Is It 2024 Again?

Tonight saw a dramatic overtime finish in the ECHL's Western Conference Final as the Fort Wayne Komets rallied to force overtime at 3-3 in Game Six. Based on the image to the left, though, you know what happened as Jakov Novak scored 64 seconds into the fourth period, sending the Kansas City Mavericks back to the Kelly Cip Final after eliminating the Komets in six games. With the Florida Everblades already waiting to see who their opponent was going to be, we now know we'll get a sequel to the 2024 Kelly Cup Final featuring these two teams.

Back in 2024, the Everblades were seeking their third-straight Kelly Cup championship, meeting the Brabham Cup-winning Kansas City Mavericks in the final. This year, the Everblades will look to claim their fourth title in five years by meeting the Brabham Cup-winning Kansas City Mavericks in the final. The Everblades will also bump their ECHL-best seven appearances in the final to eight while looking to capture a record fifth Kelly Cup with another series win this year.

Kansas City isn't looking to be a note in history for a second time, though, as the franchise will be seeking its first Kelly Cup in its second appearance in the final. Like the NHL's President's Trophy, the top ECHL regular-season team hasn't always fared as well in the playoffs, and Kansas City will look to join the 1997 South Carolina Stingrays, the 2006 Alaska Aces, the 2008 Cincinnati Cyclones, the 2011 Alaska Aces, and the 2014 Alaska Aces as the sixth team to win both the Brabham Cup and the Kelly Cup in the same season.

Despite these two opponents meeting for the Kelly Cup just two seasons ago, the script could be written in an entirely different language if things continue to trend as they have been. Florida has been lightning lamps in the Eastern Conference bracket early and often as they have found another gear for the postseason once again. Kansas City has had a few bumps along the way, but they have a deep roster with excellent scoring and goaltending so this Kelly Cup Final looks like it's going to be a good one featuring two solid squads!

The series will begin in Kansas City on June 5 where Florida comes in looking sharp. They feature goaltender Cam Johnson, the Nick Vitucci Award as ECHL Goaltender of the Year in both 2025 and 2026, who is the ECHL all-time leader in postseason wins and shutouts. His 1.35 GAA and .945 save percentage are a big reason why Florida is back in the final. Anthony Romano has 11 goals to lead the playoffs, Carson Gicewicz has eight goals including two shorthanded markers, and 15 Everblades have dented twine when it comes to team scoring depth.

Florida enters the final with a 12-2 record in the playoffs, scoring 50 goals while surrendering just 20. They rank ninth in power-play efficiency at 13.5% on 7-of-52 scoring, but they are tops in the playoffs while shorthanded as they've killed 95.1% of penalties on 39-of-41 opportunities. Perhaps most impressively, they are 6-0 at home in these playoffs, and have scored first in every playoff game this far, outscoring their opponents 15-4 in the opening frame!

The Mavericks boast six players in double-digit scoring with Bobo Carpenter having nine goals and Jackson Jutting having seven markers. Every player that has dressed for a playoff game has recorded a point, so the Mavericks' depth is solid. Goaltending duties have been split between Dylan Wells and Jack Lafontaine with both going 6-1, but Wells has superior numbers with a 1.94 GAA and a .928 save percentage. We'll see who starts in Game One on home ice, but the Mavericks won't worry about either goalie in this series.

Kansas City was a league-best 28-4-4 away from home in the regular season, and they'll look to continue their strong play which has pushed them to a 12-2 record through the playoffs with a 6-1 record both at home and on the road. They've scored 55 goals while allowing 31, but are 8-0 when scoring first in the playoffs. They boast the fourth-best power-play efficiency in the playoffs at 24.1% on 13-of-54 opportunities, but are ninth-best in the playoffs at 83.0% on 39-of-47 penalty kills. Kansas City likes playing in the second period, though, crushing their opponents 25-7 in scoring in the middle frame!

