In sports, I believe there's a distinct advantage when it comes to having done something before. Players have the experience and knowledge necessary to know what it takes to accomplish whatever that goal is, so having done something before doesn't feel like a new journey. The ECHL's Florida Everblades showed everyone what the experience and knowledge of being back-to-back champions holds as they introduced the Kansas City Mavericks to a world of hurt in Game One of the Kelly Cup Final tonight. Needless to say, the champs flexed a little muscle this evening in their 8-1 blowout of the Mavericks to start the final.
The Everblades opened this series on the road as the first-overall Mavericks held home-ice advantage at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri, but that lasted all of three minutes as Bobo Carpenter's shot from the top of the right face-off circle beat Cale Morris cleanly to put the Everblades up 1-0. Jeremy McKenna would get that one back at the 6:26 mark when he deflected a Nate Knoepke shot from the blue line in front Cam Johnson to elude the netminder for the 1-1 score.
Late in the frame, Florida's Oliver Chau won a race to a loose puck after it eluded a Mavericks' defender at the offensive blue line, and Chau sakted in along before tucking a backhander past Morris at 15:55 to put Florida up 2-1. That score would be pushed to 3-1 when Cole Moberg gained the line and unleashed a slapshot that went high blocker-side on Morris, and the Mavericks' netminder likely wanted that one back at 17:44. With that tally, Florida took the two-goal cushion into the intermission as the Mavericks looked to regroup.
Far be it for me to criticize a goaltender since stopping a beach ball would be a task for this writer, but it seemed like Morris should have been able to make stops on the Carpenter and Moberg goals. Yes, there was some traffic around the net during Carpenter's goal, but nothing seemed to impede his vision. The same is true of Moberg's goal where he simply teed it up and blew it past Morris with a defender in front of Moberg - there was no real traffic to disrupt Morris's vision. Might there have been some nerves at play?
As it has been said, when it rains, it sometimes pours, and the Mavericks got a big dose of that in the second period when the Everblades were flying. Four goals in 9:05 put this game in out-of-reach territory as Carpenter scored his second goal at 8:50, Riese Zmolek made it a 5-1 game at 9:28, Chau added his second goal at 11:09, and Logan Lambdin capped off the scoring in the frame with his goal at 17:55. When the dust settled after the second period, the Everblades held a 7-1 lead over the Mavericks as this one seemed like it was over after 40 minutes.
A third period goal by Zmolek at the the 6:00 mark capped off an 8-1 win for the Everblades after the Mavericks let Jack LaFontaine have a shot at stopping pucks, but the defending, two-time champions sent a statement to the ECHL's best team that they're in it to win it no matter who they face. It should be noted that Florida is now 12-0 in these playoffs when they score first, so Kansas City will need to try to hit the scoresheet first in the next six games. It's interesting that LaFontaine looked more comfortable than Morris did in the Mavericks' net, so we'll see who gets the start for the Mavericks after they got their doors blown off in Game One.
It should be noted that the Everblades are now three wins from becoming the first team in ECHL history to win three consecutive titles. The Toledo Storm in 1992 and 1993, the Allen Americans in 2015 and 2016, and the Colorado Eagles in 2017 and 2018 were the only other back-to-back champions, and none reached the Kelly Cup Final in their quests for a third title. Florida, for their part, are also looking to win a fourth Kelly Cup in franchise history which would be the most won by any ECHL team. Clearly, Florida is in uncharted waters right now simply by making the final.
On the other side of the coin, the Mavericks have to win four of the next six games, but they could become the first team since the Alaska Aces in 2014 to win Brabham Cup as regular-season champions and the Kelly Cup in the same season. It seems that the first-overall curse isn't just an NHL thing with the Presidents' Trophy - the Brabham Cup has its own history! Coincidentally, the last two Brabham Cup winners - Idaho and Toledo - both lost to Florida in the Kelly Cup Final, so this would be the third time in three seasons that Florida eliminated the top team in the final if they are successful. That's gotta be a record as well, right?
Florida leads 1-0 over Kansas City in the Kelly Cup with Game Two slated for Saturday night at Cable Dahmer Arena in a back-to-back games situation. There won't be a lot of time for curing bumps and bruises or for wallowing over a loss, but that might be the best thing for both teams. Florida's looking to put a strangehold on the series with a second while Kansas City needs to rebound with a victory before heading to Estero, Florida for Game Three on Wednesday.
We'll see who emerges victorious tomorrow, but the champs sent a statement tonight that they're hungry for a third consecutive title.
The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, hits the air tonight with both Stanley Cup Playoffs series tied at 2-2, so we'll dive into everything else happening in hockey to ensure everyone is caught up on everything else happening! There have been moves and signings and changes and votes and championships and a pile of other stuff still happening in hockey, and our hosts are going to try and get all of that news into the hour they have for hockey chatter. We'll jump all over the map to different teams, cities, and countries as we cover as much hockey as we can on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason will tackle a pile of topics as they aim to cover as much as they can. They will discuss the four new bench bosses in the NHL, a new GM in the NHL, a new coach in the EIHL and how it doesn't make sense, U SPORTS players still alive in the ECHL's Kelly Cup Playoffs, U SPORTS players with new homes next season, new coach announcements in U SPORTS, an IIHF announcement, a legend's announcement, and more. There's an AIHL update on the Melbourne Mustangs and Adelaide Adrenaline, we'll look at the PWHL championship and a major announcement made by the league, an NHL team is getting closer to having an identity, and we'll squeeze the local sledge hockey news into the show. Tonight's episode is overflowing with information, so it's best to get settled in for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!
If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The new UMFM website's online streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.
If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat coaching changes, management changes, championship dreams, international updates, new names, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!
There are countless of times in sports where athletes and franchises make history, but it gets harder as time moves on to be the first to do anything simply because a lot of people have walked that path before. There have been champions in organized women's professional hockey before, but the PWHL has been branded as the best-of-the-best league for all women playing the game. They lived up to the billing with their rosters that featured Olympians from a number of countries, and tonight was the moment where the first-ever champion of the PWHL was crowned. Congratulations goes to Minnesota who now own the first-ever Walter Cup celebration after their win against Boston!
It certainly didn't appear that the eventual champions were even close to being a favorite to win the Walter Cup after finishing their season on a five-game losing streak that put them in the precarious position of needing Ottawa to lose for them to make the dance. In a sequence that perhaps the "hockey gods" had a hand in, both Ottawa and Minnesota lost games to New York and Toronto as Ottawa's three-game losing skid to close the season landed them outside the playoff picture. Minnesota had made it, but they seemed ripe for the picking.
That's precisely what Toronto did as the first-overall team in the PWHL had the choice of choosing between Boston and Minnesota as their opponent. It seemed like a fairly obvious choice based on that five-game slide Minnesota was on, but the truth is that both Boston and Minnesota finished with 35 points and identical 8-9-4-3 records. Boston, as the lowest-scoring team in the league, may have been the beter choice for Toronto, but how many times can Toronto hockey fans suffer at the hands of a Boston team?
Maple Leafs jokes aside, Toronto chose Minnesota as their opponent, and things started well for the first-overall team as they defeated Minnesota by a 4-0 score to extend the losing streak to six games for the State of Hockey. Two days later, a 2-0 win by Toronto put them on verge of advancing as they had not only shut down Minnesota's speedy attack, but had denied them everything on the scoreboard. Heading to St. Paul, it seemed only like a matter of time before this series would end as Toronto was firmly in control.
