A Mammoth overreaction

 The season is still under a month old, and we are seeing some interesting things in he standings. If you are ESPN or TSN only, you might know that the Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins are off to hot starts. This is a bit unexpected, certainly, but even when bad, the Canadiens and Penguins aren't going to fall out of the limelight. Their return to relevance, at least to start the year, is known by all.

We start to get a little funky out west. It is strange to see the Kraken in the top three of the Pacific, but not altogether bothersome. After all, they sit below Golden Knights, who are the benchmark of teams that forned and were shot out of a cannon. It's still stranger, I would say, than seeing the Canadiens on top out east. 

The big winner for strangely strong starts in the traditional sense belongs to the Utah Mammoth. Yes, this is the first year of the Mammoth, but I just noted that it isn't strange any longer for new teams to ascend to the top of the heap right out of the gate. But this isn't just any new team. This is the rebrand of the Arizona Coyotes. 

The Mammoth aren't exactly full of ne players to the organization, either. The leading scorer of that last team in Arizona, Clayton Keller, is no the captain for the Mammoth. Karel Vejmelka, the goalie, was the back up at Mullet Arena. Now, he is between the pipes most nights in Salt Lake City. 

The team has reaped what was sowed in Arizona. They are young, and years of high draft picks are finally paying off for fans in a new market. This is the lesson in patience that has paid off for the Florida Panthers, who were terrible for so long , learned and embraced. Maybe the Utah Mammoth have always been on the long term plan.

Or maybe playing in the Phoenix suburbs is just that depressing, that even a move to play in Salt Lake City is an inspiration. If that's the case, it's a strategy that will be pretty hard to replicate. 

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

The Jets are hosting the Kraken tonight in Winnipeg! Come see Mark Scheifele at his most milquetoast! Based on the photo choice of a player that the Jets have had on their payroll, it had to have been a choice to pick a photo to promote this game in which he looked, I don't know, anxious? Maybe he isn't worried about the Kraken (and who would be?) but rather about tomorrow's game against the Flames, which has been branded 90's night. 

The 90s, famously, weren't great for the Jets. 

My hockey nap is over, but hockey's nap is not.

 Oh, wow, hey guys, *yawn*, The offseason? Yeah, I assume my nap didn't fully encapsulate almost all of it, right? It did? Oh boy. Let's catch up then, shall we? What kinds of shifts should we expect this season in the NHL? After two consecutive Panthers - Oilers finals, surely things were shaken up a bit, ready to take advantage of Florida and Edmonton's fatigue?

Looks like not. I noted in my last post, verging on three months ago, that the NHL's increased salary cap had made it easier for teams to re-sign their own players, which, for at least this and maybe the next season, rendered the offseason a little on the slow side. There were trades, of course, with K'Andre Miller and Chris Kreider leaving New York, and Mitch Marner leaving Toronto. The balances of power in the NHL, however, remain unaltered. 

Of course, a couple big names didn't re-up with his old team, at least not yet. Kirill Kaprizov and Connor McDavid are still without extensions, though I have to believe they are reluctant to lock in their prices when they know the salary cap is likely to go up again next year. No slight to Minnesota and Edmonton, but those two are just looking to maximize their next contract. (ed. note: Kaprizov was extended mid writing! Life happens fast)

I listened to an interview with Paul Maurice, where he stated that he wasn't worried about the Panthers being tired, because everyone is tired by January. With rosters remaining as static as they are, the greatest turnover is through retirement or the draft, and the Panthers are young enough that their core isn't going to be retiring soon. Florida is probably a favorite again to hoist the Cup in 2026.

I'm back on Blogger after Barry Melrose Rocks was swallowed by a conglomerate that didn't care for my writing about how tough being a Russian in the NHL would be, and wondering about the safety of guys like Kaprizov returning to their homeland, and if they would be allowed back. There was a memorandum to stop talking about politics. Quibbles with painting player concern as "politics" aside, there is more news. Well, the same news. Russia is still at war. 

And now, like the end of last season, even the US and Canada are at odds, adding quite a bit of spice to the NHL season. How can one not talk about politics when talking about the NHL any longer? If any sport requires it, it's this one. Without any tangible impact from the current American administration on the League, we can at least say that cross border games will be extra spicy, in a way that certainly transcends typical hockey rivalries. 

We have a week to get ready for the NHL season. There aren't a many fresh storylines as we see, and the undertones to the season are the same undertones to our daily life in North America for the last several months. Enjoy the game, enjoy the season even if it isn't as much of a distraction as it usually is. I'm sure as hell going to try. 

Not a particularly (W)ild free agency

 The trade deadline and July 1st offer hockey fans an incredible burst of transaction activity that you don't particularly see anywhere else in sports. Hockey rosters are ever in flux, and at this point, a certain subset of fans are braced and excited for that chaos every year. 

