Canucks Win In Charlotte

How about that opening game of the 2025 Calder Cup Final? There was a comeback, a disallowed overtime goal in double-overtime, a double-overtime game-winning goal, and an outstanding start to what looks like it's going to be an outstanding finish for the 2024-25 season after the Abbotsford Canucks claimed the 4-3 double-overtime win against the Charlotte Checkers. No one will argue that this game didn't have some intrigue, but it was a contest that featured two teams playing at their best right now. And it was a treat to watch!

Abbotsford opened the scoring when Max Sasson scored a power-play goal at 4:34, but that lead didn't last long. MacKenzie Entwistle scored at the 7:59 mark to tie the game for Charlotte before Oliver Okuliar scored with one second left in the opening frame to send Charlotte into the intermission with a 2-1 lead. Justin Sourdif extended the lead with a long shot that Artūrs Šilovs completely missed with his blocker at 7:08 of the middle frame to make it 3-1, but the Canucks would roar back 22 seconds later when Nate Smith buried a puck to make it 3-2. That score would hold through to the end of the frame, so Abbotsford needed a goal in the third period.

They'd get that goal off the stick of Ty Mueller to tie the game at 8:14, and the two teams would battle to the final horn while being tied at 3-3. That meant we were getting some free hockey on this night despite Charlotte holding a 31-23 edge in shots. One could argue that Charlotte sat back in the third period which may have allowed the Canucks back into this game, but this one was far from being finished as overtime began and Charlotte went back to work.

After whiffing on that Sourdif shot midway through the second period, Šilovs went into lockdown mode as he was absolutely sensational in overtime. Charlotte outshot the Canucks by a 16-3 total in the extra frame, but they could not dent twine behind the Latvian netminder. Part of that shot discrepency came due to the two power-plays Charlotte had in overtime, but they converted on neither. Tuck that detail away for a few more paragraphs.

The game moved into the fifth period of play, and it appeared we had a game-winner on a rather weird play just 3:40 into the frame. Watch this craziness because no one was expecting a goal in this manner.
Ty Mueller would win the face-off cleanly, but pulled it back towards the Abbotsford net where Artūrs Šilovs clearly wasn't ready. If you watch him prior to the goal he's still adjusting his glove, blocker, and helmet moments before the puck goes past him. The officials would discuss the play, and they would eventually rule that the netminder was not ready for play to resume so the goal was waved off.

With a second chance given to them, the Canucks would eventually find a winner seven minutes after the disallowed goal that Charlotte netminder Kaapo Kähkönen likely wants a second chance to stop.
Danila Klimovich's wriste shot from the half-boards gets past Kähkönen at the 10:25 mark, pushing the Canucks to a Game One victory with the 4-3 double-overtime game-winning goal. What makes this one sting just a little more is that Klimovich scored on the only power-play the Canucks were awarded in overtime after Mikulas Hovorka was whistled for a delay-of-game penalty at 8:43.

Some people will point to that disallowed goal as the turning point, but Charlotte head coach Geordie Kinnear saw the outcome differently, telling reporters, "It is what it is, it's playoff hockey. I thought we responded well, but at the end, you look at the scoresheet and it's 2-for-7 and 0-for-5."

Remember how I said to remember that detail above of the two power-plays that netted nothing in overtime for Charlotte? That's the "2-for-7" and "0-for-5" that Kinnear is referring to, and he doubled-down on that thought again, stating, "We had two power plays in overtime, they get the power play and they score the goal. You look at the game as a whole, they're 2-for-7 and we're 0-for-5."

In the end, Abbotsford is now up 1-0 in the Calder Cup Final as they are one win closer to securing their first Calder Cup. I'd expect the Checkers to come out even more aggressively on Sunday for Game Two. They did win the shots-on-net metric with a 54-30 edge, but it clearly wasn't enough with Šilovs stopping 51 of those shots including 23 in overtime. The Canucks will need to be ready, but they did what they intended to do in Charlotte in earning at least a split in these first two games with Games 3-5 being played in Abbotsford.

I'm not normally a Canucks fan, but I'll be cheering for the Canucks as Canada's push to capture all three professional men's hockey trophies in North America continues! If we get a handful of these types of games through the remainder of the Calder Cup Final, we'll be treated to some fantastic hockey no matter who wins!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 664

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with another pile of fun as our hosts welcome a guest who will give us his opinion on his favorite team's progress so far with all the changes made. There were new hirings this team made, there are free agents and player contracts to discuss, there's the upcoming NHL Entry Draft to examine as this team has an important pick, there's an AHL team that is woeful at best, and there are new assistant coaches on the bench. Which team is under the spotlight today? Who is this guest? We'll look at all these topics and more tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason welcome the always-knowledgeable John from DC to the program! John is a lifelong New York Islanders fan who keeps his finger on the pulse of Long Island's favorite team, so we'll chat with him about the hiring of Mathieu Darche as the Islanders general manager, his thoughts on the direction the team with Darche at the helm, Bo Horvat's and Noah Dobson's statuses with the club, potentially adding another defender in Matthew Schaefer with the first-overall selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, the Bridgeport Islanders and their struggles, the additions of Ray Bennett and Bob Boughner to Patrick Roy's coaching staff, John's thoughts on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and anything else we can get John to discuss inside the hour! It should be a fun and entertaining show as we break down the New York Islanders 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 UMFM website's 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! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat with John from DC about everything Islanders as we go over new management, new coaches, new direction, free agents, first-overall picks, AHL problems, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: June 12, 2025: Episode 664

