Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin skates in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Credit: © Andy Martin Jr, Alamy Images

GOAL! In December, professional hockey player Alex Ovechkin, who plays for the Washington Capitals, became the player with the second most goals in NHL history with 802 goals. He passed Gordie Howe’s record of 801 points. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky holds the number one record with 894 goals. However, Ovechkin isn’t retiring anytime soon!

He scored two goals in a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, December 23rd, 2022. His first goal of the game tied him with Howe in the first quarter. With one minute left in the third quarter, he gracefully shot the puck into the goal to beat Howe’s record. The Capitals defeated the Jets 4 to 1.

Alexander Ovechkin is a Russian-born hockey player. He is one of the stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ovechkin, a left wing for the Washington Capitals, led the NHL in scoring with 112 points (65 goals and 47 assists) in the 2007-2008 season. He has led the league in goals scored nine times (2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020).

Ovechkin won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2012-2013 seasons. He also won the Lester B. Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award) for the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 seasons. The award is given to the most outstanding player in the NHL as voted by the league’s players. In 2018, Ovechkin led Washington to its first Stanley Cup championship. He was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the 2018 playoffs.

Ovechkin was born on September 17th, 1985, in Moscow, U.S.S.R. (now Russia). He began playing hockey with Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League in 2001 at the age of 16 and spent four seasons with the team. Ovechkin was chosen by Washington as the first player selected in the 2004 NHL draft. However, he did not play with the Capitals until 2005, because the 2004-2005 NHL season was canceled due to a labor dispute between the players and owners. Ovechkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2006 as the NHL Rookie of the Year. His 65 goals in 2007-2008 set an NHL record for left wingers.

Ovechkin helped the Russian national team win the men’s world championship in 2008. He played for Russia in the 2006 and 2010 Olympic Games.

Colorado Avalanche plays the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2022 Stanley Cup.
Credit: © Dirk Shadd, Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Press/Alamy Images

The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 2 to 1 on Sunday, winning the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals, the National Hockey League’s championship, four games to two. They overcame a controversial penalty call in Game 5 and a 1-0 deficit early in Game 6 to secure the team’s first Stanley Cup victory since 2001.

Twenty-three-year-old defenseman Cale Makar was unanimously selected as the Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player in the playoffs. He racked up 8 goals and 21 assists during the playoffs. Veteran center Nathan MacKinnon accrued 13 goals and 11 assists during the playoffs. 

After a solid regular season, journeyman goaltender Darcy Kuemper had a mixed performance in the playoffs including a Game 3 Finals loss in which he gave up five goals on 22 shots. Kuemper stepped up Game 6, however, blocking 22 out of 23 Tampa Bay shots on goal. 

The Avs denied the Lightning a chance at a third consecutive Stanley Cup win. The Lightning were trying to win three in a row for the first time since the New York Islanders won four consecutive Finals from 1980-1983. 

Like thunderclouds approaching a mountain overburdened with snow, the Avalanche and the Lightning seemed destined to meet in the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals. Colorado racked up 56 wins during the regular season, narrowly missing the Presidents’ Trophy for best regular-season record. The Lightning are a perennial powerhouse, having made it at least as far as the Eastern Conference Final six out of the last eight seasons.

Even the best teams rarely have an easy path through hockey’s second season, but the two teams’ road was less difficult than most. Only one playoff series the two teams participated went to seven games, when the Toronto Maple Leafs pushed the Bolts to the brink of eliminations during first round. Colorado swept an overmatched Edmonton Oilers team in the Western Conference Final. Tampa Bay defeated the New York Rangers in six games to take the Prince of Wales Trophy.  

The Colorado Avalanche underwent a painful rebuild to reach this point. They were the worst team in the league in 2016-2017 season. But general manager Joe Sakic (a Hall-of-Fame Avalanche player) stuck with rookie coach Jared Bednar and picked up Makar in the 2017 draft. Sakic then made a series of shrewd moves that slowly improved the team over the next few years. He acquired forwards Andre Burakovsky and Nazem Kadri and goalie Kuemper, among others, through trades. 

The Avalanche are poised to compete for the Cup for years to come. Few of their players are on the wrong side of 30. Time will tell if they can go back-to-back, as Tampa Bay did. But the Lightning aren’t going away, either, led by captain Steven Stamkos. Hockey fans may witness this elemental clash again in future playoffs.

Canadian hockey player Willie O’Ree
Credit: © Len Lahman, Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

In January 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Willie O’Ree Congressional Gold Medal Act. O’Ree became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. This happened shortly after the Boston Bruins retired his jersey number, 22. The city of Boston also declared January 18 “Willie O’Ree Day.”