But this year, what happened? You can look at a couple of the biggest names as of late June and get a pretty good idea of the situation. Mitch Marner was traded on the 30th of June before signing an extension with his new team, the Golden Knights. Brock Boeser just signed himself a 7 year deal with his current and former team, the Vancouver Canucks. 

This is a perfect example of a good problem, though. Teams have more room, so they are able to spend more money to keep their own. Boeser didn't mind Vancouver, so he stayed. Marner didn't care to spend more time in Toronto, and the Leafs made sure to get something in return. Neither needed to hit the open market because everyone has the ability to add players. There wasn't a particularly great need for Marner because nobody was looking to replace their top players.

This was a real let down for a team like the Wild (my team of choice) who has been in cap hell for years since jettisoning Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. They were supposed to be in a great position to start adding to a young and developing roster, but now, there just wasn't that much out there to attract them, nothing that was going to substantially improve the roster immediately or in the near future. 

This is a blip, though, and not a symptom of the way things will always be. It is great news for players, because with a larger cap, teams will start paying them more. Eventually, the contracts in effect right now will expire, and expectations for those players is that they should make more money as well. Teams will spend nearer to their cap again, and more players will be forced into free agency to seek the best deal they can get.

But this year, I give you permission to stop refreshing SportsNet's free agency tracker. Stop refreshing the SportsNet tracker and enjoy your weekend. 

You two again?

 

As I noted earlier, we are seeing a lot of familiarity late in the playoffs this year, including a rematch of last year's finals. The Panthers avoided an inauspicious place in history, after watching the Oilers nearly win the Cup after Florida was initially up 3-0, and now we know the 2025 series probably won't ever hold a candle to last year. 

It will still be good, however.

These are two evenly matched teams, as proven by last year's Final, and are clearly familiar with each other as well. There will be no feeling each other out, no surprises and no punches pulled. Game one went to overtime this time around. No 8-1 games here, not in 2025. Both teams know the stakes. 

And I can't reiterate this enough. These teams really know each other. Since the beginning of the 2024 Finals, the Oilers have played the Panthers more than three times than they have played the Calgary Flames. By the end of the month, they will probably be at 4 times, but probably 5 times as many.

If you've ever wondered if there was any reason, beyond the obvious trophy hunt, these playoff series seem to have an edge. That's why. Familiarity breeds contempt. The Oilers play the Panthers more than the Flames. The Panthers play the Oilers more than the Lightning. 

This is the NHL's most active rivalry in 2025.

Total Eclipse of the Splash

 

You know what? The Utah Mammoth announced their new nickname within the last few weeks, and the franchise has already moved on. A good franchise recognizes that while a new name is fun, it's the hockey that is important. Good for you, Utah Mammoth, for not being self indulgent and sticking to the hockey. 

The name is fine.

The more things change...

Hockey seems like the kind of sport where truly anything can happen. The game is in constant motion, it's played on ice and uses a curved stick with a round pick in an oval rink. At the professional level, it's rare to find one uniting language that every member of a line speaks. Of all games, it seems like one at which "luck" should play an outsized role. 

If not luck, then the extended grind of the season and playoffs should ensure a bit of change from year to year. The salary cap, too, prevents the teams at the top for keeping all of the best players forever. The salary cap are there for parity, and definitely not an excuse for owners to save a few bucks.

It's hard to repeat, and the game is simply more vulnerable to chance than other sports played in North America, especially at an elite level where the top talent to the bottom isn't so dissimilar. Half the league makes the post season every year, which further brings about the potential for chaos. A long season helps sort teams out a little bit, but that often gets thrown out the window in a short series.

With all that chaos and room for drama cooked into every season, every Stanley Cup Playoff, you might reasonably expect to be surprised all the time. Despite these headwinds against predictability, however, both the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers have returned to their respective conference finals. Heck, the Oilers are even playing the Stars again, just like last year's WCF.

It's a testament to the depth and talent in Edmonton, Florida and Dallas, surely. It's hard to reach this level consistently, which is why -- Hold on, I'm being told that this is actually Florida's third trip to the ECF in a row? And before that the Lightning made the Stanley Cup Final three year in a row? And before that, in '16 and '17 the Penguins won the Cup in back to back years? And before that, the Cup was just handed back and forth between the Kings and the Blackhawks? 

So there is actually quite a lot of precedent for a team to be strong enough to return to the Finals every year, despite all we hear about luck and the challenge of sustaining relevance. And further, there are teams like the Maple Leafs, who have consistently been unable to win the Stanley Cup in nearly 60 years, or the Wild who have busted out of the first round in the playoffs 8 times in the past 10 years. How do you explain that level of consistency from the other end? Why are the Hurricanes going to lose in the Eastern Conference Finals again?! 

For all the luck, all the team turnover and all the variance we expect from teams playing throughout the year, the NHL is stratified. I'm sorry, this just means that the Maple Leafs are never winning the Cup again.