Forget Jude. ‘Hey Nuge': Fan borrows from the Oilers for song covers
Adam Zuniga, or Zu Sports on TikTok, sings an Oilers-inspired parody song at his home on May 1, 2025. (Evan Kenny / CTV News Edmonton)
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Calgary Herald
3 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Edmonton Oilers return to the scene of their greatest heartbreak
SUNRISE, FLA. — Is there a song you can't bear to listen to because it reminds you of someone from your past? Is there a restaurant that reminds you of a happier time with a person who later ripped your heart out and fed it to you? What about that one coach whom you never forgave for cutting you from the team back in junior high? Article content Imagine those scars, amplified. Article content We all watched the videos that came from the visitors' dressing room at Amerant Bank Arena after the Oilers' one-goal loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup final. There were tears. Anger. Promises that they'd be back to challenge for the Cup. It's telling that the videos of the Oilers in pain became the most-remembered images from Game 7, not of the Panthers skating around the ice with the Cup. Connor McDavid deciding to stay in the dressing room rather than skate back onto the ice to receive the Conn Smythe Trophy was a big deal, whether you sympathize with the player or not. Article content Article content Article content Defenceman Mattias Ekholm said it's fitting that the team is back in Florida in June. Article content 'It's obviously for the right reasons,' he said. 'It feels good.' Article content And he said players can't hide from the strong emotions that the Cup brings. 'That's what this is. That's what everybody feels. Everybody cares in there. This is what everybody wants, it's the ultimate.' Article content The Oilers played in Florida in late February, losing 4-3 as part of a four-game swoon that followed the Four Nations. But the trip to South Florida allowed the Oilers to exorcise a lot of the demons. They used that same dressing room. Article content It's no longer time to look back, said Ekholm. Article content 'And I think everybody is so focused, it doesn't matter what room we walk into,' said Ekholm. 'We just focus on the task at hand.' Article content Article content Coach Kris Knoblauch said that even if the Oilers win in 2025, it won't avenge the 2024 loss. While winning the Cup this season is the goal, it doesn't ease the pain of last year. So, you can't apply the famed Klingon proverb 'revenge is a dish best served cold' to this series, because it's not about that. Each year is taken in isolation, just as a successful team knows how to prepare for each game in isolation. As well, these aren't the exact same rosters from last year. Both teams added and subtracted. And, for some of the Oilers who left the team after 2024, they might never get back to the final. Article content Article content 'But I think everyone's focus is on this season. But, no matter what happens, I don't think that changes or helps anything. It's just that we're in a new stage of our season or path, and we're just focused on what we need to do.'
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Journeyman defenseman Nate Schmidt surprisingly leads Panthers in scoring in the Stanley Cup Final
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers' leading scorer through two games of the Stanley Cup Final is not Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov or Sam Reinhart. It's Nate Schmidt. Yes, the journeyman defenseman who was bought out last summer and is playing for just above the NHL veteran minimum. Schmidt has four points, three of them primary assists, against the Edmonton Oilers. 'He's been great,' teammate Gustav Forsling said Sunday. 'He's been playing unreal, making some huge, huge plays for us in key moments.' Schmidt is 33 and seven years removed from his first trip to the final, losing with Vegas in the Golden Knights' inaugural season to the Washington Capitals, who he broke into the league. He is one of the newcomers who were not part of Florida's title run last year and are looking to hoist the Cup for the first time. 'It's incredibly hard to get back to this stage, and this time I'm just trying to slow it down and enjoy it,' said Schmidt, who has gone from fresh faced with floppy hair to a shaved head and full beard. 'This is the pinnacle of our sport, and be able to be here at the end is special.' Schmidt said it's 'kind of reminding yourself that you have that game in you and you're just unlocking it.' He has reminded coach Paul Maurice of the player he was earlier in his career. 'He's getting up the ice, and he looks like he did when he was a kid when he first came into the league in Washington,' Maurice said. 'He was dynamic with the way he'd get up the ice. And then coaches beat that out of you and take the fun out of the game for you, but it looks like he's found his fun again.' Oilers changes At their practice in Sunrise, the Oilers unveiled defense pairs that were all different from the first two games. Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard were put together, Swedes Mattias Ekholm and John Klingberg, and Brett Kulak with Jake Walman. They quickly downplayed the impact, saying assistant Paul Coffey, a Hall of Fame defenseman as a player, has been changing things up like this all season. 'Our D corps all year long, it depends on sometimes what day of the week, we could be playing with someone new,' Nurse said. 'Even over the course of a game, you'll be playing with three or four different people, so there's a comfort level everyone has with whoever you're out there playing with.' Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did not skate, with healthy scratch Jeff Skinner taking his place on the top line. Coach Kris Knoblauch started to say he thinks Nugent-Hopkins will be in for Game 3 on Monday night before calling Edmonton's longest-tenured player a game-time decision. Ekblad is fine Florida's Aaron Ekblad took a puck off his left hand in the second overtime of Game 2 on a shot by Nurse and was writhing in pain on the bench. He missed one shift before returning, practiced Sunday and declared himself good to go. 'It's just a routine blocked shot,' Ekblad said. 'Stick your hand out for it and try and get it knocked down and get off the ice as quickly as possible, because when you get that stinger you can't really grip for a second. But all good now.' McDavid's assist Connor McDavid wowed in Game 2 when he deked around Barkov and Ekblad and passed the puck to Leon Draisaitl for a one-timer power-play goal that was still getting talked about two days later. 'That was pretty routine in Erie back in the day,' said Oilers winger Connor Brown, who was junior teammates there with McDavid more than a decade ago. 'To do what he's doing (on) the stage that he doing it at, we're lucky to have him.' Ekblad said McDavid having multiple options is the biggest challenge in defending the undisputed best hockey player in the world with otherworldly abilities. 'You're trying to block a shot, you're trying to block a low pass, a backdoor pass and a walk-on-water toe drag,' Ekblad said. 'So, yeah, McJesus.' McDavid blushed when asked about what it takes to make that kind of play, fumbling over words like opponents fumble to try to contain him before coming up with, 'A lot goes into that.' Draisaitl, sitting beside him, chimed in: 'You can't learn that. Let me answer it for you. I'll answer it for him.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and
Edmonton Journal
3 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Oilers return to the scene of their greatest heartbreak
Article content And, now, after splitting the first two games of the 2025 Cup final at Rogers Place, the Oilers are back in Sunrise, Fla. Back in the place where they shed their tears. Is there an emotional hangover? Defenceman Mattias Ekholm said it's fitting that the team is back in Florida in June. 'It's obviously for the right reasons,' he said. 'It feels good.' And he said players can't hide from the strong emotions that the Cup brings. 'That's what this is. That's what everybody feels. Everybody cares in there. This is what everybody wants, it's the ultimate.' The Oilers played in Florida in late February, losing 4-3 as part of a four-game swoon that followed the Four Nations. But the trip to South Florida allowed the Oilers to exorcise a lot of the demons. They used that same dressing room. It's no longer time to look back, said Ekholm. 'And I think everybody is so focused, it doesn't matter what room we walk into,' said Ekholm. 'We just focus on the task at hand.'
