Carolina Climbs Mountain

Twenty years is a bit of a wait, but for the Carolina Hurricanes, the wait is worth it. Carolina has had one Stanley Cup title, that being in 2006 with a win over the Oilers. Since then, the Hurricanes have come close a few times, but they haven't gotten to the top of the mountain since then. Until now. For the second time in their history, the Carolina Hurricanes are the Stanley Cup Champions, having beaten the Vegas Golden Knights in six games to claim the title.

Before we dive into things with the Champions, let's not take anything away from what Vegas did on their run. Going six games in each of the first two rounds and then sweeping the Presidents Trophy winners in the Western Conference Finals is a huge accomplishment. Then they took the opener in the series and even held a two games to one series lead thanks to the double OT win in game three. Mitch Marner proved he was worth what Vegas paid him in that sign and trade in the offseason. After that, Vegas seemed like they ran out of gas. But hey, the fact they have played in the finals now three times in their nine years of existence says a lot. It speaks to how well the team is being run and how they are able to keep themselves in the hunt with smart player moves at the right time to keep them in the race in the West.

But they ran into a better team in Carolina. The Hurricanes have been one of the most consistent teams in hockey over the last number of years. After an eight-year stretch of missing the playoffs, Carolina has made the post season eight straight years, going at least two rounds in each of those years. Oh, and they've gone to at least the conference finals in three of the last four years, with winning the title this year.

And this year, Carolina had the 2nd best record in all of hockey, behind only Colorado. Finishing the year with 53 wins, the 2nd most in team history (behind the 54 wins they had in 2022). And some of the moves that went on in this finals were impressive. For as good as Freddy Anderesen was during this playoff run, when he faltered at the end, Brandon Bussi came in and cleaned up. Bussi play proved that he's ready to take the reigns in the Hurricanes net. And with Pyotr Kochetkov the 3rd option in goal, Carolina won't have to worry about having a problem in net anytime soon.

As the finals wore on, the Hurricanes system and style of play seemed to take over and wear down the Golden Knights. Vegas looked out of gas by the time game six really got rolling. They had nothing left in the tank. It was a good mix of veteran and young guns doing what they had to do to fill the back of the opposing net.

Congratulations to the Hurricanes for winning the Stanley Cup for the second time in their history!

The Waiting Is Over!

It's a phrase that New York Basketball fans have waited a very long time to hear. Fifty-three years in fact. It took five games against a good San Antonio Spurs team to do it but for the first time since 1973, the New York Knicks are the champions of the basketball world.; New York has won its 3rd NBA title, and first since 1973, beating San Antonio in five games to clinch it.

And for a Knicks team that has been on the rise since the end of the 2021-22 season, this has to be one of the most cleansing feelings ever. This is a Knicks team that had made the playoffs three straight years at the turn of the decade in the 2010s, followed by a string of seven straight under .500 basketball. That was broken at the turn of the 202s with a winning record and a playoff appearance in 2021. They missed out again and finished under .500 the next year. That offseason was viewed as a major turning point for the club, who at the time were getting beat up pretty good by some experts in the media for the moves they made. Getting Jalen Brunson from Dallas that offseason, which was lambasted by the media at the time, proved to pay off bigtime four years later.

Each year after that was at least a 2nd round appearance. They made it all the way to the conference finals last year, before finally climbing to the top of the mountain this year.

October got off to a slow start for the Knicks, but by the time November had hit, they found their stride and never looked back. Sure, there was a bit of a dip with an under .500 month in January, but by the time we hit the seasons halfway point in the middle of January, the Knicks were sitting at 25 wins. Once March hit, the Knicks caught fire and, well, the rest is history.

After a scare early on the first round against Atlanta, losing games two and three of that series, New Ork hit their stride again. From there, they polished off the Hawks, then steamrolled pasted the 76ers and Cavaliers to reach the finals. Once San Antoinio became the opponent, outside of the hiccup if you want to call it that in game three, the Knicks kept right on rolling.

But during that run, there were two nights where you really felt there was magic in the air for this run. The first came in the opening game of the Conference Finals against Cleveland, where they trailed by as many as 22,. but stormed back. They liked that performance, the Knicks decided to do it again. This time it came in Game Four of the Finals at home against the Spurs. It was a 29-point lead for San Antonio that went poof thanks to the last second heroics of OG Anunoby, who tipped in the game winner right before time expired.