It took Florida five games to defeat Kansas City in 2024, and I suspect that the Mavericks don't want to see anything close to that happening again. The teams split the two games in Kansas City before heading to Estero, Florida where the Everblades won three-straight contests to capture their fourth Kelly Cup. Florida outscored Kansas City 23-13 in those five games, so this year's Kelly Cup Final might simply come down to an old playoff adage: "defence wins championships".

The Kelly Cup Final begins on Friday at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri. The rest of the series schedule can be found here, but this should be a heckuva series between two absolutely dominant playoff teams! The toughest part? Only one can win!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Final Two

With the Stanley Cup Finalists set for this year, we're down to two remaining entrants in Survivor: NHL Playoffs. That means we know who will win the two jerseys we have up for grabs, but we still need to find out who will get the option to choose one of the two jerseys. Michaela and Matt will see their two teams play for hockey supremacy in this final set of games, and we'll know who is the ultimate Survivor this season! But there's something else we need to discuss when it comes to this Stanley Cup Final too.

I have seen a handful of reporters who have suggested that a specific goaltender on the Vegas Golden Knights has earned the right to be in the conversation for the Conn Smythe Trophy. While I don't deny the importance of goaltending when it comes to winning, I want to be very clear that any reporter or writer associated with the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) that votes for this goalie for the Playoff MVP award should lose their membership in the PHWA.

The last netminder that won was Andrei Vasilevskiy in 2021 with Jonathan Quick being the other most recent winner when he earned the votes in 2012. I'm not against a goaltender winning the award as they do play a big role in the success of any team, but there has to be some morality among the PHWA members when it comes to what was said and presented as evidence against this goaltender during the Hockey Canada trial. Let me be clear: this is not a redemption story.

I am fully aware that many people will disagree with my stance on this, but the Vegas goaltender does not get an opportunity to erase the role he played in the crimes that were committed. There has been zero attempt to own his part in the crimes with which he was charged, there has been zero effort to put in the work to understand the trauma suffered by the victim, and there has been zero work done to show the world he's a better person than who he was in 2018.

"But he was acquitted, Teebz!" is what I hear most of you screaming at your screens, and you're not wrong. The problem is that an acquittal does not prove innocence. All it proves is that the prosecution failed to get a guilty verdict in a trial. And based on all the things that were said and presented in the trial based on Rick Westhead's reporting in We Breed Lions, the Vegas goaltender was handly an innoncent bystander during the night in question in 2018.

In short, don't even bring the netminder up with any sort of redemption. Playing hockey well enough to win does not erase the morally-broken person. Do the right thing, pro hockey writers.

While we're on this topic, the other person who qualifies for a kick upside the head before being mentioned as a Conn Smythe candidate is Brett Howden. I get he's having an excellent playoff performance in this postseason, but I'd be worried about him remembering it if his memory is as bad as he portrayed it to be during the trial. During this testimony, the man sounded like recalling anything from around that 2018 period of time was a chore his brain could not complete.

His testimony included crying, a lot of stammering, and a lot of "I don't remember" due to the concussions and injuries he's received from his hockey career. The Crown presented "18 instances of inconsistency between Howden’s testimony and his previous statements to investigators" which is an incredible amount of memory loss for a person as young as Howden if that memory loss came from the injuries he cited, yet he's still playing hockey with zero health concerns from doctors or medical experts. Make it make sense.

There have been many on social media who have stated that the NHL has allowed alleged criminals play in the league for years before with no one making a big deal about it, and I'm not sure why a history of being morally corrupt is justification to continue being morally corrupt. If we can't change how we think and act to be better, we're doomed as a society. And if we can't demand accountability from all idols and heroes while making their lives uncomfortable until they become accountable for their actions, we've failed as a society.

Neither of their players have ever denied being in the room. Neither of these players have ever denied being, at least, a witness to some of the acts that were committed that night in 2018. Neither of these players have ever apologized to the witness nor taken responsibility for what they did or should have done in that situation. And neither of these players have sought out education or experiences to better understand why they were in the wrong on that fateful night in 2018.

