Jordan Beck's first-pitch home run (7)
It Took Some Time, But Jets' Cole Perfetti's Shooting Luck Has Finally Arrived
Through the first five games of the opening round series against the St. Louis Blues, Cole Perfetti could not buy a goal, robbed by Jordan Binnington on multiple occasions, but as things tend to balance out, the Winnipeg Jets forward was finally rewarded for his hard work.
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Fox Sports
39 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Bruins name ex-forward Marco Sturm as head coach after missing playoffs for first time since 2016
Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Bruins hired Marco Sturm as coach on Thursday to help the Original Six franchise get back to the playoffs after missing them for the first time since 2016. The Bruins picked the 46-year-old German to replace interim coach Joe Sacco, who took over from Jim Montgomery in November and led the team to a 25-30-7 record — much of it after a trade deadline roster purge. Sturm, who spent the past three seasons as head coach of the AHL's Ontario Reign and coached Germany to a silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, is a former Boston player — just like Bruins president Cam Neely and general manager Don Sweeney. 'Boston has always held a special place in my heart, and I know how much this team means to the city and to our fans,' said Sturm, who was a Bruins left wing from 2005-10. "I've felt that passion as a player, and I can't wait to be behind the bench and feel it again. I'm excited to get to work and do everything I can to help this team succeed.' A three-time Olympian and first-round NHL draft pick who played most of his 14 seasons for the San Jose Sharks and Bruins, Sturm scored 242 goals with 245 assists in 938 career games and is No. 2 on the league's all-time scoring list for players born in Germany. As a coach, he worked as a Los Angeles Kings assistant guiding the Reign, the Kings' AHL affiliate, to a 119-80-11-6 record and three playoff appearances. 'His path — playing for multiple NHL teams, coaching internationally, and leading at both the AHL and NHL levels — has shaped a well-rounded coach who's earned this opportunity," Sweeney said. "As a former Bruin, he understands what this team means to the city and our fans. We're embracing a new direction with Marco behind the bench and are confident his energy, standards, and commitment to a competitive, hard-nosed brand of hockey reflect exactly what Bruins hockey should be.' Sacco, a Bruins assistant and former Colorado Avalanche head coach, replaced Montgomery 20 games into this season, but with the team unable to challenge for a playoff berth Sweeney traded away captain Brad Marchand and other veterans, and the Bruins stumbled to a 33-39-10 record overall, tied for the worst record in the Eastern Conference. Only three teams in the league were worse, and CEO Charlie Jacobs said after the season that the results were 'absolutely unacceptable' and apologized to the fans for the performance. 'We owe you a better team, and we aim to deliver a better team,' he said after the season. 'I share your disappointment and, frankly, embarrassment on how poorly things played out over the course of this season.' Sacco was a candidate for the permanent job. Others who reportedly received consideration were Washington Capitals assistant Mitch Love, former Chicago Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson and Bruins assistant Jay Leach. Montgomery, 55, was 120-41-23 in two-plus seasons in Boston. The Bruins finished with more than 100 points in each of his first two years — including a record-setting debut, when their 65 wins and 135 points were both the most in NHL history. But the team lost in the first round of the playoffs that season and advanced to only the second round last year. The struggles carried over into an 8-9-3 start this season before Montgomery was fired. He was hired five days later by the St. Louis Blues and was given a five-year contract; the Blues reached the playoffs and lost in the first round in seven games to the Winnipeg Jets. Boston never improved under Sacco. Heading into the trade deadline with a three-game losing streak that left them at 28-28, the Bruins traded Marchand — the only remaining member of their 2011 Stanley Cup championship team — along with forwards Justin Brazeau, Marc McLaughlin, Trent Frederic and Charlie Coyle and defenseman Brandon Carlo. And they left Sacco on the bench to ride it out. The depleted roster lost 10 straight games — the team lost only 12 in its record-setting 2022-23 season under Montgomery — and fell from possible playoff contender to the NHL draft lottery. Despite the disappointment, the Bruins signed Sweeney to a two-year contract extension, with Neely saying it would help to have stability in the front office during the coaching search. 'I am confident in the plan he has followed these past few months — and excited for what's to come for our team,' the former Bruins forward said of the former Bruins defenseman. 'The expectations in Boston have always been clear. It's about winning championships.' ___ AP NHL: recommended
New York Times
43 minutes ago
- New York Times
New York Rangers expected to hire David Quinn, Joe Sacco, Ty Hennes as assistant coaches