For that shot alone, OG will be a made man in New York the rest of his life, as will Jalen Brunson for that matter with the way he played during this entire Knicks run. And thanks to those two performances, the Knicks exercised a lot of ghosts of sorts from Madison Square Garden. It's the first title win since the 1973 finals. Sure, the Knicks had made the finals twice since then, losing to the Rockets in 1994 and then to the Spurs in 1999. In Between titles for the Knicks there had been some very lean years. There were some seasons in the mid-80s that were less than stellar. The 90s were better but they couldn't finally get to the top, having come oh so close twice. The turn of the century was even worse for the Knicks, but they finally turned the corner and are on top of the mountain once again.

New All Star Format

Last week, the National Hockey League announced its plans for the 2027 NHL All Star Game. The game, and weekend festivities, are set to take place February 5th and 6th at UBS Arena on Long Island. There are some big changes to be made to not only the game itself but to the skills competition, which is set to take place on the 5th, with the games on the 6th.

The NHL All Star Game first took place in 1947, becoming a battle of the conferences in 1969. 2009 was the last time we saw a battle of East vs West in the game, which then changed for a couple of years to fantasy drafts. Then in 2016 it changed to the battle of divisions, which held steady until another division like game, turned into a draft in 2024. The last two years have missed out due to the four nations tournament and the Olympics. Because of the success of those two events, the NHL is making the change this year.

For the skills competition next season, the league has made some changes. They are going to spotlight 10 young stars 25 or younger. Those ten guys are going to compete in eight events: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Passing Challenge, One Timers, Stick Handling and Accuracy Shooting. Players will earn points based on placement in each event. Top four point earners from this will advance to a shootout, facing one all star goalie. The top two from the shootout will face off in an obstacle course finale.

As for the game itself the next night, the format is getting another overhaul. IT's still going to be three on three games, but its going to be broken up into five teams: USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland and the World (the remaining countries who have players in the league). This group set up will face off in a round robin exhibition tournament. Each team will have 11 players: nine skaters and two goalies. Each team is going to play four 5-Minute games during this tournament. no overtimes, no shootouts. The top two te34ams will face off in a ten minute final based on a point system. The points will be 2 for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss.

I will give the NHL credit where its due for trying to change the game up and come up with some interesting ideas to draw fans to the entire weekend. But by dividing up the game into five countries and playing a round robin tournament is just dumb. Keep the four nations and Olympics as their own ideas. Olympics are a given every four years now. The four nations proved to be a huge success, so do that every two years between Olympic games. Every year between Olympics and Four-Nations keep an All Star Game. That Idea is something that would be fun and can work with.

For the all star game, go back to what you did for the eight years before the season long lockout. From 1998-2004 it was a regular 5 on 5 game that saw North America take on the World. Go back to something like that if you want to keep that international flavor for the all star game on years that four nations and Olympics aren't happening. Doing this for the game isn't going to fly with a lot of fans and it's going to keep a certain group of eyes off the product. I understand you trying to grow the game with ideas like this, but it makes no sense and nobody's going to play any harder for something like this. Keep it as close to an actual game as possible and use the old international format for the game, that should keep fans engaged and wanting to watch.

2026 Stanley Cup Finals Preview

The time has finally arrived. We started this journey back in early October, with 32 teams all chasing the same goal. To win the Stanley Cup, the greatest prize in all of hockey. Well now we have two teams left. In two weeks' time, or less, a new champion in the hockey world will be crowned. This year's final poses an interesting matchup as it will see the Carolina Hurricanes taking on the Vegas Golden Knights.

Vegas is in its ninth year of existence and is playing in its 3rd Cup Finals. They lost to Washington in five games in 2019 and won in 2023, beating the Panthers in five games. Vegas got to this year's finals by beating Utah in six games, Anaheim in six games and Colorado in four.

Carolina has been in the NHL since 1997 and are also in the finals for the third time in their history. The lost to Detroit in five games in 2002 and beat Edmonton in seven games in 2006. In order to reach the finals this year, Carolina swept Ottawa, swept Philadelphia and beat Montreal in five games.