A more consistent defensive effort from the Minnesota squad saw Maddie Rooney pitch a shutout in Game Three as Minnesota found the back of the net in a 2-0 victory. Toronto ran into some serious adversity, though, as leading scorer and potential league MVP Natalie Spooner left the game with the knee injury, but they still held a 2-1 series lead. While they'd need to figure out who could step into Spooner's role, there was hardly any worry with Toronto needing one more win against a team that was 1-7 in their last eight games.
Game Four saw both sides lock down their defensive zones as the game hit overtime tied 0-0. With the back-and-forth affair being grinded out along the boards with rebounds cleared over covered quickly, it felt like we were in for a long night of hockey. After her shutout two days earlier, Maddie Rooney seemed to have kicked her goaltending up to another level as she was absolutely unbeatable again. That goaltending kept Minnesota's chances alive despite Toronto's pressure, and Claire Butorac's double-overtime goal 84:27 after the puck was first dropped was the winner as Minnesota evened the series at 2-2 with their 1-0 double-overtime win!
From a potential sweep to a potential reverse-sweep, Game Five looked like another defensive battle as Toronto and Minnesota battled to a 1-1 score through two periods. Neither side looked like they were interested in having their season end, but a Jocelyne Larocque penalty in the third period allowed Taylor Heise to score a power-play goal, and Minnesota held the 2-1 lead with 11:30 to play. The defensive shell that Minnesota had been using since Game Three combined with Rooney's stellar netminding help Toronto's offence at bay, and a couple of empty-net goals pushed the score to 4-1, pushed Minnesota into the PWHL final, and the seemingly unlikely potential of seeing Minnesota in the final was now a reality!
There likely wasn't a favorite to be picked based on statistics after Boston beat Montreal in three-straight games, but it seemed like Boston might be the favorite after they dismissed the likes of Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Mélodie Daoust, and Ann-Renée Desbiens. Minnesota visited Lowell, Massachusetts for Game One where Boston won the opening game of the final by a 4-3 score on Jess Healey's third-period goal with 2:25 to play just 15 seconds after Taylor Heise had tied the game. Just as they did against Toronto, Minnesota trailed 1-0 in the series after the opening contest.
That defensive lockdown that Toronto ran into in their series returned in Game Two as Minnesota was much better in their own zone whith Maddie Rooney making a number of key stops, and Minnesota picked their spots as Michela Cava and Sophie Jaques, with a pair of goals, paced Minnesota to a 3-0 win. Perhaps the turning point in this game was the jailbreaker goal scored by Cava just five seconds after Natalie Buchbinder was sent to the penalty box as Boston's power-play was negated quickly, but the series was even at 1-1 following the the three-goal win and shutout for Minnesota.
Game Three saw Minnesota at home in the Xcel Energy Center where the jumped out to a lead just 59 seconds into the game off a Taylor Heise goal, and they never looked back. Despite Boston cutting the 2-0 lead in half with two seconds left in the middle frame, Minnesota got another clutch goal from Michela Cava early in the third period, and Grace Zumwinkle buried an empty-netter for the 4-1 win as Minnesota's improved defensive play had them leading a series for the first time at 2-1. Could they hoist the Walter Cup after Game Four?
It appeared that was the case after Taylor Heise drove the net in double-overtime with the score tied 0-0. I wrote about it on Sunday, but her initial drive was stopped only to have Sophie Jaques pot the rebound past Aerin Frankel to set off the celebration. As we know, that celebration would be short-lived after it was determined that Heise had interfered with Frankel, and Alina Müller crushed any hopes of that celebration starting back up when she scored one minute after play resumed. With the series tied 2-2, Minnesota and Boston were headed back to Lowell for Game Five.
The defensive battle that was waged in Game Four carried into Game Five as the opening 20 minutes saw the teams tied at 0-0. Liz Schepers would finally find room past the wall known as Aerin Frankel at 6:24, and everyone inside the Tsongas Center knew that one goal could be enough with how the two teams were playing defensively as the teams hit the second intermission with Minnesota up 1-0.
The seesaw battle would continue, but Michela Cava scored another clutch goal for Minnesota at the 8:48 mark to give them a two-goal cushion, allowing Minnesota to settle into their defensive shell. An empty-netter from Kendall Coyne Schofield, one of the women largely responsible for the PWHL, was the nail in the coffin, as Minnesota captured the first Walter Cup in a story that not even Hollywood could script for these women!
The full postgame ceremony is below, but the Walter Cup will head to the State of Hockey for at least one season! For the record, Taylor Heise was named as the Ilana Kloss Award Playoff MVP as well!
Not for nothing, there seemed like there was a lot of patting one's self on the back done by the PWHL this season which frustrates me because they didn't get to this point without a lot of people sacrificing what they believed in prior to this league being founded. Frankly, listening to Billie Jean King talk about everyone behind the scenes was nice, but I find it hard to watch her talk about being tall while standing on the shoulders of giants. But maybe that's just me.
Forget all the off-ice stuff that happened through the growing pains because the end result and the games on the ice were absolutely phenomenal this season, and that's a huge kudos for the players, coaches, and staffs of each team who competed hard, played well, and made professional women's hockey look better than ever. The belief that this would work never faltered, but seeing how many people came out to support the women and how many people are talking about the league is direct evidence that funding professional women's sports will lead to success.
For the women who participated this season, thank you for your hard work, dedication, and amazing play on the ice! To the coaches and staffs of these teams, excellent job in setting the bar both in level of play and excitement with how these teams played all season long as well. Combined, the efforts of the players, coaches, and staffs of the six teams have shown that there's a successful future for the PWHL, and I would expect expansion announcements to begin sometime next season after watching how good the hockey was this season.
History was made tonight in Lowell, Massachusetts as Minnesota is the very first PWHL champion. No one will be able to erase that, and there are five other teams who want their shots at the defending champions next season. Might we see the first repeat champion? It's hard to say right now, but one thing is certain: the hockey will be incredible to watch again!
I wrote all about some of the overtime trends that we've seen so far in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs as fifteen games had gone to extra time up to including Monday. I did mention that there would likely be more games that hit overtime, and it took all of one day to see another one with the New York Rangers and the Florida Panthers needing overtime tonight. Would this game follow the trend of ending within the first six minutes as eight had done previously? Might we see a triple-overtime game between these two teams?
Let's just say that we're not going to need late-night delivery. A rather terrible pass from Mika Zibanejad led to a Blake Wheeler penalty, and there was celebration just 72 seconds into the overtime period as Sam Reinhart buried a one-timer for the 3-2 win, tying the series at 2-2. Reinhart's goal was the fastest goal from the start of an overtime period in Florida Panthers playoff history, erasing Matthew Tkachuk's goal against the Carolina Hurricanes last season in Game Two of the Eastern Conference final that came 1:51 into the extra period.
What made this goal extraordinary, though, was the passing. Watch below and marvel at eight passes in 13 seconds for the winner.
The Panthers had all sorts of ice to work with in front of the net thanks to quick, accurate passes that pulled the penalty killers in all directions, allowing Reinhart to find himself wide-open in the slot for the finisher. All five players out for the power-play - Montour, Barkov, Verhaeghe, Tkachuk, and Reinhart - touched the puck in this sequence, and that goal might have been one of the prettiest seen in these playoffs for how quickly and efficiently the Panthers scored.
Something that may have gotten lost in the celebration is Sergei Bobrovsky's excellence in the extra periods. With the win in overtime tonight, Bobrovsky improved his career record to 12-2 with the Panthers in overtime games, and he's a remarkable 17-6 in his career overall. His 17 playoff overtime wins have him sitting with fourth-most in NHL history, behind only Patrick Roy (40), Ed Belfour (22) and Grant Fuhr (18). Considering that Bobrovsky is 2-2 in these playoffs, that 10-0 record in overtime games prior to this season is pretty insane as well. Maybe he's Big Save Bobrovsky?