David Quinn, Joe Sacco and Ty Hennes are all expected to join the New York Rangers staff as assistant coaches under new coach Mike Sullivan, a league source told The Athletic. The Rangers were able to name their assistants when Boston (Marco Sturm) and Pittsburgh (Dan Muse) announced new head coaches this week, taking all three names out of consideration. Quinn and Sacco are both former NHL head coaches. Advertisement The Quinn hire marks a reunion. He was the Rangers' head coach from 2018-19 to 2020-21, compiling a 96-87-25 record. General manager Chris Drury fired Quinn shortly taking over as team president. The 58-year-old coached the San Jose Sharks for two seasons and was one of Sullivan's assistants this past season in Pittsburgh. He'll likely help run the power play in New York. Joe Sacco spent most of last season as Boston's interim head coach after the Bruins fired Jim Montgomery. Before taking over for Montgomery, he spent nine seasons as an assistant coach for the Bruins. He worked closely with the team's penalty kill in Boston and got within one win of getting his name on the Stanley Cup in 2019. He was also the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche for four seasons. Sullivan, Quinn and Sacco were college teammates at Boston University, though Quinn did not appear in any games the year all three overlapped, as he had been diagnosed with a rare disorder that prevented blood from clotting properly. He was still co-captain of the team. Hennes has been under Sullivan his whole NHL coaching career. He started with the Penguins as a skills and skating coach in 2018-19, then moved up to an assistant role in 2022. Sullivan had already retained goaltending coach Jeff Malcolm and skills coach Christian Hmura, both of whom were on Peter Laviolette's Rangers staff last season. Muse, one of Laviolette's assistants, got the Pittsburgh job, and Michael Peca, another Laviolette assistant, went to Chicago. Both Muse and Peca had the opportunity to interview to remain as Rangers assistants after Laviolette's firing, The Athletic previously reported. (Photo of Joe Sacco with the Bruins in 2024: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
New York Times
43 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why this Cup final is already different. Plus: The PWHL gets expansion right
Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic's hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox. Good morning to everyone except whoever keeps putting those multi-day gaps in the Stanley Cup Final schedule. The rematch between the Panthers and Oilers is finally underway — let's dig into it. Last night's Game 1 offered a few things we didn't get at all in last year's seven-game prequel. A Leon Draisaitl goal. Any Oilers goal at all in the opener. And most importantly: sudden-death overtime. Yes, we all got to ride our motorcycles out of the helicopter last night, something that hadn't happened in either of the conference finals. I won't keep you in suspense, here's how it ended: That's Draisaitl burying the winner on the power play off a pass from, who else, Connor McDavid. Yes, an overtime power play, which can only mean one thing: The dreaded puck-over-glass rule showed up, with Florida's Tomas Nosek making the mistake that ended up deciding the game. Draisaitl's goal was his second of the game, one year after he was held to just three assists in the final. Advertisement The loss hardly feels like a disaster for the Panthers; after all, we knew they weren't going to jump out to a 3-0 lead this time around (or did we?). They'll want to to respond tomorrow to avoid a 2-0 deficit, although even that wouldn't mean game over. For now, they can focus on the positive: They led for most of the game, they nearly stole a road win and they kept Connor McDavid from any highlight-reel miracles. For now, at least. (Speaking of highlights, did you know you can now get NHL highlights directly in The Athletic app? I would never lie to you about something this important.) Game 2 is tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV, MAX and Sportsnet. If it's as good as Game 1, we might be headed toward a classic. Are you tired of the Canada vs. USA discourse yet? I'm getting there. And I get it — we do this every time a Canadian team makes the final against an American opponent, and it's especially relevant given everything that's gone on this year, including the 4 Nations chaos. We got into the topic on yesterday's podcast. It's a thing. Your two favorite hockey newsletter writers even debated the whole 'Canada's Team' thing a few years ago, when the political climate was admittedly different. I won't relitigate it all here. But I do want to know what you think. So please take a minute to fill out my one-question survey, and I'll share the results in Monday's newsletter. Survey: Canada vs. USA — Who are you cheering for in the Stanley Cup Final, and why? (And if you're still trying to decide who to root for, I've got you covered with my annual rooting guide.) 🏒 We've got new coaches. Just this morning, the Bruins hired Marco Sturm as their new head coach. He's best known in Boston as Patrice Bergeron's former left wing, so he's instantly got more name recognition than the new head coach of the Penguins, Dan Muse. It's OK to admit you have no idea who that is. Josh Yohe brings you up to speed on a coach hired off the Rangers staff. Advertisement 🚨 Nikita Kucherov is your Ted Lindsay Award winner as most outstanding player, as voted on by his fellow players. Will he pair it with the Hart Trophy as MVP? We won't find out until a week from now, with a condensed one-hour version of the annual awards show hosted by that guy from that commercial from a decade ago. 