Oilers' Kapanen's Stanley Cup Final Game 1 performance eerily similar to his dad's
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Twenty-three years later, his son, Kasperi, put up a two-assist performance for the Edmonton Oilers in a Game 1 triumph over the Florida Panthers.
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Call the numerologist. Cue The X-Files theme music.
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And, there's more to this case of history repeating itself through generations. The coach of that Carolina team in 2002? Paul Maurice, who is now behind the Panthers' bench.
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'I saw that this morning, that he had two assists and two shots like me, the same ice time on the same day,' Kasperi said ahead of Game 2 Friday. 'It's a little spooky.'
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But, Oilers fans will hope the parallels stop there. After that Game 1 win in 2002, the Hurricanes felt the wrath of the super-powered Red Wings roster. Detroit won the series in five.
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Kasperi said his dad will fly to Edmonton in time for Game 5, which falls on June 14. That happens to be Sami's birthday.
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But, does Kasperi remember his early childhood in North Carolina? For the most part, no. He said most of his recollections of his dad's playing days come from when Sami was a Philadelphia Flyer later in his career, and the family lived in the Jersey suburbs.
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While his dad isn't set to get to Edmonton till Game 5 (and we're still at the stage where we need to put in the qualifier 'if necessary'), Kasperi and Sami do regularly chat.
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'We don't talk about hockey as much,' said Kasperi. 'He just wants to see how I'm doing, asking me how I am doing emotionally. Obviously, we've been playing well so it's mostly been positive.'
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And, while Kasperi doesn't remember much from his dad's time in Carolina, his dad has spoken about his relationship with Maurice.
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'I think he loved him,' said Kasperi. 'I think there are so many positive things to say about Paul. Obviously, he's a tremendous coach as well. Nothing but good stuff.'
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Maurice, though, was happy to share his favourite Sami Kapanen story. It came from when the Hurricanes' enforcer was Darren Langdon, back in the early 2000s. Sami, like his son, was a blur on skates. Langdon was not.
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'He took off in front of me, and I'd never seen a guy skate that fast in my life,' Maurice said. 'And I was standing beside Darren Langdon one day… he was a tough lad. And (Sami) took off in front of us, and Darren said, 'Man, just once in my life I'd like to skate like that.' So, I went over and told Sami that. I am not going to pretend that I can do his accent, but he said, 'Yeah, but if I could fight like that once, I'd kill everybody.''
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Global News
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Calgary Herald
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Vancouver Sun
4 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
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Jari Kurri (1987 against the Flyers), Petr Klima (1990 triple OT to beat the Bruins), Fernando Pisani (2006 shorthanded to stun the Hurricanes) and Leon Draisaitl in Game 1 Wednesday were all W's until Marchand struck. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. You dirty rat… In between his goals, there was a near-one from the trade deadline steal in the first OT period, when Marchand was robbed by a Skinner pad save, then slid the puck under the goalie and out the other side. And, the face washes, the snow showers in the crease, the fake chicken wing thrown at Leon Draisaitl when the former Boston Bruins' captain skated by both Oiler players. 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Like a rat on valium… The NHL is a young man's sport but the 40-year old Corey Perry outmuscled Florida winger Eetu Luostarinen to a loose puck to tie it with 18 seconds left and the 37-year-old Marchand won it on his 10th Stanley Cup final goal as his mother Lynn cleared her throat, yelling 'Way to Go Bradley' from the seats. We know that Marchand's dad Kevin was a junior tough guy in Nova Scotia, a teammate of Oiler Evander Kane's pop, but what kind of hockey mum is Lynn? She's loud and proud, gets pretty amped up at games, says her pride and joy. 'She's one you put a muzzle on,' joked Marchand. ' I bet your mum would say you sometimes need a muzzle, Brad,' kidded a scribe. 'No,' said Marchand in his deadpan delivery. Marchand's shortie—a little pump fake, then a quick shot after getting in behind the Oiler big guns–was an exclamation point to a bad Edmonton power play where they were one-for-six with just seven shots on Sergei Bobrovsky. On the other breakaway in the second OT, he caught a break when Oiler D Mattias Ekholm's ripper off the left side just missed and rang around the boards, only to pop into the open ice with Evan Bouchard figuring it was going to stay on the wall. Marchand anticipated the geometry of the puck coming off the boards and was gone. He managed to shovel it past Skinner, not quite with the same flourish as the shortie, but it was a whole lot more dramatic. And, he's usually money on breakaways. His secret? 'Don't forget the puck (overskating it), I've done that before. Not a good feeling,' said Marchand, who didn't fumble the winner off an Anton Lundell feed, but it was close as he got the backhander to just slide in. Right? 'Obviously a fortuitous bounce,' Marchand said on a post-game TNT interview for the U.S. audience. 'I think our whole bench stood up when he was going in on the breakaway…just a huge play at a huge time and he's been incredible for us this whole playoff (17 points), scoring massive goals at massive times,' said Public Enemy No. 1a, Sam Bennett, who's no offensive slouch himself with his playoff leading 13th. 'What goes through your mind at that time? Pure excitement, adrenalin for our entire group. You're only one shot away in this game and luckily it went our way tonight,' said Marchand, who also saved the Panthers in Game 3 in round 2 against Toronto with his OT goal after Florida had dropped the first two to the Leafs and, in the finals, he was well aware that going down two games to the Oilers would have been a very deep hole, even for the Cup champs. But after Perry's goal off the Jake Walman shot — the Oilers' 100th game of the season and Perry's 99th— the Panthers managed to regroup. In the dressing room, they were even laughing and debating who would get the OT winner, with people raising their hands. 'We were upbeat, joking around, having some fun … picking guys who we think was going to score. I'm sure a lot of guys probably had marchy.' Not that Marchand saw the sentiment. He was out of sight, riding the bike. 'I kind of do it after every period. It's a routine I've gotten into. You do anything to keep your legs going in overtime,' said Marchand. Anything players are also eating as the game goes this deep into OT? 'I think Marchy grabbed a Blizzard,' kidded Bennett, a riff on his teammate's love of the ice-cream menu at Dairy Queen. 'Yeah, I think it was Oreo today,' said Marchand. 'Nice plug, I like that.' It's easy to plug Marchand too. This was the best trade at the deadline with Florida giving up a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028 for the unrestricted free agent who could easily resign there off his playoff and with no state income tax to make a contract more palatable for both sides. Marchand, who now has five OT goals in the playoffs, third all-time, behind Joe Sakic (eight) and Rocket Richard (six). is just wired to be a playoff performer, even at 37, just as Perry is. He also has five overtime goals. They both drag people into the fight, always have, and this was a fight to the finish in Game 2. 'Marchand's an absolute dog, he's got that dog in him…the battle he has just inspires the group,' said Bennett, in that TNT interview. Small dog, big rat…whatever the animal, he's a beauty.
