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Vancouver Sun
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Vancouver Sun
Evander Kane flexing his muscle for Edmonton Oilers during playoff run
Evander Kane, who likes his wheels, drove a rented Lamborghini to the Arena in Los Angeles before Game 5 of the first-round playoff series, a Ferrari to Rogers Place before Game 3 here against Vegas last Saturday, and hopped into a Rolls Royce for a more sedate ride to the rink to prepare for Game 4 Monday. But really, a vintage Pontiac GTO, a Plymouth Barracuda, or a Shelby T350 would have fit his growling style better after the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 win. 'Maybe a muscle car, instead?' he was asked. 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. He didn't dispute the idea, laughing at the post-game question after he definitely took the dirt road Monday. Much of his work was around the blue paint, much of it in Vegas goalie Adin Hill's kitchen, so much so the heated Hill raced out of the net after the Edmonton Oilers winger tumbled over him after being shoved by Brayden McNabb, shortly after Adam Henrique's second goal — the fuming Hill whacking Kane with his blocker as a dust-up erupted along the boards. Hill did lose his cool. Hall of Fame goalie/commentator Henrik Lundqvist on the TNT broadcast in the U.S. said Hill would be best to calm down going forward and Hill did just that over the last 40 minutes keeping Vegas in the game . But Kane kept her revved up and he wasn't in a Lamborghini, like stopping to pick up Connor Brown for a ride as was in LA. Instead, Kane was a beast on the road, yeah, like a '66 Barracuda, loud and proud in Game 4. After missing all 82 league games and the first playoff game in the opening round against Los Angeles, Kane was everywhere on the stats sheet in Game 4 against the Golden Knights. He assisted on the Henrique's second goal, then he whipped a shot off McNabb's skate with the puck redirecting from short side to 5-hole to beat Hill in the second off a rush to make it 3-0. In the first 40 minutes, he only played 7:38 but had two points, five hits and was plus 3. In the nine games he's played this spring, he has four goals and seven points. 'Evander's is a gamer. He loves the big pressure games when there's a lot on the line,' said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. 'The physical play, scoring a big goal for us, crashing the net, winning puck battles. We saw it all. We have a lot of physicality throughout our lineup. (Zach) Hyman (65 hits this playoffs) has done a ton of it, (Vasily) Podkolzin, (Kasperi) Kapanen (five hits in his first game of the playoffs). It's nice to have that element but the guy who leads the charge is Kane.' He loved the interaction with Hill, of course. The meaner the better. 'I don't know if we were purposely trying to get into his head, but he seemed to be taking some slashes against us,' said Kane. 'It's tough to avoid contact when you're being cross-checked into him… we want to go there hard and play within the rules and not have goals disallowed. 'They have two defencemen who just stand by the net the entire time… it's hard to get inside and you have to battle.' Anybody who says they knew Kane would be this effective after not playing since last June, is lying through their teeth. Many thought he would be gassed trying to catch the moving train because everybody else had been playing from October through mid April. Kane had no training camp, no league games as prep for the playoffs. But now, those who second-guessed Kane need to be on an apology-tour. For sure, Kane was a shadow of his usual post-season, rambunctious self last spring, gutting it out on two bad legs and a prayer with his serious abdominal issues to just dress for games. Now, we all saw what he does best in Game 4 with Kane scoring his 24th goal in his 56th playoff game with the Oilers over the past four years. He hasn't just been a participant, to borrow one of Hall of Fame coach Ken Hitchcock's lines about players returning to lineups. He's been a huge factor. 'Am I surprised? No. I had confidence. I didn't necessarily set expectations but feeling good and healthy and being able to do what I do on the ice, I thought I'd be able to give myself a better opportunity (to contribute) than I did last year,' said Kane. He did some good early playoff work with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman, and Monday he was with Henrique and Brown. Not just along for the ride. 'He's moving, skating, his agility, everything is much better (than last year),' said Knoblauch. 'The skill, being able to make plays on the wall, he's making plays under pressure again. Last year he wasn't practising very much (playoffs and late in the season). Because of that, his mobility was laboured. It's difficult to play that way. 'This year, he's getting up and down the ice better. He's putting more oomph into the hits. He just looks like a different player.' Kane is a proud guy. He never wanted to come out of the lineup in the Stanley Cup Final. He was pacing outside the dressing room in a team track-suit between periods of Game 7 in Florida with Sam Gagner, looking for all the world like he wanted to punch his fist through a wall. But, he just couldn't skate. Now, well, we all saw how he was in Game 4 Monday, in the frame of most of the action photos, and not in the background. Like he's been through the first three weeks of the playoffs. This has been like a trade deadline acquisition gone great. Henrique sat beside Kane at the podium post-game, and didn't stickhandle when asked about the winger's presence during the shutout win. He was clear and direct. 'From every standpoint he was there… we talked about playing with energy right off the bat and Kaner gets in there, mixes things up, and other guys are following suit, shift after shift,' said Henrique. Kane set the physical tone on his first shift, in the game's first 90 seconds. He bolted into the Vegas end, bumped Zach Whitecloud behind the net as Whitecloud tried to reverse it to his defence partner. Brown picked off the pass and found Henrique all alone. Kane didn't get an official assist on the play, but he started the chain-reaction on the goal on Hill. 'He's (Kane) playing an amazing game for us, it's pretty impressive. There's a lot to thank him for,' said Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, watching it all unfold from the other end. Just as Skinner got his fair share of high-fives and hugs after his shutout. Two big wheels on this crucial night. Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters . You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun
Calgary Herald
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Calgary Herald
Evander Kane flexing his muscle for Edmonton Oilers during playoff run
Article content Evander Kane, who likes his wheels, drove a rented Lamborghini to the Arena in Los Angeles before Game 5 of the first-round playoff series, a Ferrari to Rogers Place before Game 3 here against Vegas last Saturday, and hopped into a Rolls Royce for a more sedate ride to the rink to prepare for Game 4 Monday. Article content But really, a vintage Pontiac GTO, a Plymouth Barracuda, or a Shelby T350 would have fit his growling style better after the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 win. Article content Article content 'Maybe a muscle car, instead?' he was asked. Article content Article content He didn't dispute the idea, laughing at the post-game question after he definitely took the dirt road Monday. Article content Much of his work was around the blue paint, much of it in Vegas goalie Adin Hill's kitchen, so much so the heated Hill raced out of the net after the Edmonton Oilers winger tumbled over him after being shoved by Brayden McNabb, shortly after Adam Henrique's second goal — the fuming Hill whacking Kane with his blocker as a dust-up erupted along the boards. Article content Hill did lose his cool. Hall of Fame goalie/commentator Henrik Lundqvist on the TNT broadcast in the U.S. said Hill would be best to calm down going forward and Hill did just that over the last 40 minutes keeping Vegas in the game . But Kane kept her revved up and he wasn't in a Lamborghini, like stopping to pick up Connor Brown for a ride as was in LA. Instead, Kane was a beast on the road, yeah, like a '66 Barracuda, loud and proud in Game 4. Article content 'A gamer' Article content After missing all 82 league games and the first playoff game in the opening round against Los Angeles, Kane was everywhere on the stats sheet in Game 4 against the Golden Knights. Article content Article content He assisted on the Henrique's second goal, then he whipped a shot off McNabb's skate with the puck redirecting from short side to 5-hole to beat Hill in the second off a rush to make it 3-0. In the first 40 minutes, he only played 7:38 but had two points, five hits and was plus 3. Article content Article content In the nine games he's played this spring, he has four goals and seven points. Article content 'Evander's is a gamer. He loves the big pressure games when there's a lot on the line,' said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. Article content 'The physical play, scoring a big goal for us, crashing the net, winning puck battles. We saw it all. We have a lot of physicality throughout our lineup. (Zach) Hyman (65 hits this playoffs) has done a ton of it, (Vasily) Podkolzin, (Kasperi) Kapanen (five hits in his first game of the playoffs). It's nice to have that element but the guy who leads the charge is Kane.'
Ottawa Citizen
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- Ottawa Citizen
Evander Kane flexing his muscle for Edmonton Oilers during playoff run
Article content Evander Kane, who likes his wheels, drove a rented Lamborghini to the Arena in Los Angeles before Game 5 of the first-round playoff series, a Ferrari to Rogers Place before Game 3 here against Vegas last Saturday, and hopped into a Rolls Royce for a more sedate ride to the rink to prepare for Game 4 Monday. Article content But really, a vintage Pontiac GTO, a Plymouth Barracuda, or a Shelby T350 would have fit his growling style better after the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 win. Article content Article content 'Maybe a muscle car, instead?' he was asked. Article content Article content He didn't dispute the idea, laughing at the post-game question after he definitely took the dirt road Monday. Article content Much of his work was around the blue paint, much of it in Vegas goalie Adin Hill's kitchen, so much so the heated Hill raced out of the net after the Edmonton Oilers winger tumbled over him after being shoved by Brayden McNabb, shortly after Adam Henrique's second goal — the fuming Hill whacking Kane with his blocker as a dust-up erupted along the boards. Article content Hill did lose his cool. Hall of Fame goalie/commentator Henrik Lundqvist on the TNT broadcast in the U.S. said Hill would be best to calm down going forward and Hill did just that over the last 40 minutes keeping Vegas in the game . But Kane kept her revved up and he wasn't in a Lamborghini, like stopping to pick up Connor Brown for a ride as was in LA. Instead, Kane was a beast on the road, yeah, like a '66 Barracuda, loud and proud in Game 4. Article content 'A gamer' Article content After missing all 82 league games and the first playoff game in the opening round against Los Angeles, Kane was everywhere on the stats sheet in Game 4 against the Golden Knights. Article content Article content He assisted on the Henrique's second goal, then he whipped a shot off McNabb's skate with the puck redirecting from short side to 5-hole to beat Hill in the second off a rush to make it 3-0. In the first 40 minutes, he only played 7:38 but had two points, five hits and was plus 3. Article content Article content In the nine games he's played this spring, he has four goals and seven points. Article content 'Evander's is a gamer. He loves the big pressure games when there's a lot on the line,' said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. Article content 'The physical play, scoring a big goal for us, crashing the net, winning puck battles. We saw it all. We have a lot of physicality throughout our lineup. (Zach) Hyman (65 hits this playoffs) has done a ton of it, (Vasily) Podkolzin, (Kasperi) Kapanen (five hits in his first game of the playoffs). It's nice to have that element but the guy who leads the charge is Kane.'