📺 I don't want to burden you … But if you missed it, I teamed up with Other Sean for our annual exchange of the most annoying playoff ads of the year. 💲 The Avalanche have locked up deadline rental Brock Nelson, and he didn't come cheap. Dom Luszczyszyn's model sees trouble down the road. 🔥The start of the Stanley Cup Final means we get our annual 'State of the NHL' update from Gary Bettman and friends. This year's edition featured some news. This is how you do expansion 🔥 Pop quiz, hotshot: When was the last NHL expansion draft? There's a good chance you said 2021, or maybe 2017 if you're one of the increasing number of fans who occasionally forget the Kraken exist. And sure, according to the NHL, you'd be right. But were either of those events really drafts? I'd argue no, because a 'draft' implies more than one team taking turns with selections. The Kraken and Golden Knights both entered the league solo, meaning their expansion was less of a draft and more just a case of submitting a list. Which brings us to the PWHL, and what's happening over the next few days. Now this is an expansion draft. The league is adding two teams this summer, with Seattle and Vancouver joining the six existing clubs. The expansion rules were announced last month, and they'll be stunning to fans who are used to hearing NHL GMs cry about losing their ninth-best forward. PWHL teams can only protect three players on their initial lists, which has led to huge names like Hilary Knight and Sarah Nurse being made available. Vancouver and Seattle wasted little time utilizing their exclusive window to sign free agents — Knight signed in Seattle and Nurse in Vancouver — leading into Monday night's draft. Keep this link handy: We're tracking all the signings as they happen. Advertisement As always, Hailey Salvian has you covered, including with yesterday's mock draft with Shayna Goldman. We'll have more on how things have shaken out on Monday morning. 📺 I don't know … maybe basketball? I've heard some people like it. The NBA Finals start tonight (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), and yes, they do call it the 'finals,' plural. In hockey, it's the 'final,' which you know if you follow even one sportswriter on social media because we all become weird pedants about this stuff at this time of year. Can we not get the leadership from the two leagues together and reach a consensus on this? Final or finals — it doesn't matter, guys, just pick one and ride with it. Where was I? Oh right, basketball. We worked out a little exchange program between Red Light and our friends over at The Bounce, our NBA newsletter. As part of that, we asked Zach Harper what he found interesting about the Stanley Cup. His answer: They move around on knives! How does this not freak people out?! I also find it fascinating that we haven't had a Canadian team win a Stanley Cup title in over 30 years, and a team from Florida could block the Oilers two years in a row. Sorry Zach, the only correct answer for any basketball fan watching the NHL playoffs is: 'Wow, they shake hands after each series, what a magnanimous display of integrity that makes hockey players better than any other athletes. We bow before your sportsmanship and respect for tradition.' Although to be honest, the knives thing is a close second. You can read the full exchange over at The Pulse, because I am the *furiously googles 'good basketball player'* Nikola Jokić of newsletter cross-promotion. We believe that in hockey, as in life, there are no dumb questions. So if you have something you've always wondered about the sport, ask away by emailing us at redlight@ Why don't linesmen just drop the puck? Why do players get tossed out of faceoffs? I've been watching hockey for over 50 years and I've never heard anyone explain this. – Chris F. Advertisement The short answer: Because many linesmen didn't get enough attention as kids and are trying to make up for it now. The longer, and more accurate answer: There are a whole bunch of rules around how a faceoff is supposed to be done, taking up the better part of four full pages of the rulebook. Most of those are focused on the centers taking the draw, who have to have their shoulders square, their sticks down properly and their skates in the right place, and can't move until the puck does. Meanwhile, their teammates are supposed to stay out of the circle, and avoid contact. If the linesman feels like any of those rules are violated in a way that prevents a clean draw, he can kick the offending team's center out, to be replaced by a teammate. If the same team commits a second violation on the same draw, it's a minor penalty for delay of game. As most fans have noticed, some of these rules are enforced inconsistently. For example, the wingers infringe on the circle on just about every draw, and it's almost never called. Sometimes the linesman will issue a warning instead, at least for a first offense. You'll also get those frustrating plays where the linesman only decides the faceoff wasn't done properly after he drops the puck, and we have to start all over again. But in general, there's a ton of gamesmanship involved in every faceoff, and if a center gets tossed, it's because the linesman feels that he went too far. Believe it or not, the longest current drought for a regular-season division title is owned by none other than the Edmonton Oilers, who haven't finished first since 1987 despite appearing in five finals (and winning two) in that span. 📫 Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
