NEW YORK (May 23, 2024) – Patrik Allvin of the Vancouver Canucks, Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers are the three finalists for the 2023-24 Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, the National Hockey League announced today.

Voting for this award was conducted among the NHL general managers and a panel of League executives, print and broadcast media at the conclusion of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The winner will be announced by national rightsholders ESPN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports during pregame programming ahead of the Stanley Cup Final game on Monday, June 10.

Following are the finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, in alphabetical order:

10 1/2 minutes of weirdness.

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

You like to think that if you’re patient enough, if you put yourself in a position to win often enough, that eventually it will be your turn. So, let’s attempt to define “often enough,” shall we?

For the Edmonton Oilers, that means two Western Finals in three seasons, and consecutive playoff losses to the eventual Stanley Cup champions. It’s the accepted route to success, the journeys chartered by Tampa and Colorado.

But then you come here to Dallas, and you look across the ice at Ryan Suter and his 1,444 NHL regular-season games played — with no Stanley Cup. And you see Joe Pavelski, who has played and lost in two Cup Finals, and chugged through an incredible seven Conference Finals in a legendary career spanning 1,332 games.

There’s Matt Duchene (1,056 games), and Jamie Benn (1,112 games), rounding the group of four veterans that don't have a Stanley Cup ring.

So here’s the question: Can anyone want to win a Cup more than these guys?

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from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the NHL's website,

Ken Holland and Jim Nill have their names on the Stanley Cup together four times. They were on the management team when the Detroit Red Wings won the Cup in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

Now they’re facing each other as general managers of different teams in the Western Conference Final, Holland leading the Edmonton Oilers, Nill the Dallas Stars. Game 1 is at American Airlines Center on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Holland has Edmonton in the conference final for the second time in three seasons. The 68-year-old is looking to add another championship to a resume that already has him in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Obviously, we go way back, and we’re good friends,” Holland said at the Oilers hotel here Wednesday. “He’s done an amazing job here with Dallas.”

Nill has Dallas in the conference final for the second straight season and the third time in five seasons. The 66-year-old is looking to win the Cup for the first time as a GM.

“Our families are good friends,” Nill said at the Stars practice rink in Frisco, Texas, on Wednesday. “We know each other well and that. It means a lot coming here and playing against him.”

Holland and Nill go back to 1975-76, when they played for Medicine Hat of the Western Canada Hockey League, now known as the Western Hockey League. Holland was an overage goalie who turned 20 that season, Nill a 17-year-old forward. Nill said Holland took him under his wing, and they built a relationship.

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from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The Rangers were not quick enough, were not hard enough, were not sharp enough and were not committed enough for a Game 1 of the conference finals. The Panthers, they were all the things that the Blueshirts were not in Wednesday’s 3-0 match at the Garden.

All this talk about menace that preceded the Puddy Tats and it turns out that Florida’s physicality manifested itself in puck battles and in territorial battles. The Puddy Tats took advantage of Ranger carelessness to own the puck for shifts at a time below the hash marks.

There were times that the Blueshirts looked like the kid in the school yard who’d had his hat stolen and was desperately trying to intercept it as the bullies tossed it back and forth over his head.

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If you missed the game highlights, watch them below.

* Matthew Tkachuk and Sergei Bobrovsky helped the Panthers post a Game 1 victory in the Eastern Conference Final against the Rangers, who face a series deficit for the first time in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* The Western Conference Final will begin tonight on TNT, truTV, Max, Sportsnet, TVA Sports and CBC when the Stars host the Oilers at American Airlines Center in a battle between two of the League’s top four offensive teams from the regular season. Click here to read today’s edition of #NHLStats: Live Updates.

NEW YORK (May 22, 2024) – Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks is the 2023-24 recipient of the Jack Adams Award as “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success,” as selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Tocchet, a first-time Jack Adams finalist, is the third winner in Canucks history, following Pat Quinn in 1991-92 and Alain Vigneault in 2006-07. He was the club’s first finalist for this award since Vigneault finished second in 2010-11.

Discussion is always welcome.

A short one.

via the LA Kings,

The LA Kings have named Jim Hiller as the club’s 30th head coach in franchise history, it was announced today by Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake.