You have to give credit where its due to the Vegas Golden Knights. After going through tough six games series in the opening two rounds, they pulled off a major upset in the conference finals by sweeping the heavily favored Avalanche right out of the playoffs. It's a big surprise Vegas is here because once the playoffs got started, whoever was going to come out of the Pacific side of the bracket in the West was going to be the underdog by comparison to the Central winner. But Vegas has plenty of playoff experience in its lineup. There are fourteen guys in the Vegas lineup who have played in at least one Cup Finals, 11 of whom where on that cup winning team three years ago. So, the experience is there. And they've had their guys producing most of the playoffs. The two leading scorers in this year's playoffs, Mitch Marner and Jack Eichel, play in Vegas. So, they have the scoring touch to get the job done. And lets not forget about the play of Carter AHart in net, who's got a goals against of 2.22. He's been standing on his head on some nights to help propelled Vegas to where they are right now.

But then there's the team they are squaring off against in these finals. The Carolina Hurricanes have one loss all playoffs. That loss was the first game against Montreal in the conference finals, and that can be attributed to the long layoff Carolina had before the series started. Sure, Carolina isn't going to run teams out of the building with their scoring efforts. The biggest margin of victory for the Hurricanes in the playoffs has been three goals. What's Carolina secret? Its two-fold. Its balanced scoring for one. The top three scorers, Taylor Hall, Jackson BVlake and Logan Stankoven, are the only guys on this team that have double digits point totals in this years playoffs. The next closest one is Nikolaj Ehlers who has 9. So its been a balanced attack. The other thing that's propelled the Hurricanes into the finals is the goaltending. Frederik Andersen has a 1.41 goals against, a .931 save percentage and has played every minute in this years post season. Carolina also plays an airtight defense around him, hlping out with those numbers.

This series is going to be a tight checking series. Sure, Vegas has more experience in playing in the finals, but right now Carolina is the better overall team. Vegas is going to make it a tougher series but this seems like its the Hurricanes year.

Pick: Hurricanes in 6!

Hockey Legend Passes

Being an enforcer, or a pest depending on how you want to look at things, came with the territory of playing in the National Hockey League. That's the way the game was throughout the 80s and early to mid 90s. One of those guys who was at the top of the list of agitators at that time was Claude Lemieux. Having played 21 seasons in the NHL, Lemieux could get under your skin and then beat you with a big goal or a great pass. The four-time Cup winner passed away on Thursday at the age of 60.

Lemieux was a second round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in 1983. After playing sparingly over the first three years of his career, he joined the Habs full time in 1986. He played there till 1990 when he went to New Jersey. He then played for Colorado (1995-2000), New Jersey again (2000), Phoenix, Dallas and a brief stop in San Jose to finish his career in 2008. By the time he was done, he played 1,215 regular season games, totaling 379 goals, 407 assists for 786 points. All this while racking up 1,777 career penalty minutes. He found another gear come playoff time. He has his name on the Cup four times: 1986 with Montreal, 1995 and 2000 with New Jersey and 1996 with Colorado. He played in 234 career playoff games, scoring 80 goals 76 assists for 158 points and 529 more penalty minutes.

When people think of Lemieux two things come to mind. One is his clutch goal scoring in the playoffs, as the Devils found out twice in both 1995 and 2000. He knows how to hit the back of the net in the biggest moments come springtime. But when people think of Lemieux, most think of 1996., The hit that started it all. Game six, Western Conference Finals, Red Wings and Avalanche. Lemieux threw a hit on Red Wings forward Kris Draper, a nasty hit from behind that messed up Drapers face. It was the hit that sparked the big rivalry between the Avs and Wings at that time. And that, famously, lead to what became fight night at the Joe. March of 1997, Colorado made a trip to Detroit to play the Wings and that night saw one of the most memorable line brawls in the history of the game. And that all stemmed from Lemieux hit in the previous year's playoffs.

Lemieux knew what his role was when he played, and he did it to perfection. Sure, not all of his hits were clean or legal. Most teams knew that and tried their best to prepare for what was coming. That was just Claude being Claude. He did his job and he did it well. When his career ended, he went on to become a very well represented player agent around the league.

Even in his passing, Claude is becoming an agent of change in the game. After it was revealed that he had passed, Lemieux's brain was donated to Boston University's CTE Center to be able to research the long-term effects of repetitive brain injury that stems from the way he played and the way the game was played back in the day.

Even in passing, Lemieux is still effecting change in the game!

Western Final Speaks Volumes

The National Hockey League's Western Conference Finals spoke volumes. And it tells the tale of two different teams and two different stories.