We've now had 16 overtime games with nine ending within six minutes of the start of the first overtime period. That's also the fourth game that's finished inside of two minutes, and the third-straight overtime game in this series goes to the Panthers who turned this best-of-seven series into a best-of-three series with their win tonight. The series will shift back to Manhattan on Thursday - will we see a fourth-straight overtime game between these two teams?
If so, don't spring for late-night delivery hoping we get a marathon game. It just doesn't seem to be in the cards this postseason.
Overtime hockey is some of the most exciting moments in all of sports. As you likely know, things can change in an instant in hockey whether it be a fluky shot that finds a seam or a bouncing puck that handcuffs a goalie. Overtime is stressful for fans of the teams playing because any mistake could end up being the end of the game, but it's also joyous when the team for which one is cheering scores that goal. What's weird, though, is that overtime doesn't seem to go very long in the NHL nowadays, and this year's playoffs are following that trend as there haven't been many games that reached a second overtime period, let alone the midway point of the first overtime period.
This is just going to be a quick observation tonight as I was running around after work trying to get a whole pile of stuff done after having worked the majority of last week. I know I won't finish everything tonight, but if I can make a dent on all the things that need to be done - grcoery shopping, mowing the lawn, doing dishes, doing laundry - I won't feel like I'm a tourist in my own house. However, let's get this observation made.
There have been 15 games that have reached the end of regulation time with the teams tied on the scoreboard through the Stanley Cup Playoffs thus far. Both Dallas and the New York Rangers have played the most overtime games with four games going to extra time for each of them. However, the Rangers' 4-0 record in extra time compared to the Stars' 2-2 record shows a vast difference in terms of winning in the extra frame. Edmonton, for the record, is 2-1 in extra time in these playoffs while Florida is sitting at 1-2 so far.
Eight of the 15 games have ended within six minutes of overtime starting. The fastest overtime period happened back on April 28 when Vancouver's Elias Lindholm scored 62 seconds into the extra frame against Nashville. The longest game saw overtime extend to 31:42 when Dallas needed double-overtime to beat Colorado on Matt Duchene's goal on May 17. That was also the only game that broke that the 30-minute mark of extra time needed.
Over those 15 games, the teams have combined to play for 165:53 of extra time with Dallas logging the most extra time in these playoffs at 79:40 so far. By comparison, the Rangers have played 48:43 of extra time, the Oilers have 28:17 of extra time to their name, and the Panthers have logged 22:35 of overtime. Of all the teams that reached overtime, Nashville played the least at 62 seconds. Only two teams didn't see overtime - Washington and Winnipeg - while the Islanders and Kings were the only teams with winning overtime records in Round One who didn't advance.
Only four games have reached double-overtime, and both Dallas and Carolina were involved in two games each that hit the fifth period. The shortest start to the fifth period was just 32 seconds when Connor McDavid scored against Dallas in Game One on May 23 for a 20:32 total of extra time. The longest was the Dallas-Colorado game on May 17 as mentioned above. The two games in between those book ends were a 21:24 overtime total between the Islanders and Hurricanes on April 27 and a 27:24 overtime total between the Rangers and Hurricanes on May 7.
Of the 15 games, three have finished within the 1:00-2:00 timeframe (20.0%), three have finished in the 2:00-3:00 timeframe (20.0%), and two have finished within the 5:00-6:00 marks (13.3%). Three have finished between 11:00 and 17:00 (20%), and the other four have gone beyond the first period (26.7%). With that being said, don't get settled in for a long overtime with eleven games being completed in the first overtime period (73.3%). Teams aren't looking for marathon games, it seems, as they're scoring before they hit the fourth break.
There are some quick numbers on the overtime games seen thus far in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It seems likely that we'll have a few more overtime games before Gary Bettman hands one of the captains the Stanley Cup, so we'll see how those games go as we get closer to the end of the playoffs. If I were a betting man, I'd expect quick endings to these games, though, as shown in the trends above!
It may have been coincidence that both Minnesota's Taylor Heise and Boston's Alina Müller were on this promotional poster for the PWHL's Walter Cup Championship series, but the fact that they both played a big part in the most pivotal game of the series to this point is pretty interesting. Game Four of the championship final went tonight, and it was a big one at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota as PWHL Minnesota held a 2-1 series lead over PWHL Boston. It looked like the Walter Cup was on the verge of being awarded, but it will make the trip back to Lowell, Massachusetts after the dust settled on this one.
In what was a first for me this week, I had a chance to watch playoff hockey. Say what you want, but everything pointed to this game being far more entertaining than anything else being offered on the Sunday of a Memorial Day weekend in the US, and I would have opted for the PWHL over the NHL had they gone head-to-head. With the Walter Cup in the building, there was history to be made!
The game was still tied 0-0 in double-overtime as both netminders - Boston's Aerin Frankel and Minnesota's Nicole Hensley - had zero interest in going home early. Both teams had their chances, but it would be a rush by Minnesota that saw the crowd erupt in jubilation.
As you saw in the video, Taylor Heise took the puck to the net around the defender, but loses her edge and slides into Aerin Frankel in the crease. As the puck found its way to Sophie Jaques, she buried it for what looked like the championship-winning goal. However, after the officials reviewed the play, it was determined that Heise wasn't pushed into Frankel nor taken down by the defender, and the goal was waved off as Minnesota celebrated.
If you were thinking the same thing I was, yes, the Minnesota players had to collect their gear and get recomposed to continue a game they believed they had won. How they would do that after that release of emotion seems rather impossible to me, but this is why I'm not competing for the top prize in professional women's hockey. With everyone dressed and on the bench again, the game resumed late in double-overtime with the teams still tied at 0-0!
And wouldn't you know it, but exactly one minute after the Minnesota celebration ended and yard sale was cleaned up, this happened.
Alina Müller forces Kendall Coyne Schofield to make a bad pass from the wall that goes off the skate of Heise and is picked up by Theresa Schafzahl. Schafzahl drops the puck to Müller as she goes to the middle of the ice, and Müller unleashes a wrist shot high glove-side on Hensley to end this game after 98:36 of goalless hockey as Bostons wins 1-0 to force Game Five back at the Tsongas Center.
"After that overturned goal, I knew we were going to get it," Müller said to reporters. "We had more power, more speed. It was on our side.... Now we're going to bring it home and we're going to finish it. Unbelievable effort."
For Minnesota, they need to find a way to shake this game off after celebrating what appeared to be a championship goal only to lose one minute later and be forced to head back to Massachusetts for Game Five where one of these teams will be crowned as champions.
"We had lots of chances to win this game," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. "So, for us, we get to play another game and that's the way we have to look at it. It wasn't a do-or-die for us. This one hurt but now we go back to work."
Klee's mentality is the right one to have, but it will be a question of whether those "we had it" feelings can be squashed in each Minnesota player. They'll need everyone onboard to bounce back with the biggest win of the season when it comes to claiming the Walter Cup, so having that opportunity to make good once more might be what the team needs.
Boston, meanwhile, will rely on their wall known as Aerin Frankel while trying to break through the Minnesota defensive system once again. If anything, Müller should be given a bigger role in Game Five considering it was her initial play that led to the turnover, but Loren Gabel, Lexie Adzija, and Sophie Shirley have to give Boston a little more depth to have their top stars ready to flex in the latter stages of the game. Courtney Kessel will need to manage that ice time, but Boston has shown that they have the depth to win the whole thing.