Boston Globe
11-05-2025
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
William L. Porter, designer of classic American cars, dies at 93
The Pontiac GTO model produced in 1968 and 1969, with its endless hood and smooth, tapering back -- its 'monocoque shell form with elliptical pressure bulges over the wheels,' as Mr. Porter put it in an interview in 2000 -- was one of his signature creations. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up GM made him chief designer at what it called the Pontiac 1 Studio in 1968, and he held that position until 1972, before going on to other senior design positions. In the early 1970s, he directed the design of the company's LeMans, Catalina, and Bonneville cars, which had tapering forms with jutting trunks, in keeping with his aesthetic. Advertisement 'I was taken with a plainer, curvaceous look featuring long, muscular shapes based on elliptical vocabulary,' Mr. Porter, a connoisseur and collector of American design, including Tiffany glass and Arts and Crafts furniture, said in an interview with Hot Rod magazine in 2007. Advertisement Kevin Kirbitz, president of the Society of Automotive Historians and a senior manager at GM, said in an interview: 'It comes down to his understanding of shapes and curvature and lines. He had the ability to look at a curve and realize it had to have a certain proportion over the length of it.' Mr. Porter was drawn to what he called 'organic shapes,' or those found in nature, that would have subliminal resonance for the beholder (or buyer) of a car. 'He would talk about the roundness of the bean,' said Kirbitz, who knew Mr. Porter well, and also about 'naturally occurring curves.' The 1970-73 Firebird and the Firebird Trans Am, the quintessential American muscle car, also bore Mr. Porter's stamp: They were sportier than the GTO, with a more compact back end but a similar elongated hood. With the Firebirds, Mr. Porter said, he was 'consciously trying to create an important American sports car.' Mr. Porter's training in art history gave him an aesthetic conception of the car that was unusual at a major American automaker. 'When you open the door of the Firebird, there is -- I would like to think -- a subliminal sense of the unity of the interior and exterior. That had never been done before,' Mr. Porter said in the 2000 interview. 'There was a sense of the total car, being in it, and having things fall to hand, located in the right places.' He paid acute attention to detail, something he learned from mentors among the general managers at GM. He praised one of them, in a post on his website, for being the sort who could spot 'a bump in a line that was maybe a millimeter high.' Advertisement Mr. Porter was particularly proud of a detail he designed for the hood of the Trans Am: 'a pair of highly effective Ram Air scoops that were placed in the high-pressure area on the leading edge,' he said, to funnel air directly into the engine. After developing the new Firebird, Mr. Porter went on to work on the Camaro. In 1980, he became chief designer for Buick, a position he held until he retired in 1996. He worked on designs for the Park Avenue and the Riviera, boxier cars with a more imposing presence on the road. William Lee Porter was born on May 6, 1931, in Louisville, Ky. His father, William Lee Porter Sr., was the manager of the Greyhound bus station in Louisville; his mother, Ida Mae (Hampton) Porter, ran the lunchroom at a local elementary school. He received a bachelor of arts in painting and art history from the University of Louisville in 1953. After college, he served in the Army and then studied industrial design at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. He was hired as a summer student at GM Styling, the company's design unit, in 1957; the next year, he became a full-time employee. By the time he received his masters of arts from Pratt in 1960, he was a junior designer in the Pontiac studio. During much of his time at GM, Mr. Porter also taught a course in industrial design at Wayne State University in Detroit, encouraging students to create objects influenced by styles that fascinated him, including Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. In addition to his son, Mr. Porter leaves by his wife, Patsy Jane (Hambaugh) Porter; two daughters, Sarah Wilding Porter and Lydia Porter Latocki; a brother, Thomas Hampton Porter; and three grandchildren. Advertisement Mr. Porter was the rare stylist who saw a car's shape as a whole, with every individual element subordinated to, and integrated into, the overall design. 'He would talk about how one ellipse fed into another, and about how there are no true straight lines,' Kirbitz said. 'For him, the straight line was not desirable.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
10-05-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
William L. Porter, Designer of Classic American Cars, Dies at 93
