@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 13: A Wild Ride

The Dallas Stars are a franchise that has many incredible runs to choose from. Of course there is their 1999 run that ended with controversy, but also gave Dallas their only Stanley Cup. Back when they were the Minnesota North Stars, they had multiple miraculous runs. Most notably in 1991 when the North Stars made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final despite losing 53 of their 80 regular season games. However, I would argue that their most recent run was the most exciting. If you’ve been alive for more than 12 years, you remember when the Pandemic changed sports in 2020. The NHL was no different. After months of discussions, the NHL finally announced their plans for the pandemic playoffs in their own bubbles. Dallas entered the Edmonton bubble with some promise. Then they looked terrible in the round robin, going 1-2, and were faced with a ton of skepticism. Prior to 2020, the Stars were generally a good team. They had been known as a fast, skilled and high scoring team until they hired Rick Bowness in 2018. He turned them into an opportunistic, but defensive unit. That was still the case in 2020 before the pandemic happened. Thanks to their pre-bubble regular season, they would end up as the 3rd seed in the West facing the Calgary Flames in round 1. There was some chatter of Calgary potentially upsetting the Stars, especially if their goaltender Cam Talbot continued his brilliant run from Calgary’s qualifying round. The Flames gave the Stars a scare, including a 3-0 lead in game 6, which Dallas turned into a 7-3 win and series victory. In round 2, the Stars played a barn burner against the Avalanche. In 7 games, the Stars scored 5+ goals in 4, each of them wins. The Stars nearly blew a 3-1 series lead, but won 5-4 in game 7 overtime thanks to a goal from Joel Kiviranta that completed his hat trick. He had played 11 regular season games and 2 playoff games before that. In the conference finals, they faced the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas amazingly held the Stars in check, but the Stars also managed to hold Vegas in check. Dallas relied heavily on their goaltender, Anton Khudobin. Khudobin was a 33-year-old journeyman before 2020. In the conference finals, he put up a .950 save percentage that included a shutout in game 1. Dallas won the series in 5 and made it back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2000. In the Cup Final, Dallas faced the Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite winning game 1 4-1 and a double OT classic in game 5, the Stars lost in 6. The run was over, but you can’t say it wasn’t fun. The 2020 Dallas Stars put up 77 goals in their playoff run, tied for 13th most in the last 30 years with the same Tampa team they lost to. It wasn’t for lack of trying as that Dallas team ranks 6th in shots on goal in the last 30 years. 2020 Tampa is 1st btw. More than half of Dallas’s wins came from them scoring 4 or more goals. They scored 3 or more goals 15 times and won 11 of those games. The 2020 Stars were all or nothing. Either they outgunned you and ran the score up or they got outgunned and lost. That team doesn’t work without some key performers. Most notably, a pair of defensemen. Miro Heiskanen was 20 years old and used the 2020 playoffs to establish himself as a superstar. He became just the 4th defenseman in NHL history to put up 20 assists in a playoff run. Cale Makar and Evan Bouchard have accomplished the feat since, but he remains 1 of just 6. Miro finished only behind Kucherov in assists and 3rd in points in the 2020 playoffs. Rarely on the same pair, but almost just as dangerous, John Klingberg put up 17 assists of his own, which less than 20 defensemen have ever done. Klingberg finished 6th in playoff points. 35-year-old Joe Pavelski put up 13 goals, 2nd in the NHL. 22-year-old Dennis Gurianov looked like a future star with his 9 goals and 8 assists. He is sadly no longer in the NHL. Dallas has remained a contender, even after they moved on from Rick Bowness. Many of the players from 2020 are still with the Stars. Miro, Roope Hintz, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and more. It’s possible those guys could still win a Cup with the Stars. Until they do, the 2020 Stars will be the modern Stanley Cup Heroes for Dallas.

Stars

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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.