One of Minnesota or Boston will celebrate late into the night on Wednesday as the first-ever PWHL champions. The game is scheduled for 7pm ET, so adjust accordingly for your time zone if you want to witness some hockey history. If you're in the Lowell region, get to Tsongas Center to see the game in-person because it should be a beauty! The PWHL season is coming to a close on Wednesday, and we'll know which of Minnesota or Boston stands atop the mountain!
I'm a big fan of the IIHF World Championship tournaments in any format. Whether it's men or women on the ice, seeing nations clash on the ice is always fun for hockey fans when it comes to bragging rights about which country has the best team. The major problem that I have with the IIHF, however, reared its ugly head again today at the end of the Canada-Switzerland contest in Prague, Czechia. There was nothing wrong with the game as the two countries went toe-to-toe in regualtion time for sixty minutes before heading to overtime as neither Canada nor Switzerland could break the 2-2 tie. To solve the problem, the IIHF mandates that team play be suspended with a berth to the gold medal game on the line, and we're treated the dumbest way to break ties: the shootout.
I'm not going to complain that Canada lost and Switzerland won because it's irrelevant in this discussion. Switzerland deserves to play in the gold medal game based on the results of the game, and I'm absolutely content with that. They earned it, so they'll get a shot at bringing home the gold medal. What I struggle with, though, is why the shootout even needs to be a thing at these tournaments. It's not like there are other games scheduled or a time limit on this tournament, yet they opt to decide games in the most anti-team way.
I completely understand the usage of shootouts in the round-robin part of the tournament because it does determine a winner and loser in a three-point game where there are time limits. Having a result that keeps the two-point, extra-time win intact means that the standings get a little crazier in how they look based on how those games end, so having a shootout to end those games is entirely palatable even if I despise everything about the skill competition.
The IIHF oversees country-vs-country competitions, yet they reduce the games to a simple one-on-one when nothing is solved through 70 minutes of play. If we're emphasizing one country's best players versus another's best, shouldn't we embrace the team game more than a breakaway competition? And shouldn't this team concept be emphasized in the medal round where the country with the best team wins the gold medal? I can't remember the last time someone said, "Jonathan Toews won the 2007 World Junior Championship" despite all his shootout goals. Instead, Canada won the championship despite that shootout victory, but the US still should have been able to decide that semifinal game as a team, not as individuals.
When it comes to determining medal colours for countries, the shootout should NOT be used for any reason. Let the teams play, I beg you. There is more than enough time to reset for a second medal-round game that happens, and the results are far more true than having a handful of players determine what medal for which a country will play. You can't ask 20 players to band together and get to a semifinal only to reduce the "team" to six players. That makes no sense, especially when one considers how important depth players become in a high stakes game.
Good luck to Switzerland who will face Czechia in the gold medal game tomorrow. Canada and Sweden will battle for the bronze medal as the 2024 IIHF Men's World Championship wraps up tomorrow. For a tournament that has seen some remarkable plays from a number of teams, reducing teams to a handful of breakaways to determine medals is idiotic.
It's time to retire the shootout in pivotal games.
It's often said that there are unbreakable bonds formed in the heat of battle, and we can certainly twist those words apply them to hockey where there are battles between players all over the ice. It's the experiences both on and off the ice, however, that build the foundation for life-long friendships between players that exist even when players get traded or leave via free agency, and there have been examples older players choosing to play for a championship with friends as opposed to heading to the top team in the league. This same thing happens at other levels of hockey as well, and two women who forged a life-long friendship through hockey will follow their dreams to the professional level together next season!
The Saskatchewan Huskies will add two more names to the list of graduates who found professional hockey homes as it was announced today that goaltender Camryn Drever and defender Isabella Pozzi have agreed to one-year deals with Skellefteå AIK in the SDHL next season! For those wondering, Skellefteå AIK is the newest team to join the top level of women's hockey in Sweden after they defeated AIK IF in the relegation round, pushing AIK IF to the Nationella Damhockeyligan for next season, so the stakes will be high for Drever and Pozzi as they jump into one of the best leagues on the planet!
If all of the "AIK" stuff above has you confused, AIK IF is a team based in Stockholm while Skellefteå AIK calls the city of Skellefteå home. AIK is the Swedish acronym for "athletic club" so it can be confusing, but that's why the city names are usually included with the AIK acronym. While AIK IF doesn't include "Stockholm" in their name, virtually every other team that uses the AIK abbreviation does. Hopefully, that helps with any confusion in the names.
Drever and Pozzi are no stranger to big games, having just played in the 2024 U SPORTS National Championship while also being part of the gold medal-winning 2023 Team Canada squad that won the FISU Universiade Games. Obviously, professional hockey will raise the level of competition for these two once again, but both Drever and Pozzi have shown they're capable of taking their games to another level. As part of a revamped Skellefteå club that's improving at all positions, it's exciting to see them make this jump!
Drever will tandem with Miranda Dahlgren, a 24 year-old netminder from Skellefteå whose numbers were ridiculous last season. Since joining Skellefteå AIK in 2018-19, Dahlgren is 53-9-0 including being 8-1-0 last season. Her goals-against average is 0.93 with last season showing a 0.67 mark, and her save percentage since 2018 has been an incredible .950 with last season clocking in at .947. To say that Skellefteå has two goalies who can steal games might be underselling how good the Drever-Dahlgren tandem will be.
Pozzi's skills are almost suited for how Skellefteå plays the game as they had four defenders in their top-ten scorers last season. Malou Berggren is the top defender returning this season for SDHL play as she had two goals and 12 assists last season, and it appears that Pozzi will be expected to step into one of Johanna Kellander's or Pernilla Forsgren's spots as a catalyst for offence from the blue line while playing solid defence. Pozzi's talents and ability to play a more physical game should fit nicely in Skellefteå's black-and-gold.
The biggest question mark heading into next season will be the coaching as head coach Martin Lindh was hired in this offseason to take over the club as they enter the SDHL. The 42-year-old Swede coached Troja-Ljungby's women's team in the NDHL for seven seasons where they finished as high as second-place in the Södra Division in that time. There's no denying that his coaching style appealed to GM Ulrika Dahlgren, but we've seen good coaches struggle to find results in the SDHL due to the amount of talent skating there. If Lindh can figure out his team's strengths and weaknesses early and put a system in where strengths are maximized and weakenesses are minimized, Skellefteå should be successful in their SDHL debut season.
Adding a couple of great players and incredible people like Camryn Drever and Isabella Pozzi will certainly help Skellefteå both on and off the ice. As good as they play on the ice, they're fabulous women who have a history of giving back and doing more in the community as the city of Saskatoon can attest. Head coach Steve Kook will tell you how easy it is to coach these two players as they're committed to seeing the team succeed as much as they want their own success, and their teammates will tell you that these two women are excellent in the room, pushing players to be better and cheering other players' successes.
Drever and Pozzi look like good fits in Skellefteå for a number of reasons, and I believe the city and their fans will adopt these two Canadians pretty quickly. For a city that sits 12-degrees north of Saskatoon's latitude, everything I can see points to Camryn and Isabella finding Skellefteå to feel a lot like their university hockey home. And, of course, HBIC will keep an eye on them as the season gets underway in Sweden!
The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back on Survivor: NHL Playoffs island tonight to bring four more entrants back to the mainland as we get set for the NHL Conference Finals to begin this evening. After tonight's eliminations from the contest, just four players will be competing for the two NHL jerseys that are up for grabs as grand prizes as we get closer to knowing who the 2024 Stanley Cup champion is! Our hosts also have a few smaller stories to report on as they'll use the remaining time to bring everyone up to date on what's happening elsewhere in hockey, so make sure you're ready for the chatter tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason will chat with Tyler (Boston), Chris (Colorado), Travis (Vancouver), and John (Carolina) about their teams' exits from the playoffs after falling in the second round of the playoffs as their runs in the Survivor: NHL Playoffs contest come to an end. After getting their takes on their exits, our hosts have some U SPORTS news and notes to discuss, they'll discuss the IIHF World Championship, and there have been some developments locally and internationally on the sledge hockey front! We'll have all this and anything else we can squeeze into the hour tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!
