Todd: Auston Matthews-Jean Béliveau comparison a bridge (way) too far
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But when Auston Matthews actually scored a goal in Game 6 of the Leafs-Panthers series (wow!) MacLean reached deep into that vat of tapioca pudding that passes for a brain … And compared Captain Peaheart with Jean Béliveau.
Yes, that Jean Béliveau. The man who won 10 Stanley Cups as a player and seven as an executive. Who won 24 playoff series in an era when teams played at most two or three series a year. Whose goals-per-game production actually went up in the playoffs, where the Leafs captain's goal production falls off a cliff this time of year.
Béliveau was a prince among men. A man who lived most of his adult life in the same modest home in Longueuil, who answered every fan letter he ever received and signed every autograph he was asked to sign.
Béliveau was, and is, the most respected individual in the history of the game. As an alleged student of hockey, MacLean ought to know that much.
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Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Oilers vs. Panthers: Brad Marchand makes another memory with double OT winner for Florida in Game 2 of Stanley Cup final
Brad Marchand: Florida Panthers Stanley Cup finals hero. Putting those words together would have sounded crazy until March when the lifelong Bruin allowed himself to be traded to one of Boston's biggest playoff and divisional rivals. Now Marchand – the in-your-face player with an ability to score big goals — is a big reason the Panthers head home to Florida with a split in the first two games of the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton. Marchand scored shorthanded on a breakaway in the third period and scored in the second overtime – also on a breakaway – as the Panthers, espousing a bend-but-don't-break brand of hockey, got back in the final with a 5-4 overtime win over the Oilers on Friday night. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'These are the opportunities you dream of as a kid, and the moments you wish you could hold on to forever,' Marchand told Sportsnet. 'These are memories that you have the rest your life, not just for yourself, but for your family. We're all enjoying the journey right now.' BRAD MARCHAND PLAYS HERO FOR THE CATS 🐀 The Panthers even the #StanleyCup Final on Marchand's Subway Canada OT winner 🚨 — Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 7, 2025 Marchand is 37, 14 years removed from a Stanley Cup he won as a Bruin 2011. He has 10 goals in his career in Stanley Cup final series, the most among active players. Right there with him is Edmonton's Corey Perry, 40, a Cup-winner in 2007. He has nine goals all-time in the Stanley Cup finals, including his goal in the last minute that forced overtime to give Edmonton a chance at taking a stranglehold on the series. 'They're a good team,' said Perry. 'They're going to push us to the max. We're going to push them to the max.' Marchand has been buddy-buddy this spring with players he once went to war against. They love each other now. 'He's really skilled, hard on pucks, wants the puck,' said Florida's Matthew Tkachuk. 'His anticipation, just being in the right spots, his hockey sense, it's unbelievable. You saw it tonight. Two breakaway goals. He's sees the play and he's gone. I saw it a ton when he was in Boston. Way better seeing it now. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'Unreal player. Unreal competitor. If you think about it, he's scored two of our biggest goals in the playoffs so far.' Sam Bennett, Seth Jones, Dmitri Kulikov and also scored for Florida. Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane also scored for Edmonton. 'It was exciting,' said Marchand. 'It's a very intense series. They compete extremely hard. They gave a good push. I love our resilience. We didn't get down. I really liked our game.' History says It's the 30th time a best-of-seven final has been tied at a game apiece. And the Panthers are 9-3 as visitors this post-season, a franchise record for road wins in one playoff year. The Oilers, though, have history on their side. Even though the Panthers now have home-ice advantage, teams that open at home have won 20 of the 30 finals that started 1-1. The first two games haven't disappointed in this Stanley Cup final rematch and fans can probably expect much of the same in Game 3 Monday in Florida. 'Every game is tight at this time of year,' said Draisaitl. 'Two really good teams. It's never going to be easy. Regroup and get ready for Game 3.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Bennett vs. Skinner It was a first period for the ages, with something for everyone — from goals to fisticuffs to big hits and big plays. Bennett did what he does best: scoring while also getting under Skinner's skin. Bennett opened the scoring with his playoff-leading 13th goal, just 2:07 into the game. Canada 'Forget about the past': Fans weigh in on criticism of Wayne Gretzky over Trump ties EDMONTON - It wasn't long ago that some Canadians were up in arms about hockey legend Wayne … The Oilers, however, haven't been letting Florida hold a lead for long, with Kane and Bouchard scoring 1:40 apart to make it 2-1 Edmonton. Jones tied it, taking a pass Eetu Luostarinen while Edmonton's defensive zone play broke down. The big moment of the period was still to come. Bennett fell into Skinner in the first game and got credit for a goal. But he didn't get away with it in Game 2 after brushing Mattias Ekholm and falling into the goalie, who seemed to be in pain with a twisted leg. Skinner would eventually get up, but not before Matthew Tkachuk and Trent Frederic got into it. Bennett got the extra two minutes, joined by Tkachuk in the box. Tkachuk patted Bennett on the shoulder, as if to say: good job falling on the goalie. On the ensuing power play, Connor McDavid made them pay. He dipsied around Selke winner Aleksander Barkov, doodled past Aaron Ekblad and passed the puck past Anton Lundell to a waiting Draisaitl for a 3-2 Edmonton lead. 