@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 16: Oasis in a Vast Desert

The Utah Mammoth has existed for exactly 2 seasons, made the playoffs just once and that playoff run ended in 6 games. I debated between focussing on just the Mammoth or allowing myself to use the Coyotes. I believe I have found the best worlds. This will be about the Arizona Coyotes, but it is connected to the current Utah Mammoth for reasons that will become very obvious. In 2012, the Arizona Coyotes went on a magical run to the conference finals. In round 1, the Coyotes faced the Blackhawks and played one of the greatest playoff series in NHL history. Each of the first 5 games went to overtime. The Coyotes won 3 of them, then won game 6 to win their first playoff series ever. They faced the Nashville Predators in round 2 and won that series in 5 to advance to the conference finals where they ran into the buzz saw known as the 2012 Kings and lost in 5. It was a run mainly led by the goaltending heroics of Mike Smith and leadership of longtime captain Shane Doan (his son Josh plays for the Sabres). After 2012, the Coyotes truly became a desert and relocation gradually became inevitable. The Arizona Coyotes were not a well-ran hockey team. I’m sure you could’ve guessed that considering they no longer exist, but it bears repeating. From when the Coyotes were formed from the ashes of the old Winnipeg Jets in 1996 (the Jets moved to Arizona) to their collapse in 2024, the Coyotes had the 6th least wins. Every team that had less wins played at least 4 less seasons. Out of teams that played every season in that span, they rank dead last. The 2020s were especially grim with rumours of relocation ramping up, ownership being the opposite of helpful and the lease on the arena expiring, forcing an NHL team to use Arizona State’s 5000-seat capacity Mullet Arena for their home games. That is a smaller capacity than the Moncton Wildcats’ home arena, the Avenir Centre (8800). It was not fun to be a Coyotes fan post-2012 and I honestly feel horrible for the fans that were forced to deal with this. Thankfully, those fans were granted one last great moment as a team. The 2020 Coyotes were clearly a rebuilding team. They had good young players, but clearly not enough to even make the playoffs. However, thanks to the pandemic shutting down the season, the Coyotes were granted a much simpler road to the playoffs. The NHL gave teams seeded from 5 to 12 in their conference the chance to compete for a playoff spot in a 5-game series. Arizona was the 11-seed in the Western Conference and thus, were granted a 5-game series against the 6-seed Nashville Predators. On paper, this looked like a wash. The Predators had been one of the best teams in the West the last 2 seasons. Only a fool would pick an inexperienced Coyotes team. Arizona proceeded to remind us why these games aren’t played on paper. The Coyotes won game 1 4-3 with goals from Oliver Ekman-Larsson (OEL) and one of Arizona’s 2016 1st round picks, Clayton Keller. It was a cool moment for Arizona that got some cold water splashed onto it when Nashville won game 2. On the plus side, Keller scored again along with Lawson Crouse in a failed attempt to come back from down 4-0. Still, Arizona proved they could keep up and they showed it again in game 3 when they won 4-1. No goal for Keller this time, but he assisted Connor Garland’s game winner in the 3rd. After a hard fought game, it looked like Arizona was going to win the series until Filip Forsberg scored a last minute goal to tie it up and send it to overtime. In overtime, Brad Richardson jammed it home and won both the game and series for the Coyotes; clinching them a spot in the playoffs. Sadly; their playoff run would be very short and come to an abrupt end. They faced the dynamic Colorado Avalanche. After losing games 1 and 2, they got their only win of the series in game 3, only to lose games 4 and 5 by a combined score of 14-2. The 7-1 loss in Game 5 was the final playoff game in Coyotes history. In that game, Clayton Keller scored Arizona’s final playoff goal. He ended his first ever playoff run with 4 goals and 7 points in 9 games. Lawson Crouse only had 2 goals. Another 2016 1st round pick, Jacob Chychrun managed to get his first playoff goal. The main downside of this run, aside from losing, was the fact that their leading regular season point-getter, Nick Schmalz, missed it. It’s easy to look on this run and brush it off as a meaningless effort, but I disagree. Keller and Crouse now play a vital role with the Mammoth and Arizona got to watch their team play playoff hockey one last time. It makes Keller and Crouse Arizona’s last Stanley Cup Heroes while also being Utah’s very first.

Mammoth

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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.