If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The new UMFM website's online streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.
If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with Tyler, Chris, Travis, and John about their teams' exits from Survivor: NHL Playoffs before chatting about players with chances to win, players choosing new places to play, international successes, some local sledge hockey news, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!
If I'm being totally honest, I'd like the schedule to the left to be my daily work schedule. Anyone who holds a job knows that there's zero chance of this being a reality unless one is a teacher, but that's how the working world works. Adding more things into the schedule to the left is possible if they're added before or after the main schedule, but time considerations start to wear thin when one has too many things on the schedule. That's the situation I'm in when it comes to watching playoff hockey this week, so I may be a little lost when it comes to scores, details, and events that happened early in this third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
My normal workday isn't being affected by anything, so the usual 9-to-5 that I work is like the school schedule above - nothing changes there when it comes to my everyday schedule. Where things get chaotic is after work where I've booked myself solid for the remainder of the week starting last night. As you may remember, I agreed to return as one of the official scorers for the minor-pro baseball team in the city, and the home opener for the team kicked off the home schedule for the team. I was there for that game.
Tonight, I'm also at the ballpark. Tomorrow, I'm at the ballpark for a day game followed by heading to the radio station for The Hockey Show. Friday sees me playing the first game of a slo-pitch tournament. Saturday has me back out on the field for 10am before leaving for more scoring work at the professional ballpark. Sunday has me at the ballpark as well. In short, time becomes a premium where work and sleep get prioritized over watching hockey.
I know what you're thinking: "how does a guy with a hockey radio show and a blog not watch the most important hockey of the year?"
It's an entirely valid question, but when I said I was going to start pursuing other interests and worry less about writing this blog I meant it. There are days where I simply don't feel like writing anything, so I don't. You may notice that I go back and fill in gaps where I haven't written anything like I'm doing with this, and that's simply to give some consistency and flow to the blog. Am I concerned that I missed a day? Not at all - I'll get to it eventually.
I'm not denying that this may be the best time of year for hockey with all of the Stanley Cup, Calder Cup, Kelly Cup, Walter Cup, Memorial Cup, and the IIHF World Championship set to be awarded to the best teams in each of those tournaments, but responsibilities and commitments must be honoured and fulfilled. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made. For me, that's watching hockey this week.
I'll catch this blog up when I can, but it falls down the list of my priorities right now. I know it seems weird to read that when I do love the game so much, but time is a finite resource on a schedule. As Hootie and the Blowfish sang, "Time, why you punish me?"
With Edmonton defeating Vancouver last night, there have already been some who have deemed the Oilers as "Canada's team" or "Canada's last hope" when it comes to winning a Stanley Cup. There's no denying that they are the last Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but I don't know of the Oilers have captured Canada's attention in any specific way other than having Connor McDavid on the roster. I can't find any history on where this phenomenon of annointing one team as "Canada's team" started, but I can tell you that I have zero reason to cheer for the Oilers as they get set to battle the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final.
With Canada not having a Stanley Cup champion in one of its cities since 1993, it seems there's an expectation that the country will rally against the remaining 25 teams in an us-versus-them mentality where Canada battles the US. We know this isn't true, though, because you'd be hard-pressed to find any Tampa Bay Lightning fan suddenly switching allegiances to the Florida Panthers just because Florida has yet to win a Stanley Cup. Assuming that all of Canada will suddenly embrace the Oilers suggests a fundamental lack of understanding of how fans think and operate when it comes to opponents.
You can make the case that the Oilers have the most skilled player in the playoffs as Connor McDavid can seemingly take over a series with his skills, but we saw the Canucks hold McDavid off the scoresheet in a number of games they played so one has to wonder if having the game's biggest superstar matters when we're seeing team efforts putting up better results. Yes, I realize that McDavid has guys like Draisaitl, Hyman, and Bouchard to carry some of the offensive load as well, but why would Canada rally behind the Oilers in Round Three?
As polarizing as he is, Evander Kane still skates for the Oilers, and there are a lot of people who simply don't like Kane based on previously-seen actions and behaviours. That's not to say that he's still exhibiting the same behaviours in Edmonton which is a credit to his efforts in becoming a better teammate, but first impressions don't just disappear. The same can be said for Corey Perry who has made a lot of fans unhappy with his style of play over the years, so having these two players on their roster will immediately turn some Canadian fans against the Oilers thanks to their past actions.
Does anyone think that Vancouver Canucks fans are instantly going to drop their hatred for the Oilers and adopt them as Canada's best chance to end the Stanley Cupo drought? Does anyone believe that Calgary Flames fans or Winnipeg Jets fans are going to buy into the Oilers' run after watching the Oilers dominate throughout the 1980s against those two franchises? Do we expect Toronto Maple Leafs fans or Montreal Canadiens fans to suspend the loyalty they have for their teams and cheer for Edmonton after execising their birth rights as Leafs and Habs fans? I doubt Ottawa Senators fans are looking westward with the hopes that the Oilers win, so why does the last Canadian-based team suddenly become "Canada's team"?
It would be ludicrous to expect Islanders fans or Devils fans to start cheering for the New York Rangers as "America's team". The Dallas Cowboys have tried to brand themselves as "America's team" in the past, but the Dallas Stars won't get that same treatment. And I already mentioned how Tampa Bay fans would choose far worse fates than cheer for the Florida Panthers, so can we stop bestowing a stupid title on the last remaining Canadian team in the playoffs?
If the Oilers do win, they deserve the credit for their effort in winning sixteen games in the hardest tournament to win, but I doubt that hockey fans are going to be fistbumping Oilers fans for "winning us a Cup". That doesn't exist in Canada just like "Canada's team" doesn't exist despite some trying to sell that narrative.
Canada is a country that is united over things that affect us all, but the Edmonton Oilers are not one of those things. I'll wish them luck against the Dallas Stars because it appears they may need it based on how Dallas is playing, but that's as far I'll go when it comes to cheering for the Oilers. I can't and won't do it, so you won't find me celebrating "Canada's team" regardless of how they finish the season.
Those are neither my hands nor is that my plant, but I spent most of today outside doing yard work. The lawn needed to be cut, there was some weeding to do, and the annual ritual of planting the garden began. Every year, I try to add something new to the garden that I haven't grown before, and we'll see if this year's new recruit produces solid returns. With it being the May Long Weekend in Canada and today being Victoria Day, garden centers around the city were busy as the official start of summer began with everyone planting their gardens!
Because I did yard work virtually all day, I watched zero hockey. My goal this evening is to also watch zero hockey as I'm tired from doing a ton of work. I find that if I do work outside all day, the fresh air seems to add another layer of tiring me out, but being out in the warmth and seeing plants and insects starting their summer growth will always make me smile.
Among the various live plants I bought for planting, I have five different types of peppers planted, three types of tomatoes, some onions, and, for the first time ever in my garden, I'm trying broccoli as a garden plant. I've heard it's not a difficult plant to manage, but I have come around to like broccoli as a vegetable in my meals - specifically on the grill - so we'll see how this turns out.
For now, though, I need a shower to get all this dirt and mud off me from playing in the garden, and I'm pretty certain that I've started the farmer's tan thanks to the t-shirt I was wearing. The rest of the night will be relaxing and getting ready for the week as I'll be busy! More on that as we get into it this week, but there's all sorts of great hockey still being played. If you haven't been watching, the IIHF World Hockey Championship has been incredible as well, so don't just think playoff hockey is the only hockey worth watching.
