletic explains how Matthew Kachuk, a guy who gets under his opponent's skin and then silences them with huge goals, became both the hero and the anti-hero that Florida needed.

There's a few players in every generation that have that or app where it's like you hate playing against this guy, but you take them on your team 10 times out of 10 and Kachuk is number one on that list for the current crop.

Plus, why the man affectionately called the Rack King, kind of fits right in in Florida. From Wondery, I'm Anders Keltow. It's Wednesday, May 31st, and this is The Lead.

Sean Gentilly, welcome back to The Lead.

Anders, thanks for having me.

So, Sean, we're here today to look at how Matthew Kachuk has been probably the major catalyst for Florida's incredible playoff from this year.

I actually wanted to start the story about a year ago with that playoff loss to Tampa that we mentioned in the intro.

As you remember, Sean, what was the narrative around the Florida Panthers after that pretty spectacular playoff collapse?

The need to figure out how to play policies in hockey.

Because we saw them come out of nowhere in the regular season that led up to that, tear it up, right?

There was Firewagon hockey, offense everywhere. They led the league in points, so they won the presence trophy as the best regular season team.

And then they show up in the playoffs and get worked over by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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