Neither gets credit for being better people because they haven't done the work to prove that an effort was made to be better. In knowing this, drop the redemption arc stories and vote wisely. The PHWA should be able to show some moral integrity once in a while, right?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

He Was Always There

I want to pass along a big congratulations to Ville Heinola on being part of the Finnish team that captured the gold medal at the 2026 IIHF Men's World Hockey Championship today. He looked confident throughout the tournament playing alongside a number of his friends and countrymen, and seeing him as happy as he is in this image is encouraging given all the struggles he's been through in his time with the Winnipeg Jets. Whether it was injuries, being relegated to the pressbox, being exiled to the AHL, or just simply being unappreciated and undervalued by conservative coaches and management, Heinola deserves to have this golden moment.

Heinola made the Jets' lineup as an 18 year-old defender in his rookie campaign, but the Jets elected not to burn the first year of his entry-level contract. After scoring one goal and five points in eight games, he was sent back to his Finnish club while the Jets preached patience with Heinola. If he was going to reach his potential, the Jets had to make sure he was developing properly in their system.

Insert your Winnipeg Jets "draft and develop" jokes here.

Over the next three seasons, Heinola skated in just 27 games for the Jets, battling for a roster spot with the likes of Logan Stanley, Dylan Samberg, Johnny Kovacevic, Kyle Capobianco, and Declan Chisholm, but never quite getting the ice-time or the pairing that would allow him to do what he does best: skate with the puck, jump into the offensive zone, and play good positional defence. He was never going to be the bruiser in front of the net, but, like Montreal's Lane Hutson, he had incredible skating and vision from the blue line.

In what looked like a change in the philosophy for the Jets, Ville Heinola was poised to make the Winnipeg Jets' roster out of training camp ahead of the 2023-24 season. The only problem was that Heinola fractured his ankle in the final preseason game, setting him back in his NHL dreams. He would skate with the Manitoba Moose when he was able to get back on skates, but that injury plunged him back into the "battling for a roster spot" ranks for the 2024-25 season.

Early surgery in training camp in 2024 put Heinola back on the shelf after it was discovered that his surgically-repaired ankle was infected, but head coach Scott Arniel seemed to indicate that Heinola was going to get his shot with a comment about the defender on November 19, 2024 where he said, "It's been a tough two years for him. I'm probably his biggest fan here. I wanna see him."

Were we about to see the Finn playing regular minutes?

Heinola's biggest fan dressed him just 23 times in two seasons since uttering those comments to the media, so it's hard to believe that Arniel was doing anything but providing lip service. When he was in the lineup, he most often played on the third pairing with players that rarely complimented his style of play, and it constantly felt like the Jets were trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

I can give you seven million reasons why Ville Heinola should be in Winnipeg, and it starts and ends with Neal Pionk. If the Jets were truly going to make a run at key free agents this summer to improve their team overall, moving Pionk's annual $7 million salary and replacing him with Ville Heinola would be a wise move. They play identical games with the puck on their sticks, but Pionk's physical play is replaced by Heinola's better defensive play when looking at the overall package. This shouldn't be a hard sell for management, but it seems like GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is enamored with Pionk.

This isn't about the Jets and their awful asset management, though. Ville Heinola's smile in the lede image should be enough to tell you that a weight was lifted off his shoulders with this gold medal today. He already admitted to Winnipeg reporters that "[i]t's been, mentally, probably the hardest year. It's hard, and I struggle a lot, especially mentally" and that he "hired a mental (health) coach. That was a huge, huge help at the time, just to be able to talk somebody."

Why that person wasn't someone from inside the organization leaves me with more questions about what kind of front office the Jets have, but seeing him fly around the ice for Finland over the last couple of weeks should be enough proof that Ville Heinola won't be back in Winnipeg next season unless visiting with an opposing team. He proved he can be an effective player on a big stage while being effective at both ends of the ice, and that display of skill by the 25 year-old should have GMs thinking low-risk, high-reward contract.