'Only one player in the world can make that play,' said Draisaitl. 'We've definitely developed a sense of understanding what the other one's thinking in any given moment. Leon and I have a great understanding of each other,' said McDavid. 'Sometimes all it takes is a look.' Panthers pounce Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he wasn't going to change his lineup, or ask players to do anything differently in Game 2, because he thought they played a decent Game 1 in defeat. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW 'We do think there's a few things that we can do a little bit better,' he said before the game. Nhl Analysis Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers: Everything you need to know about the Stanley Cup final From Connor McDavid and Brad Marchand being X-factors all the way to the coaching matchup, One of those things was forechecking. And they were much better in the second period, playing more of a Panthers style. They were rewarded with two goals and a 15-8 shots advantage. The Oilers had no answer for Florida's physicality as the Panthers won puck battle after puck battle. Finally, Kulikov scored from the point, off Bouchard and past Skinner to tie the game. The referees were busy in the first period with 11 minor penalties called; less so in the second, with three. One was against Florida's Niko Mikkola, but even that didn't give the Oilers relief. Marchand managed a short-handed breakaway and gave Florida a 4-3 lead. It was Marchand's second career short-hander in a Cup final, exactly 14 years after the first against the Vancouver Canucks. Cup notables Before Marchand, defenceman Larry Robinson (Games 1 and 2 in 1989) was the only player 37 or older to score in each of the first two games of a Cup final. Bennett's game-opening goal was his 12th on the road in these playoffs, an NHL record. His five-game road goal streak is a Panthers best, breaking his own mark.
Winnipeg Free Press
6 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Southern hockey surge: NHL teams thrive in non-traditional markets, from Texas to Florida
Popeye Jones was an NBA rookie with the Mavericks the same season that Dallas debuted its new NHL team, and he decided to go to a Stars game after meeting future Hall of Fame player Mike Modano. 'I couldn't figure out hockey. They were jumping over and off the ice … I'm like, 'what's going on with this sport?'' Jones said. 'The puck flew up, I remember it hit somebody in the nose, blood was all over the ice and they kept playing.' Back during that 1993-94 season, before he became a hockey dad, the 6-foot-8 Tennessee native who had grown up playing basketball, football and baseball was like many people in the South: He knew nothing about hockey even as the NHL was making a push into non-traditional markets. Those days are long gone. NHL teams in the South are playing for and winning the Stanley Cup in packed arenas and there is steady growth when it comes to youth participation. Football may still be king in many Sun Belt locales, but hockey has been welcomed from Las Vegas to Texas to Nashville to North Carolina — and certainly in Florida. Jones has two sons who are now NHL players. Seth Jones, a defenseman for the Florida Panthers, is playing in the Stanley Cup Final after the 12-season veteran, the fourth overall pick by Nashville in the 2013 draft, was traded from Chicago to the defending champions in March. Caleb Jones played for the Los Angeles Kings, his fourth team the past seven years. The expansion Panthers came into the league with Anaheim in 1993-94, at the same time the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators were expansion teams the previous season, and the Hartford Whalers moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes in 1997. Shane Willis remembers playing with the Hurricanes following the NHL's arrival in North Carolina — a process featuring a two-year transition to Greensboro before moving to Raleigh — and sometimes noticing a sparse home crowd during warmups. 'I'm like, 'Is anybody coming?'' said Willis, now Carolina's manager of youth and amateur hockey after five seasons as an NHL player. That isn't the case now, with Carolina having won a Stanley Cup in 2006 and currently on a seven-year run of winning at least one postseason series, including this year's run to the East final. Southern success This is the sixth season in a row a team from Florida has reached the Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers are there for the third year in a row, this time in a rematch against Edmonton. Tampa Bay also made it to the final three straight seasons, winning the Cup the first two. The Lightning's run began by beating Dallas in 2020 in what is still the the 'southernmost' Stanley Cup Final — except that entire postseason was played in Canada after the regular season was shortened because of the pandemic. Dallas made its third West final in a row this year, coming up short of another Cup chance. But they were the first Sun Belt team to hoist the Stanley Cup in 1999, followed by Tampa Bay in 2004. Every game in the conference finals in 2023 was played in the Sun Belt, a first. The Panthers beat Carolina in the East like they did this year, and Dallas lost to Vegas in the West. Popeye, Mo and Sakic Popeye Jones met Modano after getting invited to do an appearance during a Dallas Cowboys game. 