I'm off to take a hot shower and call it a night. I'll be back with more hockey and life chatter this week, but the garden is mostly planted which is a big job off the checklist.
As you're likely aware, a lot of U SPORTS players are playing in the ECHL. Whether they signed this season following the U SPORTS season ending or in years past, there are a handful of players who are still alive on the four remaining teams in the 2024 Kelly Cup Playoffs. The Eastern Conference will feature the Adirondack Thunder trying to eliminate the two-time defending champion Florida Everblades while the Western Conference sees the Toledo Walleye battling the Kansas City Mavericks. I don't have a stake in either of these series, but there are some former U SPORTS players who have a chance at adding some hardware to their personal trophy cases. Who are they? For which of the four teams do they play? Let's find out which players have a shot at bringing home the Kelly Cup.
Florida Everblades
We'll start with the two-time defending champs as the Florida Everblades have been here before and know what it takes to win. They have had a handful of U SPORTS players on their roster in the past during their wins and there were a number this season, but they do have a few helping them this postseason.
Kyle Neuber - University of Guelph 2013-16
Jordan Sambrook - University of Brock 2019-20
Evan Cormier - Univeristy of Guelph 2018-19
There are only three players on the playoff roster for the Everblades, but the OUA could see a champion crowned this season. It should be noted that Neuber is looking for a third Kelly Cup with the Everblades after winning with the club in the last two years, so he's got some hardware already. Cormier, shown in italics, is on the reserve list as the third netminder for the Everblades.
Adirondack Thunder
Adirondack finished in first-place in the North Division as they played a solid game all season. They eliminated Norfolk in the semifinal, and they look like they could give Florida a real challenge in the Eastern Conference Final.
Jackson van de Leest - Dalhousie Univeristy 2022-24
Darien Skeoch - Carleton University 2018-20
The 6'7" Jackson van de Leest only played 14 games after arriving from Dalhousie, but he's a hard guy to miss on the ice. Darien Skeoch arrived from Savannah earlier in the season, and his toughness and grit that put up 150 PIMs in 41 games was appreciated by the coaching staff. Both defenders are key pieces in the Thunder defensive scheme.
Toledo Walleye
Toledo lost to Idaho last season in the Western Conference Final, so they're looking to take the next step and compete in the final. They finished in first-place in the Central Division and were second-overall in the ECHL. They're a solid squad.
Riley Sawchuk - Mount Royal University 2021-23
Jason Willms - University of New Brunswick 2021-24
Brady Gilmour - University of New Brunswick 2019-24
Darian Pilon - UPEI 2019-23
Cole Cameron - University of Guelph/TMU 2019-24
Toledo boasts some incredible U SPORTS talent as Riley Sawchuk was sent to Toledo by Grand Rapids, and they inked a pair of U Cup winners in Willms and Gilmour. Their reserves are solid as well as both Pilon and Cameron are incredible defenders, yet the Walleye have them as extras on this playoff run. Yeah, the Walleye are deep and have a load of talent. This could be a big finish for both Willms and Gilmour with a Kelly Cup to go along with a U Cup!
Kansas City Mavericks
The Mavericks came into the playoffs as the first-overall team in the ECHL this season after putting up 54 wins and 114 points. They've lost a single game to the Idaho Steelheads over the first two rounds, and they look like a juggernaut as they enter the Western Conference Final. Will we see the Kelly Cup head to Kansas City this season?
David Noel - UQTR 2021-24
Jakob Brahaney - Queen's University 2021-24
Justin MacPherson - St. Mary's University 2021-24
Bradley Schoonbaert - University of Calgary 2018-23
You know the Mavericks are loaded with talent when the likes of Schoobaert is left on the reserve list. Noel is a very good defender who stepped right in the Kansas City lineup, and both MacPherson and Brahaney are skilled players as well despite being reserves. I'm not going to criticize the top-ranked team in the ECHL for sitting good players, but there's an embarrassment of riches in Kansas City.
Fourteen former U SPORTS players still have a shot at winning a Kelly Cup this season, and it speaks volumes to how good U SPORTS programs are as these players were identified by these ECHL teams as potential difference makers this season. With eight wins being needed to claim the Kelly Cup, these fourteen players are halfway to that accolade. Potentially, as few as six players will compete in the Kelly Cup Final, but there could be eight depending on who advances so there will be former U SPORTS players who will be Kelly Cup champions this season!
With Craig Berube heading to Toronto and Carolina re-signing Rod Brind'Amour under new deals, a couple of bigger fish are out of the coaching pool that the Winnipeg Jets may have been fishing. There are still options for the team, but it almost seems like the team is simply doing its due diligence before naming associate coach Scott Arniel as the new bench boss. I fully understand why the Jets would go with Arniel after watching him work under Bowness for the last couple of seasons, but I feel like Arniel's appointment to the position may replicate problems that plagued Rick Bowness. After all, they worked together, so how are we getting different results?
This isn't an indictment of Scott Arniel's knowledge or coaching style, but it's an honest question about what will change after two seasons of watching Arniel operate under Bowness. Frankly, we saw the Jets struggle mightily while on special teams, and there wasn't a lot to like about their zone exits or entries for most of the season. If the rumours of shopping Nikolaj Ehlers is true, that's only going to get worse if a deal is made involving the slick-skating Dane.
Personally, I'd like to see a handful of younger guys get a chat with the Jets' brass. I was hoping Brind'Amour would become available, but that's off the table. I'm glad Berube is also off the market because I didn't think he was the right fit. Dean Evason and Todd McLellan are names that have been mentioned with Todd Nelson reportedly still on the radar, but his availability is a little tied up thanks to Hershey still playing in the AHL's Calder Cup Playoffs. Again, none of these are poor choice by any measure, but it might be time to go younger in Winnipeg after a number of well-aged hires.
Jay Woodcroft would be a name high on the list of people with whom I'd want the Jets to speak, but Gerard Gallant would be another guy whose resumé can't be ignored. If the Jets wanted to dip into the AHL a little further than Nelson, Dan Bylsma in Coachella Valley, Karl Taylor in Milwaukee, and Mitch Love in Calgary would all be excelletn candidates for an interview considering their recent successes in the AHL. Jeff Jackson at Notre Dame, Derek Laxdal with the Oshawa Generals, and Switzerland's Patrick Fischer would be interesting chats when it comes to the head coaching position as well.
If the position is truly Scott Arniel's to lose at this point, my hope is that he choose to play the kids. I get that Winnipeg has gravitated towards veteran players when they need to fill holes, but it's time for the "develop" part of the draft-and-develop plan to start bearing fruit. Players like Cole Perfetti, Brad Lambert, Ville Heinola, Nikita Chibrikov, and Parker Ford should probably get shots, and it would be best for the Jets to find a way to get the kids into the lineup to create a little salary cap room in case they have to add someone.
In terms of longer projections, Elias Salomonsson may need a little North American seasoning after his fantastic campaign in Sweden, but he shouldn't be kept down with the Moose if he proves he's ready. The same holds true for Thomas Milic who got his feet wet at the AHL level this season, and may be ready to compete for the backup spot in the next season or two. With the likes of Rutger McGroarty, Colby Barlow, Daniel Zhilkin, Dom DiVincentiis, and Jacob Julien looking like they may be ready to make the jump, the pipeline is only going to get clogged if some of these players aren't promoted. Arniel, assuming the job is his, would be wise to find roster spots for the guys in the previous paragraph.