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Legend's AHL Cameo

The man to the left may not look familiar dressed in his Lowell Lock Monsters uniform and Heaton pads, but he ended up being one of the best goaltenders of the modern era. The fourth-overall selection of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft was a bit of a surprise pick for the New York Islanders, but they added the fifth-overall pick of Eric Brewer moments later as it seemed like the Islanders were rebuilding from the goal outward. We'd quickly find out that general manager and head coach Mike Milbury had no idea what he was doing, but Roberto Luongo, pictured above, wouldn't be in New York Islanders or Lowell Lock Monsters colours for long thanks to Milbury selecting Rick DiPietro with the first-overall selection in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. Luongo and Olli Jokinen would be traded to Florida for Mark Parrish on June 24, 2000 to make room for DiPietro.

Before that trade happened, though, Luongo was playing for the Lowell Lock Monsters to begin the 1999-00 season, his first as a professional. Seen above, Luongo came into Lowell as a rookie where he looked good despite Lowell not being a very strong AHL club. That prompted the Islanders to recall him from Lowell for his first start on November 28, 1999 at Boston where he backstopped the Islanders to a 2-1 victory! Luongo stopped 43 of 44 shots that night for his first NHL win in his first NHL game. This Luongo kid looked pretty good!

What a lot of people forget is that Luongo's emergence as an NHL goaltender forced the Islanders to trade another goaltender. Luongo had compiled a 2-3-1 record in three weeks with wins over Boston and New Jersey, and had posted a respectable 2.17 GAA in the five starts before the New Jersey game. In fact, Luongo wasn't supposed to start that New Jersey game for the Islanders. Who was?

If you didn't click on the image above to read the story, Felix Potvin was supposed to start for the Islanders before being dealt to the Vancouver Canucks on Decmeber 19, 1999 for Kevin Weekes, Bill Muckalt, and Dave Scatchard. By moving the high-priced Potvin, Milbury saved some cash while giving the crease to his blue-chip netminder as the Islanders looked to the future led by Luongo.

The ironic part is that Weekes was acquired by Vancouver in the Pavel Bure trade that saw him, Dave Gagner, Ed Jovanovski, Mike Brown and conditional draft pick move from Florida to the west coast for Bure, Bret Hedican, Brad Ference and conditional draft pick on January 17, 1999. He'd finish the season in Vancouver before the trade to the Islanders 11 months and two days later, but Weekes would be traded six months later on June 24, 2000 to Tampa Bay.

Did you note that last date? It's been mentioned before.

If that date feels familiar, Luongo was traded from the Islanders to the Florida Panthers on that day as both Islanders netminders ended up in the state of Florida on the day that Rick DiPietro was drafted. To add another few strands to the web, Luongo would be teammates with Pavel Bure who was involved in the first Weekes trade from Florida to Vancouver. And if you're still drawing lines, the Islanders, Canucks, and Panthers are the three teams that Roberto Luongo would play for in his career! How weird is that history?

In any case, Luongo would play with the Islanders from November to the end of February before he was sent back to Lowell. He did help the Lock Monsters earn a playoff berth in his two stints with Lowell that season as they claimed third-place in the Atlantic Division where they'd face the Saint John Flames in the opening best-of-five round. They'd sweep the Flames before falling to Providence in a sweep as Luongo's only playoff appearances in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs. He was 3-3 in six games that postseason as a rookie netminder.

I couldn't find any photo evidence of him playing with the Louisville Panthers in 2000-01 following the trade to Florida, but HockeyDB.com has him playing three games that season as the only other AHL action in his career. Adding those three games in, Luongo's AHL record stands at 11-14-4 over 29 regular-season games with a 2.97 GAA and a .909 save percentage. Those aren't the numbers we normally associate with NHL legends, but we have to remember that this long before Roberto Luongo was the reliable "Booby Lu" as we got used to seeing.

For the jersey nerds out there like me, check out the font used on the Lock Monsters jerseys from that 1999-00 season with Roberto Luongo in net. Was it an affiliation thing with the crazy fonts?

The larger letters at the start and the end of the name is a weird-but-unique, feature, the serif on the "O" makes Luongo's name look foreign, and that angled bottom to the number is unlike any other AHL team's numbers in that era. When you consider the Fisherman jerseys had that wavy font, it seems like the Islanders and its AHL affiliate just wanted to make equipment managers furious!