'Not being a hockey fan, I really didn't know who he was and he didn't who I was. But we just struck up a conversation and started talking,' Jones said. 'Just general talk about sports and whatever, and he was such a nice guy and I enjoyed sitting there and talking to him.' That helped Jones become a Stars fan. They both played home games at the since-demolished Reunion Arena before Jones was traded to Toronto and later Boston, homes of two of the NHL's Original Six teams. His only season playing in Denver was 1999-2000, when the Avalanche lost to the Stars in consecutive West finals before winning the Cup in 2001. It was there that he got to know Avs star Joe Sakic, another future Hall of Fame hockey player and now the team's president of hockey operations. Jones' oldest son, Justin, came home from school one day in the Denver area and said he wanted to play hockey, which had a significant influence on Seth, who was 5 or 6 at the time. With his sons interested in playing an unfamiliar sport , Jones sought advice from Sakic, who said the boys needed to take skating lessons. Seth Jones started playing hockey in Colorado, but was born in Texas and was on some Stars-affiliated youth teams after his dad later returned to the Mavericks. 'When I was there, you could see more and more kids starting to play in Texas,' the 30-year-old Panthers defenseman said. 'And then really the past eight to 10 years, you see kids actually moving from the northern cities down to Texas because the hockey has really grown. Where before, all the good kids out of the southern cities would move up north to Chicago and Michigan and New York and these places.' More and more players The number of players registered with USA Hockey has grown significantly in Southern states over the past 20 seasons. USA Hockey said 4,793 players registered in North Carolina for the 2005-06 season, with roughly 2,400 of those being 18 or younger. That overall number of players jumped 19.5% (to 5,728) for the season following their 2006 Cup run. By the 2024-25 season, the state had 8,698 players (up 81.5% from 2005-06) with 5,608 being 18 or younger (up 135.5%), though Willis noted the actual number is likely higher since not all players register with USA Hockey. The total number of registrations have increased even more in Florida and Texas over the past two decades. In Florida, the total number of players has gone from 9,363 in 2005-06 to 22,888 (a 144.5% increase), with the number in the 18 or younger age groups nearly doubling to 10,277. Texas went from 7,017 to 17,346 total registrations (147.2%) in that same span, with those 18 and under going from 5,457 to 7,199 (31.9%). Pete DeBoer, the Stars coach the past three seasons, had his first NHL head coaching job with Florida from 2008-11. He recalls the Lightning and Panthers then playing before sparse crowds with questions about whether those teams would even stay in those markets. 'To see where they're at now is really impressive,' DeBoer said before the team fired him this past week. 'Dallas for me is a perfect example of coming into a place and, you know, getting a foothold at the grassroots level, and that the amount of rinks, ice surfaces and facilities and kids playing minor hockey here in Dallas is way bigger than I ever anticipated.' Much of that came as a result of the 1999 Stanley Cup for the Stars. 'They won, they captured the city's attention and all this stuff got done. Rinks got built,' DeBoer said. 'I think Florida didn't get that done early, but is doing it now and they're going to reap the benefits of that. I think when you get a team that wins and it's in a non-traditional market, I think the benefits roll out for decades.' Introducing the game For the Hurricanes, early outreach included going to area schools and essentially running PE classes as an introduction to the sport. The team, aided by grant money from the NHL, has more recently purchased equipment such as balls, sticks and Hurricanes-logo apparel to donate to more than 100 schools. The team this year partnered with Raleigh suburb Apex to open two public street hockey rinks. Carolina, Dallas and Florida all have tie-ins to to the 'Learn to Play' umbrella program created by the NHL and NHL Players' Association to introduce boys and girls, and even adults, to the sport. Those programs include variations of providing hockey equipment and instruction, and on-ice workouts at multiple rinks in their areas. 'What you have to do is not only introduce the game of hockey to people, you have to introduce your brand. You have to make both things very attractive to parents to want to get involved,' Willis said. 'I see so many parents now, they come to games and we talk about it: if you can create a hockey player, whether it's street hockey or ice hockey, you're creating three fans. Because that kid is going to come to a game with Dad, Dad and Mom, maybe a sibling. So then you're in the range of three to four fans you're creating.' Popeye Jones knows how that can go, recalling a time when Seth Jones was 11 or 12 and the family wanted him to find something else to do in the summertime. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'A kid called and said hey they had some ice, you want to come and, you know, play some pickup hockey. At first I didn't want him to, but I saw he was moping around the house,' the elder Jones said. 'I told him to get his stuff. I'll never forget it, he got this bag together so fast and got in that car and I was driving him to the rink and I looked at him and I saw this big grin and I said, 'Well, I guess I got a hockey player.'' ___ AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard, Pat Graham and Tim Reynolds contributed to this report. ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