O’Ree was the first Black hockey player in the NHL. O’Ree played right wing for the Quebec Aces, a minor league affiliate of the NHL Boston Bruins, before being called up to play for the Bruins in January 1958.

William Eldon O’Ree was born on Oct. 15, 1935, in Fredericton, Canada. He grew up the youngest of 13 children, in an area with few Black families. He began skating at the age of 3. For most of his youth, he played hockey and baseball. In 1955, O’Ree was invited to try out for the Milwaukee (now Atlanta) Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He instead chose to join the Kitchener Canucks of the Ontario Hockey Association. An injury on the rink caused O’Ree to lose sight in his right eye. Despite this, he was invited to play right wing for the Quebec Aces. O’Ree scored 22 goals that season, and the Quebec Aces won the Quebec Senior Hockey League championship.

The following season, the Boston Bruins called up O’Ree as a temporary replacement. On Jan. 18, 1958, O’Ree became the first Black hockey player to play for an NHL team. O’Ree spent the next few seasons playing on a few different teams, before being invited back to play for the Bruins in 1961. That year, he played 43 games for the Bruins, scoring a total of 14 points. O’Ree spent the last 18 years of his career playing on minor league teams, including the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls, before retiring in 1979. In 1998, O’Ree became the director of youth development for the NHL’s Diversity Task Force. In 2018, O’Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada. If you want to learn more about O’Ree, the award-winning documentary Willie (2019) tells his life story.

Ryan McDonagh of the Tampa Bay Lightning plays the puck away from Alexander Radulov of the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Finals on Sept. 28, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Lightning beat the Stars in the final 4 games to 2.
Credit: © Andy Devlin, NHLI/Getty Images

The Tampa Bay area in Florida, a region where temperatures rarely dip below 40 °F (4 °C), is home to North America’s ice hockey champions. On Sep. 28, 2020, the Tampa Bay Lightning blanked the Dallas Stars 2-0 to win the Stanley Cup. The Lightning won the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Finals four games to two after a long, strange, and grueling season. Goals from Braden Point and in-season acquisition Blake Coleman were more than enough offense for goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who finished the series with a flourish, stopping all 22 shots he faced.

Long-time Lightning player Victor Hedman earned the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player of the playoffs. He scored 10 goals (the third-most ever scored by a defenseman in the playoffs) and 22 points over 25 playoff games.

The Lightning triumphed in the playoffs despite a limited contribution from their captain Steven Stamkos, who was injured for almost all of the playoffs. Stamkos made a brief appearance in Game 3 of the Finals, scoring a goal in less than three minutes of ice time, before his injury forced him out again.

The loss was another heartbreak for the Dallas Stars, who lost to the eventual champion St. Louis Blues in the 2019 playoffs. During the offseason, they added to their solid core by picking up Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry, who had spent long careers on the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, respectively. The veterans did their part, scoring the game-tying and winning goals in a heart-pounding double-overtime Game 5 to stave off elimination. The Stars backup goalie Anton Khudobin filled in admirably for injured ex-Lightning net-minder Ben Bishop, but he could not withstand Tampa Bay’s withering offense. The Lightning went a blistering 7-for-19 on the power-play in the series, while the Stars could manage only one goal in their 19 power-play chances.

Tampa Bay last won the Stanley Cup in 2004. The current core had been one of the best teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) to not win the Cup, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2015 Finals and suffering earlier playoff eliminations in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic ground professional hockey to a halt in 2020, as it did nearly every other aspect of life. As the virus spread through North America in March, the NHL postponed and eventually cancelled the remainder of its season. Each team had played about 70 games of their 82-game schedules.

The NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) later agreed to hold playoffs beginning Aug. 1. The NHL playoffs took place in “bubbles” similar to that employed for the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoffs. Players, coaches, and player-facing team personnel remained cloistered in hotels near Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, and Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario. The games were televised, but no fans were in attendance. The bubble format was successful in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks among players and staff: the NHL reported no COVID-19 cases inside the bubbles during the nine-week playoff tournament, despite conducting more than 31,000 tests.

Because of the unplanned shortening of the regular season, the NHL added a qualifying round to the playoff structure. The teams with the fifth- through twelfth-best records in both conferences played a single five-game qualifying series. The eight winners joined the top four teams in both conferences for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which retained its usual format of four rounds of seven-game series.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly delayed the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Steven Stamkos and his team hoisted the Cup less than a week before the 2020-2021 season would have normally begun. The NHL’s Return to Play plan envisioned the next season starting as early as Dec. 1, but commissioner Gary Bettman admitted it could be pushed back to January. The bubble format, while successful for the playoffs, has been ruled out for the regular season. The NHL and NHLPA are discussing alternatives to play the season safely.

