@FlameRaptorRaven

2mo

Stanley Cup Heroes, Part 9: Get the Kid from Vermont

The Habs have won more Stanley Cups than any other franchise. 24 to be exact. You may think that it’d be hard to pick a favourite. I disagree, I think Habs fans above 30 have a very easy choice. 1993 is not only their most recent Stanley Cup, but it is also the craziest run in NHL history. On their way to the Cup, Montreal won 10 of their games in overtime. That is the most ever in a single playoff run. 2nd most is 7. It was a group of young players backstopped by the great Patrick Roy with old-man legend Denis Savard tagging along. One of the young players on that team was a man named John LeClair. LeClair was the first Vermont-born NHL player ever. To this day, he is one of just 2 Vermont-born players. He was a 2nd round pick in 1987 and became a regular for Montreal in 1993 as a big middle 6 forward. In the playoffs, LeClair wasn’t anything special. He didn’t get a single point in Montreal’s first 5 playoff games, then he put up 6 in the next 10 before the Habs made it to the Cup Final to face Wayne Gretzky and the LA Kings. Once there, LeClair was a -1 and pointless through 2 games. It seemed like he would be remembered as just another guy on that team. That changed forever in game 3. In Montreal, the Habs jumped up 3-0 in the first half of this game, only for the Kings to storm back and tie it in less than 15 minutes. The comeback was capped off by a Gretzky goal late in the 2nd. The 3rd period didn’t have any goals, so we got overtime. Just 30 seconds in, John LeClair scored the OT winner and put Montreal up 2-1 in the series. In game 4, Montreal had the chance to take a stranglehold in the Cup Final. It played out very similarly to game 3. The Habs jumped out to a lead, this time it was just 2-0. The Kings then made a comeback in the 2nd period with Gretzky assisting on the tying goal in the dying seconds. 3rd period had no goals, so we got another overtime. This overtime went differently to game 3. It took 15 minutes instead of 30 seconds for John LeClair to score the OT winner. With that goal, John LeClair became just the 2nd NHL player ever to score 2 overtime winners in the same Cup Final. Leon Draisaitl is the only other player to accomplish the feat. Even if we make it careers instead of a single Final, LeClair was just the 4th player ever to score multiple OT winners and remains 1 of 5 today. LeClair is also the only American to achieve it. LeClair had an amazing career. One that is, at worst, worthy of the Hall of Very Good. He is also a legend in Vermont athletics. He remains 1 of just 2 Vermont-born players to ever play in the NHL. The other player (Graham Mink), played 7 games. LeClair played 967 and racked up 819 points. He made another Cup Final with the Flyers while becoming a genuine star next to Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg as a part of the Legion of Doom line. But in 1993, the kid from Vermont became a Stanley Cup Hero.

Canadiens

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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.