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SIMMONS SAYS: At last, a Stanley Cup final that is truly worth watching

SIMMONS SAYS: At last, a Stanley Cup final that is truly worth watching

The truth about most Stanley Cup finals: They are easily forgettable.
One series drifts into the next championship round, one year into the next, huge for the franchise that wins them, but too often the best-of-seven gets lost over time.
The Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers are changing all of that in back-to-back Stanley Cup seasons. They are writing a history all their own. They are taking excitement to a new level — with two overtime games to begin this Cup final after a seven-game series a year ago that was decided by just one goal.
To watch the brilliance of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl now is reminiscent of personal hockey genius of years gone by. This is Mark Messier of 1994. This is Mario Lemieux of 1991 and '92. This is Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier combining over five years as no one had before them. This is Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin with three different Pittsburgh teams.
This is magnificent individual hockey theatre.
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The Panthers are the ultimate in team champions. They don't have an all-time great in their lineup. They don't have a superstar for the ages. They have a style they play. They're deep down the middle, resolute and committed, mean, rough and ready.
It is nine Stanley Cup games now between Florida and Edmonton, the most recent two being as sensational as any before them. This is hockey at its absolute best. This is hockey to remember forever. You don't even need a rooting interest of any kind to be captivated by this spectacle. All you have to do is watch.
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THIS AND THAT
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McDavid is putting up numbers that are close to the greatest we've ever seen. He has 73 points in the past two playoff seasons. With a whole lot of series still to go. The most Wayne Gretzky ever scored in back-to-back playoff seasons was 82. The most Lemieux managed was 78. The highest number for Messier and Bossy was 62. It's entirely possible that McDavid can score nine more points — if this series goes seven games — which would tie Gretzky's numbers. All of this happening at a time when scoring is far more difficult than it was when Gretzky and Lemieux were putting up the largest numbers ever seen … Sometimes it's easy to forget how special Doug Gilmour was during his two brilliant playoff seasons with the Maple Leafs in 1993 and '94 — really, the two greatest individual post-seasons in franchise history. Gilmour never made it past the third round in either year but still scored 63 points over those two post-seasons. In the two seasons that Gretzky combined to score 82 playoff points, he had 64 before the final began, just one more in total than Gilmour managed in his greatest days … Not that I should be asking, but isn't it kind of odd that Draisaitl's wife would have her bachelorette party in Greece while the Stanley Cup final was going on in Edmonton and Sunrise, Fla.? She couldn't have waited two more weeks? … Time heals most wounds. A year ago or so, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was asking for management to trade Evander Kane. He didn't care for him as a person or player. Now Kane has become one of his most defendable playoff performers on Edmonton's team … Is it just me or is Sam Reinhart at all visible for the Panthers? On a team where you can't help but notice Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand, you can't seem to find Reinhart in prominent circumstances.
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HEAR AND THERE
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The difficulty with firing a coach such as Peter DeBoer in Dallas is finding someone better than him. Truth is, there just aren't many … Just when you thought it was time to hand Evan Bouchard a place on Canada's Olympic team, an earned spot, along comes Marchand's overtime goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final. Bouchard is a miraculous offensive defenceman. But he is capable of winning or losing an Olympic medal — and that's why general manager Doug Armstrong and coach Jon Cooper kept him off the Team Canada 4 Nations roster … Among those who have played themselves into Olympic contention of some kind: Goaltender Stuart Skinner, possibly ahead of Adin Hill, Samuel Montembeault or Logan Thompson; forwards Tom Wilson, Nick Suzuki and Mark Scheifele, who should be among the 14 Team Canada forwards in Milano. Question is, if there are places for Wilson, Suzuki and Scheifele, who aren't there places for from the 4 Nations roster, where the roster size grows from 22 to 25 for the Olympics? … One Atlantic Division coach was not happy that Sasha Barkov won the Selke Trophy yet again as the NHL's best defensive forward. The vote was too convenient, he said. His view: This was one of Barkov's weakest defensive seasons. In the playoffs, Barkov has been scored on 14 times at even-strength in 19 games. His fellow Florida centre, Anton Lundell, has been scored on only five times … That coach's pick for the Selke: Adam Lowry of Winnipeg, who wasn't a finalist. Soon to be ex-Leaf Mitch Marner got three first-place Selke votes. We'd like to know why … Teams that could use Brendan Shanahan in a senior management capacity: Chicago, San Jose, Carolina, Detroit, Anaheim, Nashville, Calgary. Teams willing to pay Shanahan anything close to what the Leafs did: Probably none … Wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Shanahan wind up working for the NHL out of New York in some capacity. Commissioner Gary Bettman played a role in Shanahan being hired in Toronto … When Corey Perry wanted to play for the Leafs, then general manager Kyle Dubas had other ideas: He signed Joe Thornton and Wayne Simmonds for apparent veteran leadership. The 40-year-old Perry has eight goals with the Oilers this playoff season after being picked up following a troublesome ending in Chicago. It also helps a little when your centre is McDavid.