The Jets showed this season that they're a good defensive club through the rigors of the regular season, but they were exploited by size and speed when the Avalanche figured out how to attack the Jets. Scott Arniel was part of the coaching staff behind the Jets' bench that looked absolutely dazed and confused about how to get the Jets rolling, and it was ultimately futile as the team went back to what didn't work so many times before in losing in five games. There's a way out of this, but will Arniel accept it?
No one is saying the Jets need to go all-in on analytics, but to deny the numbers and trends outright while building lines that get pinned in their own zone for minutes at times is the recipe for another disaster come the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. I get that Bowness never found a use for those analytics beyond using them as talking points, but Arniel needs to be far more aware of what the numbers are saying when it comes to how the Jets are playing. Assuming he'll be named the head coach, this is one small change he can make that can have a world of difference.
In the end, the Jets are still without a coach as we approach one month prior to the NHL Entry Draft. I'm curious as to how long the Jets will continue their search because it seems like they're talking to candidates, but I'm not sure there's a lot of substance to those chats. Whether they're waiting for Nelson or looking at others, it's hard to imagine they look elsewhere with Arniel already under contract, but it seems this process will continue.
As Montgomery Scott once said on Star Trek, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." If the Jets do, in fact, hire Scott Arniel as their next head coach after talking to a number of candidates, what was the point of wasting everyone's time? And if he is hired to be the next coach, how will things change from what we've already seen in two-straight postseasons? Two wins in ten playoff games in two seasons can't be the acceptable standard.
Make it work, Scotty... assuming you're the next head coach.
The PWHL final is set as the last two teams standing in the competition to claim the first Walter Cup have been determined. Boston has been waiting to see who they play for a few days after eliminating Montreal, and Minnesota completed an unbelievable comeback after being down 2-0 in their series to win against Toronto to win 3-2 and advance to the final. Both teams earned their berths in the final as all three games in the Boston-Montreal series went to overtime while, as stated, Minnesota won three times while facing elimination. Not having a Canadian club compete for the Walter Cup in Year One kinda sucks, but the first championship will be decided on American soil.
One could make the claim that this final might be a bit of a letdown considering that the third- and fourth-place teams are the two squads in the final, but I'd argue that the parity on the league has shone through in ensuring that every team had a chance at winning. For the first season of play, that's what every league wants for its fans in each of its member cities, and I'm not sure many had Boston and Minnesota meeting for the PWHL's championship.
Despite Toronto being the top team in the league and choosing Minnesota as their opponent, Troy Ryan's group will have to figure out what went wrong. Losing the league's top scorer in Natalie Spooner in this series certainly didn't help, but having Victoria Bach on the ice for just 45:10 in five games seems like Ryan wasn't managing his bench well. In Game Four, she played a series-low 5:20 in a pivotal game that Toronto lost 1-0, and I struggle to understand why Bach wasn't on the ice more often.
It was the same story for Ryan in his deployment of some of his bottom-six players. The combination of Alexa Vasko, Samantha Cogan, and Kaitlin Willoughby didn't play more than 35:45 total in the five games for each of them, and one has to wonder what Ryan was waiting for in having these women dress, but barely play. You can point to the fact that they had just five assists combined during the regular season, but we saw how important depth players were in each of the games. In Game Three's 2-0 win for Minnesota, Maggie Flaherty and Denisa Křížová scored for Minnesota - they had a combined four goals all season. In Game Four's 1-0 win for Minnesota, Claire Butorac scored the double-overtime winner - she scored once all season. Minnesota's usage of their depth players won them games.
The same can be said of Montreal who relied far too heavily, in this writer's opinion, on a handful of players while Boston used its depth to keep its stars fresher. You can make a case that Susanna Tapani is one of Boston's stars as she ended Game One in overtime, but did anyone have Taylor Wenczkowski scoring her first professional goal in triple-overtime in Game Two to win the game? One has to wonder why Kori Cheverie played Jillian Dempsey just 4:15 in a game that lasted 111:44. Or why Leah Lum was played just 1:37. Or why three of six defenders played less than six minutes in the entire game. Montreal played 11 players more than 30 minutes in this game while dressing 19 skaters - that's baffling!
In all fairness, I expect some of the better players in the league to have a larger proportion of ice time, especially when an offensive zone face-off is awarded or there is a swing in offensive momentum. However, if players are being stapled to the bench regardless of the situation, why are they even being asked to dress? And what does that say about players who may have been scratched for that game? I'm sure Marie-Philip Poulin has no trouble playing 50:33 of a 111:44 game, but what's left in the tank midway through the sixth period when she's out there again?
I'll credit both Boston and Minnesota for better bench management in their series because they seemed to find the right mix of keeping players in the game. As I said above, depth scoring showed up for them because they were given more opportunities for that to happen while their stars were in on the scoring despite often being keyed on defensively, and that effort to spead the ice time throughout the roster now has both teams advancing.
Were depth scoring and bench management the only reasons for Boston and Minnesota advancing? Heck no, and I'd be naive to suggest that. They got timely scoring, good special teams play, solid defensive efforts, and phenomenal goaltending which helped them as well. Every team that wins has that mix, though, so there's usually something in the details that may have helped one team advance past another, and that's where depth scoring and bench management work hand-in-hand. It's not a stretch to suggest that games were won later in each contest, and that could be due to having fresher players coming over the boards for the winning teams.
Congratulations go out to PWHL Boston and PWHL Minnesota as the Walter Cup will be won on American soil this season with Boston hosting Minnesota in Game One on Sunday in their best-of-five series. Keep an eye on which team keeps their depth players involved as this series progresses. It's not a guarantee that team will win, but the old adage of "we win as a team" has both Boston and Minnesota on the cusp of hoisting the Walter Cup in the PWHL's inaugural season.
The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, takes a break from the shores of Survivor: NHL Playoffs island and dives into an important day. Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day where everyone should be talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion and people with different disabilities. This show preview, for example, doesn't have an audio tool to allow blind people to read the words on the screen, and it's something I'll be investigating today and moving forward. Because today is GAAD, The Hockey Show also realized we need a little more access and inclusion in hockey, and we're excited to speak to someone who is doing incredible things on that front tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason are excited to speak with the man to the left, Mr. Mark DeMontis, who is one of three finalists for the 2024 Willie O'Ree Award! Mark's name probably isn't a household name, but we intend to make it one as Mark lost his vision at 17, ending his NCAA and his NHL dreams. Mark's determination to make things better after meeting one of his heroes has shown up in spades as he founded a non-profit called Courage Canada which became the Canadian Blind Hockey Association! From there, Mark's life has been a whirlwind of activity in his efforts and advocating for visually-impaired and blind people, and we'll talk to him about how life changed, winning medals, hosting the biggest tournament of its kind, the evolution and growth of the sport of Blind Hockey, and much more! We are excited to speak to Mark on Global Accessibility Awareness Day about all the cool stuff he's doing tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!
Before we get to our usual paragraphs of how to listen, you can actually help Mark win Willie O'Ree Award this year! Voting is open until May 19 so you'll have to act fast, but head over to the Willie O'Ree Award page on NHL.com and click the vote button! There's no sign-ups or costs or anything, and you don't have to sign up for the newsletters. Every vote counts, though, so let's help Mark win the award this year because he has done some rather incredible stuff to help blind hockey players get back on the ice!
If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The new UMFM website's online streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store. It's a solid app.
If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard!
Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with Mark DeMontis, 2024 Willie O'Ree Award finalist, about life, navigating life without sight, playing hockey, growing the game, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!
