Ducks' Joel Quenneville Releases Statement After Coaching Announcement
The Anaheim Ducks announced former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville as the new head coach of the team. Anaheim had gone through a long search, but landed on Quenneville to lead them forward.
This was a controversial hiring by the Ducks, with many fans disagreeing with the decision. Quenneville was part of the 2010 scandal with the Blackhawks that covered up a sexual assault claim from a former player about a former video coach.
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The veteran head coach was away from the game for a few years, but was reinstated by the NHL last summer. Other teams inquired about Quenneville, but the Ducks were the team to take the chance on him.
During the introductory press conference, Quenneville gave a statement about the entire situation.
"It's a new day and I'm going to learn more about myself and learn how to handle situations we went through," Quenneville said Thursday. "What survivors have gone through.
"Been a long time since I went to an NHL game, but the first game I went to in almost four years was Anaheim played in Tampa Bay (on Jan. 14). I hadn't seen Tampa live in a long time, but I certainly hadn't seen much of Anaheim, and I watched the game and I was really impressed at the pace of the game and the skill and the speed that Anaheim had, and they're only kids. It was a great game to watch. They lost in overtime, but I was surprised and I was impressed."
Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville during the first period against the New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference qualifications at Scotiabank Arena. John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
When Quenneville does step foot on the bench next season, it will be his first time since Oct. 2021. The former multi-time Stanley Cup-winning coach has a lot of work to do, both on and off the ice.
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Some fans may never accept him being back in the NHL, but the Ducks believe he deserves the chance. Quenneville will now be tasked with helping a young team try to get back to the postseason.
Related: Fans React to Ducks Controversial Hire of Joel Quenneville
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New York Times
23 minutes ago
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Brad Marchand in '25 and Ray Bourque in '01: A breakdown of ex-Bruins and the Stanley Cup
Brad Marchand's quest to win the Stanley Cup as a member of the Florida Panthers has inspired a nostalgia-fueled discussion about something that happened in 2001 with his old team, the Boston Bruins. But even if you're not a Bruins fan, even if you hate the Bruins, you may know what I'm talking about. Advertisement It goes something like this: Marchand is an aging ex-Bruin playing for the Panthers in the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, which is not unlike what happened nearly a quarter of a century ago when the great Raymond Bourque was an aging ex-Bruin playing for the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final. There are, of course, major differences between what Marchand is trying to accomplish versus what Bourque accomplished in the spring of 2001, and I'll get to those differences in a moment. But I need to get this out of the way first: It's a good thing whenever we can revisit June 13, 2001, which was the day Ray Bourque of the newly crowned Avalanche stepped out to a balcony at Boston's City Hall Plaza to be cheered by the thousands of Bruins fans who turned out for the occasion. How Bourque came to be holding the Stanley Cup over his head at City Hall Plaza is a story with all kinds of twists and turns, not to mention a years-later rollout of long-simmering grievances. Rather than rehash it all here, I invite you to read the oral history I wrote for The Athletic in 2021 commemorating the 20th anniversary of the event. I interviewed some 15 people back then, including Bourque and former Bruins president Harry Sinden, and everybody was remarkably candid and anecdotal. In short, the Bruins did Bourque a solid on March 6, 2000, when they traded the legendary defenseman to the Avalanche. The Bruins were rebuilding and Bourque had yet to win a Cup, and the trade was designed to be win-win for everybody. The Avalanche didn't make it to the Cup final that year, but they won it all a year later, toppling the New Jersey Devils. In an instant-classic hockey moment, Avalanche captain Joe Sakic was handed the Stanley Cup by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and immediately handed it off to Bourque, lest there be any doubt as to the identity of the most emotional man in the building. Advertisement Six days later, there stood Bourque at City Hall Plaza. It was an idea hatched by the office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, after which it bounced to Bourque's agent, Steve Freyer, and then to Bourque himself. A call was placed to Sinden, who was fishing in Maine. He wasn't one bit happy about this City Hall Plaza idea. Again, read the original piece. But know this: While there may have been some hard feelings about the event, there were no villains. Everybody shook hands and went on with their lives. And I'll let you in on a secret: Bourque originally didn't want to be interviewed for the story but then said he'd take part only if Sinden agreed to be interviewed. To my surprise — and, I guess, to Bourque's surprise — Sinden did the interview. And away we went. I'm forever grateful to both men. So there. Thanks for indulging me as I invite you to read a story that was written at a time when we were all just beginning to dust ourselves off from the pandemic. (In fact, every interview I did was over the phone.) Now, back to Marchand. How is his pursuit of the Stanley Cup different from Bourque's 2001 vision quest with the Avalanche? Let us count the ways: • As a member of the 2010-11 Bruins, Marchand has already played on a Stanley Cup winner. The trade that