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Oilers confident they can bounce back from Stanley Cup Game 3 rout
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Oilers confident they can bounce back from Stanley Cup Game 3 rout

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‘A UFC fight': Tensions rise in Stanley Cup Final as the Panthers get the upper hand on the Oilers
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Things got chippy in the Stanley Cup Final late in Game 3 when the Florida Panthers were well on their way to blowing out the Edmonton Oilers. Brawls ensued, Darnell Nurse and Jonah Gadjovich dropped the gloves, and eight guys got sent to the showers early with misconduct penalties. 'When we get into garbage time, those things happen, and I don't mind when those things happen,' Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. 'It's what good teams do: fight your way out of the rink. I don't mind that in garbage time.' Long before garbage time, Florida took it to Edmonton, with the defending champions dictating their style of play and knocking their opponents off kilter to take a 2-1 series lead with a 6-1 laugher. If more of that continues in Game 4 on Thursday night, it's advantage Panthers because they thrive on making other teams feel uncomfortable. 'We played our game, our style, stuck up for each other when we needed to,' Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk said. 'If you have to take a punch, take a punch. If you have to take a cross-check, take a cross-check — a spear, a slash, whatever the case is, you've got to take it.' It should not be surprising that tensions boiled over given the lopsided score in the 10th game in the Cup final between these two teams over the past year. The Oilers and Panthers have grown a healthy distaste for each other with all that familiarity. With that comes plenty of hits, shoves and jabs that lead to slashes, punches and gear strewn all over the ice. The 140 combined penalty minutes in Game 3 were the most in a final since Game 4 between Montreal and Calgary in 1986. 'The game's over with 11 minutes left,' Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said Tuesday after practice. 'Then all hell breaks loose. It's a UFC fight.' The penalties that mattered to the result came early. The Oilers were not shy about criticizing the officiating and the Panthers for allegedly influencing it. Goaltender Stuart Skinner said, 'Some guys are flaking and going down trying to cause penalties,' and Evander Kane questioned some of the calls. 'There seems to be a little bit more attention on our group,' said Kane, who took two minor penalties in the first period alone. 'They seem to get away with it more than we do. It's tough to find the line.' Toeing that line is what the Panthers do best, and it is a recipe that has them in the final for a third consecutive year under coach Paul Maurice, who credited Tkachuk for having 'a little bit more impact on the tenacity of the team than the guy who wears a suit behind the bench and never takes a shift.' Florida's roster is full of truculence with talent to match. Sam Bennett delivered a big, open-ice hit that led to his breakaway and playoff-leading 14th goal, and finishing checks on John Klingberg has hampered the veteran defenseman's play in the series compared to the first three rounds. 'That's part of their DNA, that's what they do,' Draisaitl said. 'It's an emotional time. It's two teams that want to win, two teams of doing it their own way, but I don't think anybody is going crazy here. They're good at what they do.' Maurice did not buy into the idea that Game 3 was the Panthers showing what they can do at their best. The opener went to overtime and Florida needed double OT to win Game 2. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'I think the first two games are indicative of what Game 4 is going to look like,' Maurice said. 'We're not going to look at (Game 3) and say, 'That's the way it should look if we play our game.'' The Oilers certainly look at it as the opposite, discombobulated and nothing resembling the group that had gone 12-2 since a couple of losses to open the first round. They've dropped two in a row for the first time since. 'We just got to play our game,' Nurse said. 'We got guys that can do all that kind of stuff. But is that our game? So I think we just got to stick to play the way that we play. We're such a good hockey team when we just play hockey, and we just got to do that.' ___ AP NHL playoffs: and

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