William L. Porter, a car designer who helped create the shapes of some of the most celebrated American vehicles of the late 1960s and early '70s, died on April 25 at his home in Whitmore Lake, Mich. He was 93. His death was confirmed by his son, Adam, who did not specify a cause. As a senior designer at General Motors for more than three decades, Mr. Porter was intimately involved in determining the appearance of numerous cars that were uniquely American in their exuberant, elongated design and curvaceous forms. These were big, sleek cars for long, empty American roads, and for cities filled with the parking lots that could accommodate them, light years from the compact boxes made for Europe's narrow streets. The Pontiac GTO model produced in 1968 and 1969, with its endless hood and smooth, tapering back — its 'monocoque shell form with elliptical pressure bulges over the wheels,' as Mr. Porter put it in an interview in 2000 — was one of his signature creations. G.M. made him chief designer at what it called the Pontiac 1 Studio in 1968, and he held that position until 1972, before going on to other senior design positions. In the early 1970s, he directed the design of the company's LeMans, Catalina and Bonneville cars, which had tapering forms with jutting trunks, in keeping with his aesthetic. 'I was taken with a plainer, curvaceous look featuring long, muscular shapes based on elliptical vocabulary,' Mr. Porter, a connoisseur and collector of American design, including Tiffany glass and Arts and Crafts furniture, said in an interview with Hot Rod magazine in 2007. Kevin Kirbitz, the president of the Society of Automotive Historians and a senior manager at G.M., said in an interview: 'It comes down to his understanding of shapes and curvature and lines. He had the ability to look at a curve and realize it had to have a certain proportion over the length of it.' Mr. Porter was drawn to what he called 'organic shapes,' or those found in nature, that would have subliminal resonance for the beholder (or buyer) of a car. 'He would talk about the roundness of the bean,' said Mr. Kirbitz, who knew Mr. Porter well, and also about 'naturally occurring curves.' The 1970-73 Firebird and the Firebird Trans Am, the quintessential American muscle car, also bore Mr. Porter's stamp: They were sportier than the GTO, with a more compact back end but a similar elongated hood. With the Firebirds, Mr. Porter said, he was 'consciously trying to create an important American sports car.' Mr. Porter's training in art history gave him an aesthetic conception of the car that was unusual at a major American automaker. 'When you open the door of the Firebird, there is — I would like to think — a subliminal sense of the unity of the interior and exterior. That had never been done before,' Mr. Porter said in the 2000 interview. 'There was a sense of the total car, being in it, and having things fall to hand, located in the right places.' He was a designer who paid acute attention to detail, something he learned from mentors among the general managers at G.M. He praised one of them, in a post on his website, for being the sort who could spot 'a bump in a line that was maybe a millimeter high.' Mr. Porter was particularly proud of a detail he designed for the hood of the Trans Am: 'a pair of highly effective Ram Air scoops that were placed in the high-pressure area on the leading edge,' he said, to funnel air directly into the engine. After developing the new Firebird, Mr. Porter went on to work on the Camaro. In 1980, he became chief designer for Buick, a position he held until he retired in 1996. He worked on designs for the Park Avenue and the Riviera, boxier cars with a more imposing presence on the road. William Lee Porter was born on May 6, 1931, in Louisville, Ky. His father, William Lee Porter Sr., was the manager of the Greyhound bus station in Louisville; his mother, Ida Mae (Hampton) Porter, ran the lunchroom at a local elementary school. He attended duPont Manual High School, in Louisville, and received a B.A. in painting and art history from the University of Louisville in 1953. After college, he served in the U.S. Army and then studied industrial design at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. He was hired as a summer student at G.M. Styling, the company's design unit, in 1957; the next year, he became a full-time employee. By the time he received his M.A. from Pratt in 1960, he was already a junior designer in the Pontiac studio. During much of his time at G.M., Mr. Porter also taught a course in industrial design at Wayne State University in Detroit, encouraging students to create objects influenced by styles that fascinated him, including Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau. In addition to his son, Mr. Porter is survived by his wife, Patsy Jane (Hambaugh) Porter; two daughters, Sarah Wilding Porter and Lydia Porter Latocki; a brother, Thomas Hampton Porter; and three grandchildren. Mr. Porter was the rare stylist who saw a car's shape as a whole, with every individual element subordinated to, and integrated into, the overall design. 'He was among those that had that ability to go beyond, and to realize the overall aesthetic of the line,' Mr. Kirbitz said. 'He would talk about how one ellipse fed into another, and about how there are no true straight lines. For him, the straight line was not desirable.'