sent him to Florida was not a goodwill gesture by Bruins GM Don Sweeney. The Bruins had tried to work out a contract extension; failing that, they dealt him to the Panthers, who were loading up for another Cup run. • Whereas it was not surprising when the 40-year-old Bourque retired after winning the Cup, Marchand has no plans to go gently into that good night. (Not that he's ever gone gently anywhere.) Marchand will be a free agent after this Cup final has ended, and as The Athletic's Chris Johnston points out, 'To say that the 37-year-old has boosted his market value this postseason is an understatement.' • Is Marchand a Hall of Famer? Well, yes, says me. But it's a discussion worth having. In fact, if you google 'Brad Marchand' and 'Hall of Fame,' you'll be directed to dozens of these very discussions. Bourque, on the other hand, is hockey royalty. In The Athletic's countdown of the top 99 players in modern NHL history, he came in at No. 10. Advertisement • Marchand has baggage. Bourque arrives for this discussion without even a carry-on. 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I suppose one could go all the way back to the days when the Avalanche were doing business as the Quebec Nordiques and get re-upset over Boston-born, future NHL referee Paul Stewart running up 27 penalty minutes (including an epic fight with Stan Jonathan) in Quebec's 7-4 loss to the Bruins on Nov. 22, 1979, at the Old Garden, but that's next-level grudge-holding. The Nordiques also knocked the Bruins out of the playoffs in 1982, but c'mon. • For Bourque to bring the Cup to City Hall of Plaza in 2001 made it possible for fans everywhere else to crow that things were so bad in Boston that their fans had been reduced to celebrating another city's championship. At the time, no Boston team had won a championship since the 1985-86 Celtics, nor had any Boston team played so much as a postseason game in nearly two years. Marchand is welcome to bring the Stanley Cup to Boston should the Panthers recover from their Game 1 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers and win it all, but he shouldn't expect Mayor Michelle Wu to order up a party. The Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins have combined to win 13 championships since the day Bourque held the Stanley Cup over his head.
New York Times
23 minutes ago
- New York Times
Sami Kapanen on son Kasperi's Oilers surge and the ‘opportunity of a lifetime' to grow a family legacy
EDMONTON — Watching Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in the wee hours of the morning from his home in Finland, Sami Kapanen could hardly believe his eyes. He'd seen that stat line before. He'd seen that result before. It was exactly 23 years to the day, in fact, since the only other time someone carrying Finland's most famous hockey family's name had the chance to get it engraved in the rounded silver edges of the Cup. Advertisement 'Scary,' Sami told The Athletic on Thursday. 'It's scary how much is the same.' Consider that he was a 28-year-old forward playing for the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2002 Cup Final against the Detroit Red Wings. That series began on June 4. He had a big hand in the Hurricanes' victory at Joe Louis Arena to open the best-of-seven. 'Game 1, we won in overtime,' he recalled. 'I had two assists.' On Wednesday, he watched from afar as his son Kasperi, a 28-year-old forward with the Edmonton Oilers, picked up two assists in an uplifting overtime victory over the Florida Panthers. History sometimes rhymes. The respective stat lines from their Stanley Cup debuts are eerily similar: Sami Kapanen, June 4, 2002: Two assists, two shots, 23 shifts, 21:22 ice time Kasperi Kapanen, June 4, 2025: Two assists, two shots, 26 shifts, 20:28 ice time Of course, both father and son hope the similarities end there. Sami's Hurricanes dropped the next four games to Detroit in 2002, and he still carries regrets about the experience. He picked up a gruesome injury that season when two six-inch pieces of fiberglass from a broken stick embedded in his palm just before the Olympic break. He never got his game on track during the playoffs that followed, scoring just once in 23 games following a 27-goal regular season. 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He plans to travel to Edmonton to watch Game 5 of this series from the stands at Rogers Place and will continue pulling all-nighters from Finland to watch the other games on TV in the meantime. 'I'm so excited,' Sami said. 'I can see it. His game is coming. It's getting better and better. There's so many things that are kind of clicking right now. 'It's the opportunity of a lifetime and that's the time that you want to perform.' (Top photos of Sami and Kasperi Kapanen: Elsa and Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
New York Times
23 minutes ago
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‘I live and breathe for the Florida Panthers': Pending UFA Aaron Ekblad hopes to re-sign
EDMONTON — Aaron Ekblad was born in 1996 — the same year the Florida Panthers won three playoff rounds. In 2022, the Panthers finally won their first playoff round since — Ekblad's eighth with the Panthers. It feels like the once-No. 1 pick in the draft has played forever. At 29, this is already Ekblad's 11th and what he sure hopes isn't his final season with Florida. Advertisement He has seen a lot of bad in South Florida. And he has lately seen a ton of good as the big, rugged, hard-shooting defenseman plays in his third consecutive Stanley Cup Final and for his second Stanley Cup. With a maximum of six games left in his season after the Edmonton Oilers took a 1-0 series lead Wednesday night with a 4-3 overtime win, Ekblad admits he's trying not to think this could be the end of his line. 'It'll have to be after the season,' the pending free agent said when asked if he worries that this could be it. 'Obviously a thought one way or another has obviously come into my mind. But at the end of the day, we'll see the way it plays out. Everybody knows where I stand.' If you don't, let him tell you when I asked him earlier this week how stressful this situation has become. 