Toronto Star
7 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Oilers vs. Panthers: Florida's Brad Marchand steals Game 2 of Stanley Cup final in double overtime
The Florida Panthers never panic. The defending champions, playing a bend-but-don't-break brand of hockey, got back into the Stanley Cup final with a 5-4 double-overtime win in Game 2 on Friday night. Brad Marchand's second goal of the game earned the Panthers a split at Edmonton's Rogers Place. The first two games didn't disappoint in this final rematch. BRAD MARCHAND PLAYS HERO FOR THE CATS 🐀 The Panthers even the #StanleyCup Final on Marchand's Subway Canada OT winner 🚨 — Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 7, 2025 Once Marchand scored short-handed in the second period for a 4-3 Florida lead, the focus in the third was going to be goaltending. There had been no shortage of chances all game, with both Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky and Edmonton's Stuart Skinner called upon to make big saves. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Bobrovsky's stop on a Leon Draisaitl one-timer with 57 seconds left might have been a game-saver, until Corey Perry scored with 18 seconds to go and the Edmonton net empty to force overtime. Sam Bennett, Seth Jones and Dmitri Kulikov also scored for Florida. Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Evander Kane struck for Edmonton before Perry's marker. It's the 30th time a best-of-seven final has been tied at a game apiece. And the Panthers are 9-3 as visitors this post-season, a franchise record for road wins in one playoff year. The Oilers, though, have history on their side. Even though the Panthers now have home-ice advantage, teams that open at home have won 20 of the 30 finals that started 1-1. Bennett vs. Skinner It was a first period for the ages, with something for everyone — from goals to fisticuffs to big hits and big plays. Bennett did what he does best: scoring while also getting under Skinner's skin. Bennett opened the scoring with his playoff-leading 13th goal, just 2:07 into the game. Canada 'Forget about the past': Fans weigh in on criticism of Wayne Gretzky over Trump ties EDMONTON - It wasn't long ago that some Canadians were up in arms about hockey legend Wayne … The Oilers, however, haven't been letting Florida hold a lead for long, with Kane and Bouchard scoring 1:40 apart to make it 2-1 Edmonton. Jones tied it, taking a pass Eetu Luostarinen while Edmonton's defensive zone play broke down. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW The big moment of the period was still to come. Bennett fell into Skinner in the first game and got credit for a goal. But he didn't get away with it in Game 2 after brushing Mattias Ekholm and falling into the goalie, who seemed to be in pain with a twisted leg. Skinner would eventually get up, but not before Matthew Tkachuk and Trent Frederic got into it. Bennett got the extra two minutes, joined by Tkachuk in the box. Tkachuk patted Bennett on the shoulder, as if to say: good job falling on the goalie. On the ensuing power play, Connor McDavid made them pay. He dipsied around Selke winner Aleksander Barkov, doodled past Aaron Ekblad and passed the puck past Anton Lundell to a waiting Draisaitl for a 3-2 Edmonton lead. As McDavid said before the game: 'We've definitely developed a sense of understanding what the other one's thinking in any given moment. Leon and I have a great understanding of each other. Sometimes all it takes is a look.' Panthers pounce Panthers coach Paul Maurice said he wasn't going to change his lineup, or ask players to do anything differently in Game 2, because he thought they played a decent Game 1 in defeat. 'We do think there's a few things that we can do a little bit better,' he said before the game. Nhl Analysis Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers: Everything you need to know about the Stanley Cup final From Connor McDavid and Brad Marchand being X-factors all the way to the coaching matchup, One of those things was forechecking. And they were much better in the second period, playing more of a Panthers style. They were rewarded with two goals and a 15-8 shots advantage. The Oilers had no answer for Florida's physicality as the Panthers won puck battle after puck battle. Finally, Kulikov scored from the point, off Bouchard and past Skinner to tie the game. The referees were busy in the first period with 11 minor penalties called; less so in the second, with three. One was against Florida's Niko Mikkola, but even that didn't give the Oilers relief. Marchand managed a short-handed breakaway and gave Florida a 4-3 lead. It was Marchand's second career short-hander in a Cup final, exactly 14 years after the first against the Vancouver Canucks. Cup notables Before Marchand, defenceman Larry Robinson (Games 1 and 2 in 1989) was the only player 37 or older to score in each of the first two games of a Cup final. Bennett's game-opening goal was his 12th on the road in these playoffs, an NHL record. His five-game road goal streak is a Panthers best, breaking his own mark.
