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Champions Issue 2024
The Florida Panthers got their revenge! We celebrate the Cats' first-ever Stanley Cup victory, as well as the title runs for teams across the world in our Champions Issue. Also inside: 32 break-out players to watch next season, whether the playoff format needs to change and much more.
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TAKING IT SLOW
IT IS OFTEN SAID of the greatest players that they don’t chase the game. They don’t need to. It just comes to them. In a sport set apart from all others for its sheer speed, the best to have ever played it are able to slow the game down. Those of us who follow it, however, whether as fans or as media, we ceaselessly chase the game, like a throng of Wile E. Coyotes after a select few Road Runners on blades. Insiders fall all over themselves trying to chase down the latest scoop, while we fans fall all over ourselves chasing down the chasers to be the first to hear about it. It is a mug’s game. We’re all outsiders looking in on the game’s greats. Like most fans, I’ve spent…
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Homegrown Star Leads Lone Star
SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE franchise’s last title, the Texas-based Lone Star Brahmas clinched another Robertson Cup with a win over the Maryland Black Bears. An empty-netter by Brock James sealed the deal with 34 seconds remaining in the one-game showdown, as Maryland had refused to go away all night. But the Brahmas, who finished first overall in the regular season, wouldn’t be denied in an eventual 4-2 victory. The MVP of the playoffs was Jacob MacDonald, a UMass-Lowell commit and a hometown product. A playmaker who can line up at either center or the wing, MacDonald was born in Fort Worth and came up through the Dallas Stars Elite youth-hockey program. The Brahmas play out of North Richland Hills, a suburb of Fort Worth. MacDonald tied for the team lead in playoff…
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EXPANSION CATS HUNT FOR GOALS
THE FLORIDA PANTHERS DON’T have to look far to see contrasting styles on how – and how not – to build an expansion franchise. All they have to do is look back to last season when the Tampa Bay Lightning became competitive, while the Ottawa Senators seemed more concerned with other matters than winning games. Securing the first draft pick won’t be an on-ice concern since the Panthers have already won the right to choose first overall in 1994. So the big question being asked of the Panthers is an obvious one: will they be as good as the Lightning or as bad as the Senators? “Obviously, you try to go the way of Tampa,” said Florida GM Bob Clarke. “But then you try to be better than that.” Clarke made that point clear during…
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SOPHOMORE SLUMP? HOW ABOUT A BUMP
ON MAY 3, NEARLY four months after his calf was lacerated by a skate blade, Adam Fantilli finally got some good news when he was officially named to Canada’s roster for the World Championship. A week later, however, after flying from Columbus to Czechia, he was dropped from the team to make room for some last-minute additions from NHL teams. For the 19-year-old, it was nothing new. Though Fantilli was the No. 3 overall pick in 2023, the highly touted center spent most of the season watching from either the bench or the press box as the Blue Jackets leaned on more experienced players. Call it a learning experience, if you want. But for Fantilli, it has made him even hungrier for what he hopes is a breakout year next season. “I…