'I live and breathe for the Florida Panthers. I bleed for the Florida Panthers,' he said. 'I've given my body and everything to this team, and I want to keep doing it … forever, for as long as they'll let me come to the rink.' Aaron Ekblad has been a part of the long journey to another #StanleyCup Final.@EJHradek_NHL talks with @FlaPanthers former first-overall pick about the road back to the Finals. #TimeToHunt — NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) June 3, 2025 Some fans can be cynical when a millionaire athlete talks about giving his body to a franchise. But if you don't think so, just look at this Panthers' core's first run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023. The difference between them now and then is health. When coach Paul Maurice read off the Florida injuries in his postgame news conference when his team was eliminated in Las Vegas two years ago, the list was endless — especially Ekblad's. He broke his foot in the Boston first-round series, yet didn't miss a game. He tore his oblique in the Carolina third-round series yet didn't miss a game then or in the Stanley Cup Final. Advertisement What's more, 'My shoulder kept coming out three or four times in the playoffs. I feel as good as I've ever felt now. Two years ago was awful. Could barely get out of bed.' After the final round, Ekblad recalled that Brandon Montour 'got surgery on a Friday and I was on a Monday.' 'Both shoulders,' Ekblad said. But, as Ekblad quickly noted, everybody goes through stuff like this when you're a professional hockey player and it's the price of being part of an organization turning into a perennial contender. Ekblad has been a mainstay in the Panthers' lineup since 2014. This year has been a roller coaster of a season. He produced early and finished with 33 points in 56 games. He got hurt in January. And then says he was blindsided when he tested positive late in the season for a banned performance-enhancing substance that he says was unknowingly in something he was taking to help him recover from injuries. He was suspended for the final 18 games of the regular season and the first two games of the playoffs. He was not allowed inside the Panthers' facilities whenever the team was there. He says he drew up his own on-ice programs and skated with buddies like former Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle. And he'd watch defense partner Gustav Forsling's every move during games. 'I'd see something Forzy would do and I tried to mimic it in practice the next day,' he said. 'It was a good lesson in being my own coach for a little bit.' He blamed himself for not checking with the Panthers' docs and trainers to ensure he could take whatever it was he was taking. He said the hardest lesson was his integrity being called into question: 'There's so many ways you look at it — respect and integrity and character, family, name, my teammates, fans.' 'It's been a bit of a roller coaster for myself, and I'm happy to be in this situation now,' he said before hinting at free agency again. 'You're playing for your life, right, in a sense. So it's been a fun experience playing in a contract year, and I'm happy with the way things have gone.' Advertisement For Ekblad, it's gratifying that he has seen this organization go from one spectrum to the other. And he credits everybody but himself. 'We've always had Sasha Barkov, so there's always hope,' he said. 'Especially in those down years, we always had Barky leading the way. It was tough, right? It was tough times, and it was never easy. But we were never that far out of it, but we couldn't get that push. And the way that the organization's turned things around, from top to bottom, GM, ownership, buying in and giving us the opportunities and giving us this beautiful (practice) rink (in Ft. Lauderdale) and all the things that we need to succeed, everyone has really done a fantastic job all the way through.' Ekblad has had a strong postseason (11 points in 14 games) alongside Forsling, but Game 1 didn't go as planned. Florida's top defense pair, in nearly 24 minutes, was on the ice for 1.79 expected goals against at five-on-five, two goals against, 29 shot attempts against, 16 shots on goal against and a minus-1.43 expected goals differential. He had several run-ins with Evander Kane starting early in the game. Kane hammered Ekblad behind the Florida net#LetsGoOilers | #TimeToHunt — Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) June 5, 2025 But the franchise's all-time leader in virtually every category for defensemen is hungry for another Stanley Cup. 'I truly believe that after you win one, you want it that much more,' he said. 'And that's the kind of attitude that I think that all the returning players have. The amount of fun and the excitement that you get from it is incredible, and it makes you want it again that much more. So that's where I pull my energy from.' And then he'll worry about the future. His eight-year, $60 million contract is expiring. The Panthers, with only $19 million in cap space, have a number of free agents to sort through, including Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand. At 29, he'd be coveted by several teams, including Utah and Dallas, in need of solid right-shot defensemen. Advertisement 'I've given everything I can and will continue to give everything that I can to this team,' Ekblad said. 'All the way from the very, very top, they've done such a great job of taking care of us, making Florida such a destination franchise, a place where guys want to come. And it starts with a guy like Sasha Barkov. It's easy to want to play with Aleksander Barkov. It's easy to want to come play with (Sergei Bobrovsky and Matthew Tkachuk). 'And there's been some tough decisions made by management along the way, and all for the betterment of the team.' He just hopes he's not the next tough decision because, as the Panthers lifer said, he hopes to stay 'forever.'