It's hard to imagine the UNB Varisty Reds men's hockey team preparing for the 2024-25 season without the man to the left behind the bench, but UNB made it official today as they announced that Gardiner MacDougall was retiring after 24 seasons of running the Reds hockey program. While it's true that MacDougall doesn't have many more accolades or accomplishments that he hasn't already achieved in U SPORTS, the magnitude of MacDougall retiring from his post at the University of New Brunswick would be similar to when Gordie Howe or Wayne Gretzky retired. His impact was felt across this country, and I'm sure there will be another U SPORTS coach as good as MacDougall in my lifetime. A new chapter begins, but it's hard to say goodbye.
According to reports, MacDougall is set to take over the QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats as early as tomorrow as their head coach with his son, Taylor, assuming the roles of General Manager and Director of Hockey Operations. MacDougall has already had CHL success after winning the Memorial Cup with the Saint John Sea Dogs back in 2022, but the MacDougall duo will get an opportunity to rebuild the Moncton Wildcats into a perennial powerhouse just as Gardiner had done with the UNB Reds. No one is expecting to see Moncton in the Memorial Cup next season, but the belief is that the MacDougall duo will be able to set the franchise up for long-term success.
That announcement will likely come sometime soon, but the winningest coach in U SPORTS hockey history leaves behind a legacy that very few will even approach. His 490 regular season wins are the most in university hockey history while his 43-0-0 winning streak this season is the best season ever estalished in U SPORTS. He and Tom Watt share the record for the most U Cup championship titles with nine, and he led UNB to twelve U Cup championship games. His 17 appearances at the U Cup are also a record for all coaches, and his ninth-straight appearance this season tied him for the second-longest streak in U SPORTS history.
"It's been an unbelievable experience and journey here," MacDougall told the crowd in attendance. "Every year, you get different opportunities that you look at, probably, that was enhanced this year because of our record and the amount of attention our team got and my time with the under-18 team. This time we looked at one of those opportunities to see if made sense."
In 985 games with the Reds, MacDougall sported a record of 732-232-21 for a .743 save percentage - easily the highest win total and win percentage over that number of games in university hockey. He's won a pair of gold medals at two FISU World Universiade Games, he has a U18 World Championship gold medal won this year, and he holds virtually every coaching record that can be named in the AUS with the Reds. Outside of Clare Drake, only Gardiner MacDougall has been as successful in Canadian university men's hockey, and there is zero doubt that MacDougall will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder at some point on top of the many Hall-of-Fame inductions he's already received. He absolutely deserves it.
I could go on about his accolades, but his time with the Reds has come to a close. It was always a reality that he could go elsewhere, but his commitment to UNB and its students for a quarter-century now leaves a massive hole on the Canadian university hockey landscape. I still expect his work in the community will continue, albeit in Moncton rather than in Fredericton, but I'm not sure the void that MacDougall leaves behind at UNB will ever truly be filled. His retirement today will have ripple effects on university hockey for years, but I am excited to see what the MacDougall duo can do in taking the reigns in the CHL with Moncton.
Expect that announcement in the coming days where Gardiner MacDougall takes his current 47-game win streak to the Wildcats. For UNB, a search for a new coach begins today. I won't use the word "replacement" because I'm very sure that Gardiner MacDougall will never be replaced at UNB after all he accomplished there.
I don't think anyone would deny that Valeri Nichushkin was having himself a heckuva postseason. After terrorizing the Jets for five games, it seemed the big Russian winger was set to give his former team, the Dallas Stars, nightmares as well. With Colorado trailing 2-1 in the series, they needed all their best players to step up, but Valeri Nichushkin was, instead, forced to step away by the NHL and NHLPA Player Assistance Program as he entered Stage 3 of the program this morning, starting a six-month suspension without pay. Clearly, he won't be in the lineup tonight for Game Four, but this latest lapse of judgment and intelligence may have just cost him his job with the Avalanche. That's the cost of addiction.
For a guy who signed an eight-year, $49 million deal on July 11, 2022 that would likely guarantee the majority of his career in Colorado, it seemed like he had everything. He was a Stanley Cup champion in 2022. He was playing alongside Nathan MacKinnon on the top line. He had that massive, long-term contract that would see him live comfortably. And with the Avalanche built as they are, it seemed he could add more rings to his jewelry box while being one of the key cogs in Colorado's success.
Today's removal from the team likely calls all of that into question as this is now the second time that Nichushkin was removed from the team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Last season, he was removed from the team after a strange incident in Seattle during the first round of the 2023 playoffs, allowing Seattle to upset the Avalanche in seven games. It was later revealed that a nearly unconscious, intoxicated woman was found in his hotel room needing medical attention. The young woman repeatedly stated "he's crazy" during the incident without ever identifying who "he" is, and, for the record, Nichushkin was cleared of all wrongdoing after an investigations by both the Seattle Police Department and the NHL.
Midway through this season, Nichushkin voluntarily entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in January, stating that his goal was to "address my issues and prevent any negative outcomes once and for all". When he returned in March, it seemed that Nichushkin had gotten the help he needed as he seemingly played the game like a changed man. He used his 6'3" frame to cause chaos around the net, and the hands that made him tenth-overall pick in 2013 looked like they had returned as Colorado prepared for the playoffs.
We watched Nichushkin cave the roof in on the Jets as he was everywhere in the offensive zone, and he was a big reason why the Avalanche are playing against Dallas right now. His removal from the team today, though, makes this the third time he's been away from his team at a critical time in their season with no explanation other than he's seeking help. And while I get that his privacy should be protected, one has to wonder how he is continually finding ways to put his attendance on the roster in jeopardy.
"Val is obviously struggling with something," Colorado coach Jared Bednar told reporters after their Monday loss matter-of-factly. Bednar is clearly correct as Nichushkin's reason for his absence would be kept private from even his coach, but you have to think that Bednar might be seething with anger over Nichushkin's selfishness on the inside. His next words to reports, though, seemed to be more reflective than angry.
"I've gotten to know Val as a person and I've gotten to know him as one of our teammates" Bednar continued, "and I want what's best for him. I want him to be happy and I want him to be content in his life, whether that is with our team or not with our team. I want the best for him and his family. I think all of our guys are the same. We hope that he can find some peace and get help. That's the other side of it. Hockey is not life and death, even though we treat it like it is. Val is a big priority, and our team is another one. Now they are separated. They're not together."
Bednar's tone was far better than teammate Jack Johnson's tone when he told Denver Post's Cory Masisak, "He made his decisions. That's all I'm going to say on that. He made his decisions," while Masisak also noted that Nichushkin's nameplate above his usual locker had been removed.
I'll be honest: Nichushkin does need help with whatever addiction or vice he's battling. And Nichushkin also made a selfish decision that may cost his team a chance at a Stanley Cup. The Colorado Avalanche will need to address this once he's reinstated by the NHL, but caring for the person, as Bednar said, is not the same as one man making a decision that sees him abandon 25 other people. I want Nichushkin to overcome his demons, but Jack Johnson's statements are entirely correct: he made his decisions.
I have no idea what the Avalanche will do with Nichushkin, but it seems like there are few people in the locker room who aren't willing to give him a third or fourth chance. I can't blame them because the old "fool me once" adage holds true here. There will be some tough conversations over the next few months in Denver as to what to do with Nichushkin, and I'm not sure there's a right answer when it comes to his future. What seems clear, though, is that everyone would prefer him on the ice rather than being in the Player Assistance Program.
Despite this being Valeri Nichushkin's demons to deal with, it's affecting his teammates, his employment with the team, and potentially his employment elsewhere in the league. I do hope he can finally bury these demons, but losing the support of his teammates, coaches, management, and fans while potentially making himself radioactive to 31 other teams is, unfortunately, the potential cost of his addiction.
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