@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 6: Of all People to Finally End it

Who scored the Stanley Cup winning goal in [insert year here]? It’s a fun trivia question for fans and a point of pride for players. Sometimes it’s a superstar, like Patrick Kane in 2010. Other times it’s a lesser known but still valuable role player, like Alec Martinez. Then there are times when it is a player nobody could’ve guessed. 1996 falls into the last category. In 1995, the Quebec Nordiques were bought by the COMSAT Entertainment Group, a consortium based in Denver, Colorado. The Nordiques were having financial troubles thanks to the weakened Canadian dollar. The original owners tried to build up public funds for a new stadium and find a Canadian buyer, but to no avail. They cut their losses and sold the team, which then moved to Denver. Quebec City was obviously devastated by the news for many reasons. However, there’s 1 reason that went under the radar as it was happening. The Nordiques were a really good team. Quebec had won their division in the previous season. They had a 25-year-old Joe Sakic, a class act that would go down as one of the 20 best players ever. They witnessed a 21-year-old named Peter Forsberg (another future Hall of Famer) win the Calder as rookie of the year and they watched former 1st overall pick Owen Nolan score 30 goals in 46 games (50-goal pace). All this was happening on a team that was the 3rd youngest in the NHL. Imagine if the OKC Thunder moved back to Seattle after 2023-24, that’s what happened here. Anyone paying attention to hockey knew Colorado had just been handed an amazing hockey. The new Colorado Avalanche immediately proved that last season was no fluke. They finished with the 2nd most points in the NHL, only behind the record breaking 62-win Red Wings. As if that wasn’t good enough, the Avalanche covered up their only flaws by trading for the greatest playoff performer in NHL history in Patrick Roy. Roy had won 2 Cups with the Habs and provided the Avs with the brick wall and experience they lacked. Now they felt virtually unstoppable. The only teams that had a chance were the 62-win Red Wings and the Lemieux-Penguins. The Avs continued their rampage in the playoffs, winning each of their first 3 rounds in 6 games, including an upset of those Red Wings in the conference finals. Patrick Roy actually looked human, but it didn’t matter when no goalie could stop the Avs’ insane amount of talent. It set up a Cup Final against the Rat-throwing Florida Panthers. The Panthers had shockingly upset Lemieux’s Penguins thanks to a debilitating defensive system and an elite goaltender named John Vanbiesbrouck. So naturally the Avalanche scored 14 goals in 3 games to take a 3-0 series lead, making game 4 the potential clincher. Game 4 would go down as one of the longest Stanley Cup Final games in NHL history. At the time, it was the 3rd longest and it ranks 8th all time today. Both teams entered the 3rd overtime without a goal. Both goalies had been basically perfect. It would only take 1 mistake to end it. A little over 4-minutes into OT, the Panthers tried to clear the puck from their D-zone. That attempt was stopped by veteran defense man Uwe Krupp. Krupp stood at the far right corner of the blueline, right next to the Avs’ bench. He winded up and fired a slap shot. That shot beat Vanbiesbrouck. In a single moment, Krupp had scored a Stanley Cup clinching goal and put himself into NHL lore. (See photo above of the celebration after, Krupp is wearing #4 on the right) I would be shocked if anybody on this app could’ve told me who Uwe Krupp was before reading this, but calling him a nobody would be unfair. Krupp is not an NHL legend, but he is a German hockey legend. At the time of this goal, Krupp became the first German-born player to win the Stanley Cup. At the time of his retirement in 2003, Krupp had the most points and games played of any German-born player. Today, he is 6th in both categories. However, he is probably the most random player possible to score the Stanley Cup winning goal for the 1996 Avalanche. Krupp only played 6 games in the regular season and didn’t score once. In the playoffs, he only had 3 goals going into this game. In fact, he played triple the playoff games (22) as he did regular season games. Yet, he was the one that officially won the Cup for Colorado. The OT winner became the final playoff goal of Krupp’s career. Krupp will forever be a beloved hockey figure for Germany, but for Colorado, he became a Stanley Cup Hero.

Avalanche

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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.