Latest news with #StanleyCup-winner
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Tough Can Coach Mike Sullivan Be With His New Team?
If Mike Sullivan wants to know how to coach a winning hockey club, all he has to do is watch the Dallas-Winnipeg second round playoff. Specifically, focus on Peter DeBoer of the Stars. He wins because he's a tough coach and makes no bones about it. (He's also leading his playoffs three games to one.) "I call it HARD-COACHING," says DeBoer, "and my players are willing to accept hard-coaching. I don't have to sugar coat with them; which is nice." What we learned this past season is that the Rangers, collectively, are a sensitive group. Hard-coaching might not have worked for them; but we'll never know. The Challenges Officially Begin For Michael Sullivan The first Judgement Day for Mike Sullivan won't be until he convenes the Rangers training camp in September. As Joe (MSG Networks) Micheletti pointed out the other day, the Rangers allowed the exits of Barclay Goodrow and Jacob Trouba to depress them as if B and J had been sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. One might say that the Blueshirt Millionaires were being childish to eternally brood about a normal hockey move – a simple trade. "Hurt feelings?" DeBoer wonders out loud, "I don't have to worry about that with our group. It starts with the leadership guys – like my captain Jamie Benn." Did ya hear that, Sully? He said "captain." Egad! What a cad – the Rangers don't even have a captain. (Hint, hint!) DeBoer: "If Jamie Benn is the first guy to accept criticism, everyone else falls in line. That's because it's constructive criticism. We want to fix what's wrong." My buddy Alex Shibicky agrees with DeBoer and The Maven. But we also know that if you have a Team Sensitive, the big-dollar guys could kill a coach who wants to be a tough guy. "I'd kill to see Sully bench a Breadman for taking a stupid penalty or for making a bad play," says one of my Ranger fan pals. The trouble here is that if the Fat Cat isn't sitting in the corner and sulking about his benching, he's running to his agent who then calls the GM. The GM understands but knows that the player has a "No Trade" clause, so what's the manager gonna do? Half the time – nothing. So, how come Peter (Hard Coaching) DeBoer is able to get away with it in Dallas? How come the stars at night are big and bright over American Airlines Center? Check out the ultra-savvy general manager; that's how come. Jim Nill has been the Stars boss for a dozen years. For starters, they don't come any smarter, nor tougher than Gentleman Jim. One can say that Dallas has a hard-manager – but with a soft touch. And a possible Stanley Cup-winner! The Boys from Seventh Avenue should check 'em out. But, for now, try a little tenderness.
Edmonton Journal
09-05-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Oilers' McDavid makes Knights' great two-way forward Eichel his latest victim
This 'n that: Right now, Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard, 6-0 in the playoffs, is outplaying Stanley Cup-winner Adin Hill, who is 4-4, with an .874 save percentage. Cassidy didn't sugar-coat the issue. 'There are positions and areas of the game that you've gotta outplay them. He's (Hill) going to have to do that at some point. That's just the makeup of any series, usually,' said Cassidy after Game 2. Pickard is just .888 through his six starts but, again, he hasn't lost a game and he's making the saves when they are most necessary. Pickard was flexing his leg after a goalmouth collision just before Alex Pietrangelo's third-period shot through traffic tied it 4-4 but he stayed in and stoned Vegas Tomas Hertl and Victor Olofsson early in OT. Pickard's leg might be something to keep an eye on, though … Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin is averaging less than 10 minutes a game, at 9:46 through the playoffs, mostly on the fourth line but he still has six points, a goal on Hill in Game 2 and five helpers. All of his points are even-strength. Podkolzin, playing with Arvidsson and Mattias Janmark, has been dogged worker. When he's been on the ice 5-on-5, his line has outshot the opposition almost two to one, 40-22 … The Oilers penalty kill certainly needs work on the ice and some video session after Olofsson worked the same backdoor play for two one-timer goals on Pickard in Game 2. Olafsson is only on the Knights' top power-play unit because Dorofeyev, with 35 regular-season goals, is hurt … The overtime playoff loss by Vegas in Game 2 was the first time they have lost when scoring three goals or more in over six years. They had won 42 in a row by scoring three or more … Corey Perry, who set up the 97-29 breakout in OT, has played 223 post-season games, 10th most, two back of ex-Oilers winger Glenn Anderson … While the Oilers are the big story in town, it was very interesting Thursday to see that Red Deer Rebels took Denys Lupandin early in the fifth round of the WHL bantam draft. Denys is the 15-year-old son of former pro defenceman Andrei Lupandin, 47, who was a star with the barnstorming Ukrainian Druzhba '78 team in the early '90s, before Andrei went and played four years of junior for current Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon's junior Brandon Wheat Kings. McCrimmon was the minority owner and general manager of the Wheat Kings when Lupandin played there and they won a WHL championship together. The fellow defenceman Denys and his family fled war-torn Ukraine in 2022 and he's been playing in Saskatoon.
