@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 12: The Dominator Dominates

Despite the negative reputation the Sabres built up for years, they were one of the better franchises in the 40+ years before their playoff drought began. Hell, the Sabres being a team full of young guns is a familiar sentiment. The Sabres were exactly like that in the mid 70s, mid 80s and mid 2000s. Even with that, their best teams came in the late 90s with squads that were the antithesis of this current young gun group and led by one man. Dominik Hasek wasn’t just a goalie in the 90s and early 2000s. He was THE goalie. He was a force of nature. He was incomparable, unfathomable, basically any adjective you can think of that means the best. The Dominator was the best goalie in the NHL for a decade. He first became Buffalo’s primary goaltender in 1993, from that time to 2004, he led everyone in save percentage with .926. The only goalies that approach him played less than half as many games. The closest goalies with similar volume are 10 points below him. He was at his very best in the last 90s. In both 1997 and 1998, Hasek won the Vezina as the best goalie, the Hart trophy as league MVP and the Pearson as the player’s MVP while leading the NHL in save percentage. Yet, somehow, his peak may have come in 1999. What I have neglected to mention is the fact that Buffalo did not have a good offense in front of Hasek during this time, never having a team that ranked top 10 in goals scored, Which makes it even more insane he was this good. 1999 was no different. The Sabres only had 3 20-goal scorers, a single player with 30+ goals and finished in the bottom half of goals scored. They knew the team ran through Hasek. So what do you do when the team runs through you? You drive them all the way to the top. Dominik Hasek started the 1999 playoffs with an incredible first round. In a 4 game sweep of the Senators, Hasek lived up to this nickname, giving Ottawa no chance with a .963 save percentage. The Sabres went on to face the Bruins in round 2 and Hasek looked “human”. Human for him was .918 in a 6-game series win. Hasek then outdueled CuJo in the conference finals to send Buffalo to their only Stanley Cup Final. Sadly, the Sabres lost in 6 to the Dallas Stars with game 6 ending with the most controversial goal ever when Brett Hull scored the OT winner. The Dominator was the last person you could blame for Buffalo losing. He put up a .939 save percentage and gave up more than 2 goals just once. Dominik Hasek accomplished so much in his career and eventually won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2002 and 2008, but his Buffalo years will never be forgotten. He is Buffalo’s Stanley Cup Hero until they finally get to hold the trophy.

Sabres

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Vegas joins the NHL!

On June 22, 2016, Las Vegas officially became an NHL city when the league awarded Bill Foley’s expansion group the franchise that would become the Vegas Golden Knights. A decade later, that announcement looks like one of the best decisions the NHL has ever made. The Golden Knights became the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas, helping change the city’s reputation as a sports market, and paving the way for the NFL’s Raiders, MLB’s Athletics, and continued NBA expansion talks. Nobody could have known just how quickly the franchise would take off, seeing a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its debut season, playoff appearances in eight of the first nine years, and a Stanley Cup championship in 2023. Foley ended the announcement with a line that resonates in the heart of all who adore the team and have grown with them, “Las Vegas is hockey-ready. We’re convinced of it. We know it.” Go Vegas, baby!

@Bro

Biggest loser in Hockey?

This has been on my mind a lot lately and yes you can call me salty or whatever. On December 12th 2025 the Vancouver Canucks traded star player Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild for Marco Rossi, Zeev Buimm, Liam Ohgren and a first round pick. Many Canucks like myself were very upset but saw it coming a 100 kilometres away. Buy as soon as Quinn Goes to the Wild he shows his true self. Before his first game against his former team he was asked about his former team and his response “honestly I don’t know any of there guys” Not a good look as*hat He was the Captain of the Canucks for two years and played there for almost 7 seasons. You know at least AT LEAST SIXTEEN OF THEM He also treated his tenure with the Canucks as a prison sentence always with one word answers but as soon as he goes to the Wild he’s all jolly. He never seemed happy even though his best years so far are with Vancouver. He never smiled and never did anything for this community he never cared to help people less fortunate in Vancouver especially going to B.C. Children’s Hospital where Canucks captains always have gone. No he’s done nothing. Sorry this was kinda a rant

@rafiki

"Fresh from the bench it's Crosby"

The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs looking to do something that had not been done in nearly two decades: win back-to-back championships. After defeating the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 Final, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and the Penguins' core returned. The regular season was far from easy. Pittsburgh dealt with injuries throughout the year, including a significant absence from Letang, who missed the entirety of the playoffs with a herniated disc, but still finished with 50 wins and earned the second seed in the Metropolitan Division. Their toughest test up to that point came in the second round against the Washington Capitals. For the second straight postseason, the Penguins faced their longtime rival, who had won the Presidents' Trophy and entered the series as the favorite. Pittsburgh once again ended Washington's season, winning 2-0 in Game 7 on the road to eliminate the Capitals for the second consecutive year. The Eastern Conference Final against the Ottawa Senators was another battle. After the teams split the first six games, the series went to a deciding Game 7 in Pittsburgh. Chris Kunitz became the hero, scoring his second goal of the game in double overtime to send the Penguins back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year. I can still hear Lange's voice: "Fresh from the bench it's Crosby; Crosby onto Kunitz; Kunitz a shot; HE SCOOOOOOORES!!! PENGUINS WIN IT! AND THEY GO TO THE FINAL!" In the Stanley Cup Final, the teams traded home wins through the first four games before Pittsburgh took control with a 6-0 victory in Game 5, setting up a chance to close out the series in Nashville. Game 6 remained scoreless for most of the night until Patric Hornqvist, a former Predator, scored with just 1:35 remaining in the third period. Carl Hagelin added an empty-net goal, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 victory and its fifth Stanley Cup in franchise history. With the win, the Penguins became the first team in the salary cap era and the first since the 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings to win consecutive Stanley Cups. Sidney Crosby also became just the third player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy in back-to-back seasons, leading the Penguins' core of himself, Malkin, and Letang to their 3rd Stanley Cup. Looking back, after Crosby and Letang joined Malkin in the 2005 draft, I don't think anyone could've predicted that they would create one of the most successful and long-lasting cores of the modern NHL. After 20 years, these three managed to accumulate 3 Stanley Cups, 3 Harts, 3 Conn Smythes, 4 Art Rosses, 5 Ted Linsays, and 23 All-Star Selections, proving their greatness. Crosby is still performing at the highest level on his classic $8.7 million contract; Malkin signed a $5.5 million 1-year contract for the 2026-27 season; and Letang is also looking to return. They are not surrounded by the team that won those back-to-back cups, but they are still acting as the glue holding together a young and rising Pens Team.