Hiller, 55, was originally elevated to Kings interim head coach on Feb. 2, 2024, after serving as an assistant coach over the past two seasons. Hiller made his head coaching debut on Feb. 10 against the Edmonton Oilers to become the 18th different head coach in league history to make their coaching debut with the team that originally drafted them, and the first to do so since Phil Housley(6th overall, 1982 by Buffalo).

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Florida Panthers centreman Anton Lundell was only 13 years old when he and his family made the long journey from Espoo, Finland, to New York City for a vacation.

The Lundells made a point to tour Madison Square Garden, and it was during that vacation that the aspiring NHLer had his eyes opened to the history of The World's Most Famous Arena.

"Just walk to around it, that was the first time I actually understood that it's a pretty awesome arena and a lot has happened there," Lundell recalls. "So, I can't wait to play."

With the New York Rangers having six days off to heal up and to hype up their hosting of the Eastern Conference final, and with the co-tenant Knicks bowing out in Round 2, the buzz over this team's bid to win a Stanley Cup on the 30th anniversary of its last is palpable.

The magic of MSG, the appetite of Rangers fans desperate to party like it's 1994...

"I think you grow to appreciate that more when you're in it, and you're living it every day. You see how special it is. You see the passion of the fans, which is unbelievable," says first-year Rangers coach Peter Laviolette. "The building, the history that goes behind this team is very special. So, to be here, at this point is a great thing for all of us."

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Six minutes to watch.

from Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times,

Mind you, Canada still has the most NHL players. The U.S. is a distant second at 29.1% while third-place Sweden has 9.1%. Canada still enters most international tournaments as the consensus favorite and its current entry at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Prague — bolstered by Kraken players Jared McCann, Jamie Oleksiak and Brandon Tanev — remains undefeated through seven games.

So, some Canadian angst is overblown. That a nation of just 39 million people continues to do so well in hockey is in itself worthy of praise. But in a healthy, globalized sport, it will never be what it once was.

On top of that, so many additional players helped the NHL expand to 32 teams. With only seven teams from Canada, well, Cup odds take a hit. Back before full-on free agency and salary caps, good Canadian-based teams could keep contending cores together longer. Now, it’s largely just a numbers game of hoping to win out during that brief window your odds hit.

Since Montreal’s win in 1993, we’ve seen Canadian teams reach the final six more times — a once-every-five-years rate roughly mirroring their current seven-of-32 composition within the league. They just haven’t prevailed in those championship series.

And it’s all got me wondering: Does it even matter anymore if a Canadian-based team wins a Cup in a globalized league? Does team geography have anything to do with a nation’s hockey prowess?

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from Michael Traikos of The Hockey News,

After Monday's Game 7 win against the Vancouver Canucks, McDavid will be playing in his second conference final with a chance to finally win a championship and bring the Stanley Cup home to Canada.

McDavid, along with the Oilers, are the country's remaining hope at ending the 31-year drought.

It's another way of saying that it's time for McDavid to win. And if you're a fan of the sport, you should want for it to happen — even if you happen to live in Vancouver.

A player's legacy is tied to his ability to win championships. Individual awards are one thing. But hockey is a team sport, so we tend to measure greatness on the ability to win together as a team.

It is why three-time champion Jonathan Toews — and not Crosby — was once regarded as the greatest captain in the NHL.That is, until Crosby won back-to-back Cups in 2017 and 2018 and matched Toews' championships.

And it is why Ovechkin's career seemed forever clouded by his inability to win a Cup. For years, he was regarded as a coach killer, as a me-first player, as someone who was more concerned with padding his goal total rather than put his ego aside for the greater good. And then, after 13 long years, he finally won. And all those criticisms seemed to wash away.

No one is calling McDavid selfish. Certainly not after picking up 100 assists this season. But we have been calling him one of the greatest players of all time ever since he arrived in the NHL. Years from now, when he is retired, we will point to his scoring totals and his individual hardware as proof of that greatness. But if he wants to stand shoulder to shoulder with Gretzky, Orr, Howe and Crosby, then McDavid needs to start winning — and winning more than once.

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The Eastern Conference Final will begin tonight on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet, TVA Sports and CBC when the Panthers and Rangers square off at Madison Square Garden in a battle between the Eastern Conference’s top two seeds.