The Jets will enter next season with 30 year-old Neal Pionk under contract for five more years at $35 million despite his obvious defensive lapses. The Jets invested a lot of money in a player who has had one season above 40 points and who scored a career-low 12 points in 51 games last season, but refused to play Ville Heinola in the same role despite him having the same skill set and talents.

For a team that needed better defensive play with a push for offence from their blue line, Ville Heinola was always there. Today's World Hockey Championship gold medal should be all the proof he needs that his mental health will be better with another franchise.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The New State Of Hockey?

When one thinks of Florida, there are some images that come to mind: sunshine, beaches, and Disney World. Of course, those aren't the only things that Florida is known for, and it seems they're making "winning professional hockey chmapionships" into a Florida thing. We know that the Florida Panthers won back-to-back Stanley Cups before missing the playoffs this season, but there's another team that has made winning into an annual event in the state. If you're unaware of the Florida Everblades and their winning ways, now would be a good time to get to know the ECHL team who will one again be the Eastern Conference representative in the 2026 Kelly Cup championship series!

The Florida Everblades have won four Kelly Cups in franchise history, but three of those four championships have been won since 2022. This year will mark the fourth time in the last five years that the Everblades will play for the Kelly Cup, and the team is 4-2 all-time in Kelly Cup championship series with a 19-11 all-time record in those games. Florida lost back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005 to the Idaho Steelheads and Trenton Titans, respectfully, but won their next four championship series appearances by a 16-3 record.

This year's appearance saw them sweep the Savannah Ghost Pirates in the opening round of the playoffs, defeat the South Carolina Stingrays by a 4-1 series count in Round Two, and they imposed their will on the Wheeling Nailers by winning that series by 4-1 count as well. With just two losses in 14 games, they now await the winner of the ECHL Western Conference Final between the Fort Wayne Komets and the Kansas City Mavericks. Kansas City leads 3-1 in that series with Game Five scheduled for tomorrow in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

If Kansas City were to advance, it would set up the second meeting between these two teams in the Kelly Cup Championship. In 2024, Florida downed Kansas City by a 4-1 series count that saw Florida win three of the four games by three-or-more goals. Fort Wayne and Florida have never met for a Kelly Cup Championship in either side's histories, so we could be in for a new chapter of ECHL history if the Komets can rally against the Mavericks. We'll know more tomorrow.

In 2022, the Everblades qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs as the third-best team in the ECHL by points percentage at .653 thanks to the imbalanced schedule that was used this season. Florida then went 16-4 against Greenville, Jacksonville, Newfoundland, and Toledo that saw the Everblades go 7-0 in overtime games over those four series! That's a simply incredible overtime record by any team in any league!

2023 saw the Florida Everblades struggle through the regular season to a fourth-place finish in the ECHL's South Division, and the eleventh-best playoff team as they entered the Kelly Cup Playoffs. However, once the Kelly Cup Playoffs started, the Everblades switched into invincibility mode, going 16-6 while never holding home-ice advantage in any series. Florida went 5-2 in overtime games in this season, but they swept the ECHL's top regular season team in the Brabham Cup-winning Idaho Steelheads in the championship final! For notation purposes, Idaho finished 34 points better than Florida!

The 2024 ECHL season saw Florida finish in third-place in the South Division, four points back of Greenville and two points behind Jacksonville, as the ninth-best team that qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Florida and Jacksonville would battle through a seven-game series that saw the Everblades rally from a 3-1 deficit to win the series before they eliminated Orlando in five games and Adirondack in six games. That set up a championship series against the Kansas City Mavericks who were the Brabham Cup winners. Five games later, Florida celebrated a Kelly Cup win in beating the ECHL's best regular-season team despite finishing 25 points back of the Mavericks!

After a bit of a surprise upset last season in the Eastern Conference Final by the Trois-Rivières Lions, the Everblades are back after downing Wheeling tonight, and they look every bit as hungry as they did in winning three-straight championships. Clearly, the Everblades have created a bit of a dynasty in a league where player movement is a regular occurrence which says a lot about the team's management and culture when it comes to building a roster. In knowing that, going to the Kelly Cup Finals in four of five years is an impressive feat!