There is Roberto Luongo's short AHL career before he put together a Hall-of-Fame NHL career. It wasn't as impressive as any of his NHL seasons, but he did win a playoff series and he turned 35 AHL games in total into a career that spanned 1168 NHL games in the regular season and the playoffs. Not bad for a guy who wore one of the weirdest fonts seen on a jersey as a Lowell Lock Monster!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Reddest Senators

The image to the left was seen briefly tonight at the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario. I claim no ownership of the video that showed this new design, but it seems the Ottawa Senators will be wearing red as an alternate jersey next season as announced at the Season Ticket Summit for Ottawa Senators fans and media. The last time that the Senators wore red as an alternate jersey was in 2020 to go along with their red home jerseys. The red is back, though, as the team confirmed the jerseys will be available in September, and it looks like the design team may have scored big with these new threads!

If you want to watch various angles of this video, I recommend checking out the recordings found on the Twitter accounts of Graeme Nichols, Rising Sens, and Kevin Lee. All three were at the event tonight, and all three captured the alternate jersey video from different angles. With that video being confirmed as legitimate, let's dig into this new red alternate jersey that the Senators will wear!

The gold accents return which harken back to the 2007 black alternate jersey which also featured more gold. Having the Senators use more gold as an accent colour was never an issue with me, and I welcome its return. As long as they don't lose their minds and introduce a gold uniform, the gold accent colour is a good contrast in breaking up the black and red sections of the jersey. Overall, this use of the gold works well for creating those contrasts. My only complaint is that the jersey itself doesn't seem to have the gold outlining the entire black shoulder yoke when it should.

If you were watching the videos closely, you may have noticed a new centurion helmet crest design. The added details on this updated logo give the crest more depth when viewed from further back, adding a rather unique element to this alternate jersey. My hope is the home and road jerseys follow this lead and adopt the improved crest, but we'll have to see how the Senators handle this upgrade. The side view of the Roman in the logo doesn't really allow for a lot of variation or detail to be added, but this small detail is an improvement that works well compared to the standard logo.

Overall, the jersey works well based on the teasers despite not seeing a full on-ice version yet. It seems the Senators are going to see red in the 2025-26 season with this new alternate uniform, and the brief glimpse that we got at the Season Ticket Summit tonight should have fans excited for the new jersey. Whether or not that excitement will help with signings will be seen once free agency opens, but the Seantors appear to be banking on the idea of "look good, play good"!

Does that lead to more playoff success than this year's brief appearance? Jerseys normally don't play a role in that, but perhaps the team will go on a winning streak while wearing the new red jerseys. Having that confidence that winning will happen while wearing red won't hurt when it comes to winning a playoff series!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The New Teams Assemble

The two new PWHL teams joining the circuit next season were tasked with selecting players to help fill out their rosters tonight as the PWHL Expansion Draft took place. For west coast hockey fans, the addition of teams in both Vancouver and Seattle should hopefully bring some excitement and growth for women's hockey, but it should allow west coast hockey fans to see some of the bigger stars in women's hockey more often than once in a lifetime. With a pile of big names still available to be selected by both teams following each franchise signing five key players, the chance to have both Vancouver and Seattle competitive right out of the gate is high. Tonight, we got to see how each franchise will look to play the game based on the players chosen in the PWHL Expansion Draft.

Let's not waste any time here. The charts below are the depth charts for both teams right now based on those initial signings and the players selected tonight. Players in yellow were the initial signings while the remainder are the expansion draft selections.

PWHL Expansion Teams

PWHL Vancouver	PWHL Seattle
D Claire Thompson (MIN)	F Hilary Knight (BOS)
D Sophie Jaques (MIN)	F Danielle Serdachny (OTT)
G Emerence Maschmeyer (OTT)	D Cayla Barnes (MTL)
F Sarah Nurse (TOR)	G Corinne Schroeder (NYS)
F Jennifer Gardiner (MTL)	F Alex Carpenter (NYS)
D Ashton Bell (OTT)	D Aneta Tejralová (OTT)
F Brooke McQuigge (MIN)	F Hannah Bilka (BOS)
F Abby Boreen (MTL)	F Jessie Eldridge (NYS)
F Izzy Daniel (TOR)	F Julia Gosling (TOR)
F Gabby Rosenthal (NYS)	D Anna Wilgren (MTL)
F Denisa Křížová (MIN)	D Megan Carter (TOR)
D Sydney Bard (BOS)	D Emily Brown (BOS)

Both teams have stars who will help to push and find offensive chances, and both sides have goaltenders who will provide good, if not great, netminding when needed. The top-four defenders for Vancouver will be their immediate strength while Seattle will have some excellent forwards to create offence whenever they cross the blue line. Neither side has an immediate advantage that I can see, but the PWHL seems to be proud of their parity among the current six teams so why not spread that to eight teams, right?

It should be noted that neither team looks like they'll struggle for large parts of the season. Like the recent NHL expansion teams, both Seattle and Vancouver should be able to find points and stay in the playoff races until late in the season. Depending on who they add via the PWHL Entry Draft, we could next season's Rookie of the Year come from one of these two teams based on the players they currently have added. Might that be enough for a playoff berth?

While we wait to see who these two teams name as head coaches and for the PWHL to announce some sort of schedule, the initial rosters of the two newest teams look fairly good. More talent will be added and there could be a trade or two at some point, but west coast women's hockey fans should be excited for the new additions to the PWHL!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!