For the winning team, the Vegas Golden Knights, its sets the bar so high for new teams in sports. For the losing team, the Colorado Avalanche, it speaks volumes to the curse or whatever you want to call it, for winning the Presidents Trophy.

The most obvious one is what we going to dive into first, and that is the fact that for the third time in the nine-year existence of the Vegas franchise, they are playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. This is a huge accomplishment for two reasons. First is the way this year has gone. The pacific Division in the West as a whole this year seemed the weakest of the other three in the league. And let's be real, they were huge underdogs to Colorado, or for that matter whoever was going to come out of that side of the bracket. Going into the playoffs, three of the teams that came out of the Central were the favorites, be it Colorado, Dallas, and even Minnesota. The Pacific had two 40 plus win teams and neither of them got out of round two, that being Anaheim (who was a surprise in its own right) and Edmonton. Vegas went in and beat them up in the first two series.

Then once the Conference Finals got started, they looked like a team on a mission. Sure, Colorado had injuries, more on that in a bit, but Vegas stuck to their game and are back in the Finals. Vegas has quickly started to establish themselves as a force in the West. Three trips to the Finals in nine years?!?!? That comes down to the way ownership and upper management has built this team to be a contender and stay that way. Good drafts, making the right trades at the right times, and being able to keep that group together. They aren't quite an elite level franchise in this league just yet, but the level of success they have attained in their first ten years in the league is quite impressive. They've only missed the playoffs once, and in the other nine seasons have failed to get out of the first round just twice. That's eye-popping stats to think about and speaks volumes about how the team is built and run.

From the side of the coin, the Colorado Avalanche have some things to be able to look at this offseason. With the year that Colorado had, coming this far, while a great accomplishment, is a letdown. There was supposed to be a finals appearance at least for this team, instead it ends like this. A whimper in the Western Conference Finals. Yes, there were injuries that may have played a factor. Cale Makar missed the first two games due to injury and that looked like it played a major factor for Colorado. They couldn't recover and find their legs at all in the series from that.

The other storyline from this is the impact of the President's Trophy. It doesn't mean a damn thing. No President's Trophy winner has had success in the last thirteen years. Meaning that the last team that finished the regular season with the best record to make it to the finals was the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks (they also won the Cup that year as well). Yes, it is kind of cool to finish the regular season as the best team in the league. But all of that flies right out of the window once the playoffs start. And its been those teams that don't get the right mojo going once spring hockey starts. This is the time of the year where the hottest teams go the deepest. Colorado was playing fairly well in the first two rounds, but the injuries got them at the wrong time, among other things. And because of that it's going to lead to some things for Colorado to take a look at during the summer months.

Party Like It's 1999

The city of New York is about to party like it's 1999! It's something that fans of the New York Knicks have been waiting almost thirty years to do. With their 130-93 win in game four of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks completed the sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers and punched their ticket to the NBA finals for the first time since 1999.

The last time the Knicks made it this far was a five-game loss to the Tim Duncan led San Antonio Spurs in 1999. This will be the 9th total trip in franchise history to the Finals for the Knicks, who are seeking their first NBA title since 1973.

There's a lot to unpack here with what the Knicks have been doing in these playoffs. First off, it's the dominating point output. The Knicks have outscored Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland by a combined 262 points during their playoff winning streak, the largest margin in any 11-game span in NBA history. There's domination and then there's this, which has the Knicks operating at a whole different level. They are going to try and keep this going against either San Antonio or Oklahoma City, both of whom are a very different animal then anything the Knicks will have faced in the first three rounds of the playoffs.

We can get into more details about that as the finals get set to get rolling, as there's still two to three more games to be played to decide who the Knicks are going to face.

What this run means for New York sports, epically New York Basketball goes beyond measure. Twenty-seven years is a long time to wait between finals appearances for the Knicks, a team who in 2018-19 won just 17 games and were the worst team in the league that year. And now here we sit. That's an amazing turn around, not just for the Knicks, but any sports franchise. And this is a huge boost for the New York Sports scene. Here's why. The Jets haven't played for a Super Bowl since 1969, the Giants 2011. Yankees last world series appearances was last year, the Mets in 2015. The Islanders haven't played for the Cup since 1984, the Rangers 2014. 

Seeing the Knicks go this far has been a major morale boost for New York City and it's fans. This is something that has been a long time coming and has clearly shown the fruits of the labor that Knicks management has put in over the last number of years to turn this team from the bottom of the league to what is now a major threat in the Eastern Conference.