* Two of the game’s top goaltenders are expected to man the pipes tonight when Vezina Trophy winners Igor Shesterkin and Sergei Bobrovsky will achieve an NHL feat that hasn’t been seen in more than 20 years.

* The Oilers and Stars will contest Game 1 of their Conference Finals matchup Thursday on TNT, truTV, Max, Sportsnet, TVA Sports and CBC.

via the NHL PR department,

First off, how did you do with the second round picks?

So who do you pick for the Conference Finals and in how many games?

New York Rangers vs. Florida Panthers

Dallas Stars vs. Edmonton Oilers

Picks should be in by 7pm on Wednesday.

original post was at 6:24am on 5/21/24

David Alter of The Hockey News,

The hard work begins now for Craig Berube.

Introduced to the media on Tuesday after his hiring as the new Toronto Maple Leafs head coach became official on Friday, Berube said he's already been in touch with everyone on the roster, even meeting up with the players who live in the city during the offseason.

A step he feels necessary if he's going to demand the most from his players.

"To hold players accountable and for players to understand the accountability you have to form a partnership throughout, I think it starts in the summertime," Berube said. "Get to know these players them getting to understand what I'm all about and I'm going to coach each individual and the team and then when you have to hold the player accountable for whatever, it could be ice time. It could be whatever the situation. They understand it more and communication is huge."

Berube has developed a reputation in the NHL as a good communicator and that was much of what attracted the Maple Leafs to hire him.

"They know where they stand. Berube said. "I'm going to tell them when they're playing well. "I'm going to tell them when they're not playing well, I'm going to tell them with the things that need to be improved upon. There's all types of things. So accountability is accepted almost by your players when you have that partnership."

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Watch the media conference below.

Ten things you need to know about the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs:

TAMPA BAY - The Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh and the Edmonton Oilers’ fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Tampa Bay’s second-round selection in 2025 and its seventh-round pick in 2024, vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois announced today.

A bit over 9 minutes to watch.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

Fans on social media had a field day about Andrew Copp's drop in offensive production this past season. Copp, in his first two seasons with the Red Wings, in fact, hasn't come close to duplicating his final season before entering free agency.

But this season, in particular, there might have been a reason for the slimmer offensive numbers.

More than ever, with coach Derek Lalonde able to deploy pure offensive players, Copp was used in a defensive role, charged with shutting down opponents' scoring lines.

Copp and his linemates largely did the job well. But Copp's offensive production took a hit. Copp had 33 points (13 goals, 20 assists), down from 42 points (nine goals, 33 assists) in his first Wings season.

"There were good stretches and stretches where maybe I didn't love my game as much," Copp said of his overall season, during his season-ending media conference. "Role-wise, it kind of changed from last year being a little bit more offensive to this year, playing against the other team's top line, especially down the stretch here in a checking capacity. Not a lot of power play. Every guy always wants to produce more. I think obviously I can.

"My focus, with the way that the lines and all the roles shook out, that was what they needed from me. There's more to my game offensively, but that wasn't really asked of me this year. Your focus is checking, and it's really hard to produce five-on-five in this league, and then power play is a huge part of producing.

"It is what it is. Whatever is best for the team to help them win."

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from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

n time, the Vancouver Canucks will probably look back proudly at all they accomplished this season.

They’ll be happy with the 50-win, 109-point, division-winning regular season that no one saw coming. They’ll be grateful for the culture they’ve built under coach Rick Tocchet, the standards they’ve established among themselves, the relationship they mended with a fan base that had been conditioned for and poisoned by disappointment over many years....

Skating six-against-five, Miller drilled a heavy one-timer from the high slot that hit teammate Nikita Zadorov with 13 seconds to go.

“I mean, there's no quit in this team,” Tocchet said. “The third period, parts of the second, there was no quit. Really proud of the guys. Unreal. Millsy, if that shot gets through Z, that's in the net. Made a huge push there. I'm really proud of them.”

Asked what he has learned about his group, Tocchet’s voice appeared to catch briefly with emotion.

“I've been here a year and a half, (and) just the buy-in and the way they want to play,” he said. “Listen, they put respect back into this city and this jersey. The fans have got something to be proud about. And it's all because of the players.”

more

Below find Mark Spector also of Sportsnet on the Oilers plus watch the game highlights.