They still need to win one more series to cement their dynasty status, but the Everblades are giving fans every reason to believe that Florida is the new state of hockey. They sit just four wins from setting new ECHL records with a record fifth Kelly Cup, but they're already the most successful pro hockey team in the panhandle state!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Dangers Of Suffering Silently

It's hard to sit here tonight and have anything but compassion and empathy for the Lemieux family. The ovation that Claude Lemieux got before Game Three when he walked down the tunnel with the torch to inspire everyone who loved the Montreal Canadiens was awesome. Therein lies the problem with mental health: it's a pain that no one else sees of feels as we try to make sense of Claude Lemieux taking his own life four days after that magical appearance in Montreal. More than ever, mental health has to be discussed.

For the longest time, he was framed as a villain for how he played the game, specifically in the playoffs where his agitation skills and hockey talents combined into a force that could take over games. The man played over 21 seasons in the NHL, amassing 379 goals and 407 assists in 1215 games. Add in his penalty minute totals of 1775, and he was one of the league's top power forwards for a number of years while playing with Montreal, New Jersey, Colorado, Phoenix, Dallas, and San Jose. Five times, he would hit the 30-goal mark.

The playoffs saw him shine, and that's where Lemieux elevated his game. He went from goal-scoring power forward to an absolute menace for star players, often shadowing them for entire series while still chipping in with his brand of offence. Four Stanley Cups are proof that he was important to teams as he was often lauded for his grittiness, his ability to get under the skin of opponents, and his solid defensive play. In each of the four Stanley Cup seasons where he won, Lemieux never scored less than ten points in the playoffs.

That's what made the news of hearing that the Palm Beach County Sherriff's Office deputies responded just after 3am to the scene of an apparent suicide at the family's furniture store in Lake Park, Florida early Thursday morning. One of his sons discovered Lemieux's body in the rear of the warehouse, and it was confirmed late on Thursday that the victim was indeed the late, great Claude Lemieux.

Lemieux is survived by his wife, Deborah, and his four children, Brendan, Claudia, Michael and, Christopher. I can't imagine the pain and sorrow they're experiencing in this time of loss. My thoughts are with them and Claude's extended family and friends at this time.

I'm not here to lay blame. I'm not here to suggest that someone should have noticed. This is what makes mental health issues so hard to diagnose and treat: it's a silent problem until the person suffering talks about it. Maybe Claude wasn't that person where he shared intimate details about himself. Maybe it was a little bit of pride and old-school hockey thinking that kept Claude from talking about his personal battle. Whatever the case, we may never know now.

With Victor Hedman talking about the struggles he faced, Linus Ullmark opening up about his mental health, and Connor Ingram seeking help for his mental health battles, the stigma that surrounds mental health struggles needs to end. It's not a stretch to suggest that lives are at stake, and it's even more important that retired players are encouraged to discuss mental health openly after their eras in the NHL downplayed any and all mental health issues.

My hope is that, after the required grieving time is taken, the Lemieux family can begin putting the pieces back together. This kind of news can shatter families, and I hope they get the counseling and support they need to work through this tragedy. As I noted on the Victor Hedman article, there are a pile of great resources for anyone seeking help and wanting to talk about their mental battles.

The Canadian Mental Health Association can be reached 24/7 by dialing or texting 9-8-8, there are many provincial resources that can help, the Kids Help Phone has info and resources for younger people seeking help, HeadsUpGuys has mental health resources specifically for men, Indigenous Peoples can get 24/7 help through Hope For Wellness, and the Women's Health Clinic offers assistance to women, Two-Spirit, genderqueer, trans and non-binary people. All of these organizations are incredible at helping those who ask for help.

My heart and thoughts go out to Claude Lemieux's family and friends. Losses on the ice are hard sometimes, but the loss of a legend like Claude Lemieux leaves an unfixable hole in the hockey world.

Whatever his struggle was, it's over. Rest in eternal peace, Claude.

Until next time, raise your sticks high to honour Claude Lemieux!