June 17, 2019

Last week, on June 12, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL) downed the Boston Bruins 4-1 to win the team’s first ever Stanley Cup title. The Blues won the best-of-seven final four games to three. Fifty-two years after the team’s debut NHL season (1967-1968), this year’s Blues made the most of an opportunity to change their reputation as an ever-competent team that suffered letdowns in each of its 42 previous playoff runs. In the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Blues possessed more dazzle, more determination, and more puck-luck than any of its opponents.

Members of the St. Louis Blues celebrate their Stanley Cup victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 12, 2019. Credit: © Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

A Blues championship looked rather unlikely early in the NHL season, as the team possessed the league’s worst record as of Jan. 2, 2019. But the team then called up the talented rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, who helped them to turn things around. The Blues finished the season 45-28-9, good enough for third place in the Central Division of the Western Conference.

In the playoffs, St. Louis overcame the favored Winnipeg, Dallas, and San Jose squads to advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1970—when the Bruins swept the Blues for the title. The Blues brought a team of grinders to the final, including forward Pat Maroon, right wing Vladimir Tarasen, and center Ryan O’Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason. O’Reilly tallied 8 goals and 15 assists in the playoffs.

Boston enjoyed a very good season, finishing second in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division at 49-24-9. The Bruins took out Toronto, Columbus, and Carolina in the playoffs before meeting St. Louis. In the final, oddsmakers favored Boston, which featured such stars as wing Brad Marchand, center Patrice Bergeron, goaltender Tuukka Rask, and veteran defenseman Zdeno Chara, the team captain.

The Bruins captured game one in Boston, 4-2. The Blues took game two in Boston, 3-2, but the Bruins spoiled the Blues’s St. Louis homecoming with a 7-2 shellacking in game three. The Blues rebounded to win games four (4-2) and five (2-1) for a three games to two series advantage. Boston took away the Blues’ chance to win a title at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, however, winning game six 5-1. Back in Boston for game seven, St. Louis scored two first period goals for a 2-0 lead, then added two more in the third period for a commanding 4-0 advantage. Boston managed a meaningless goal late in the fourth, but the NHL finally sang the blues as the final horn signaled the end of a long championship draught in St. Louis.

The win for St. Louis continued another title draught, however. No team from Canada—the “land of hockey” and the birthplace of 21 of 30 Blues—has now won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

June 13, 2018

Last week, on June 7, the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL) stunned the Vegas Golden Knights with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory to win the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final four games to one. The Capitals scored two goals midway through the third period, erasing a 3-2 deficit along with 44 years of NHL shortcomings. It was the first Stanley Cup win for Washington (D.C.), a team that had enjoyed much regular season success but none in the postseason since entering the NHL in 1974.

Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals raises the Stanley Cup after his team defeated the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, on June 7, 2018. Credit: © Jeff Bottari, Getty Images

The Capitals long-awaited title ended the hopes of the upstart Golden Knights, a first-year expansion team that made an improbable run through the playoffs to reach the final. The freshly minted Golden Knights fans showed their appreciation, however, cheering their team off the ice after the final horn ended the season late Thursday at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.

Since Washington’s first NHL season in 1974-1975, the Capitals had made just one appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, a demoralizing sweep by the Detroit Red Wings in 1998. In recent years, the Caps, led by star left winger Alex Ovechkin, tantalized their fans by winning 7 of the last 10 division championships. Much to the team’s and its fans’ disappointment, however, they were bounced early from the playoffs each time. This year was different. The Caps roared through the postseason, knocking off the Columbus Blue Jackets and the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins before outlasting the Tampa Bay Lightning in a hard-fought seven-game Eastern Conference Final.

Ovechkin led the Caps run, and he earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Ovechkin scored 3 of his playoff-best 15 goals in the final series against Vegas. Centers Evgeny Kuznetsov (20 assists) and Nicklas Backstrom, winger T.J. Oshie, defender John Carlson, and goalie Braden Holtby all played key roles for the Caps in the postseason. Journeyman Devante Smith-Pelly, a fourth-line forward, brought unexpected scoring to his team. He tallied seven playoff goals, including three during the final’s five games.

Compared with long-suffering Capitals fanatics, Golden Knights fans were born with silver (or was it golden?) spoons in their mouths. Vegas compiled the most successful season for a first-year expansion team in NHL history. Vegas almost paired its spoons with a big silver cup following its regular season Pacific Division crown and a rampage during the Western Conference playoffs. Led by centers William Karlsson and Jon Marchessault, wingers David Perron and Reilly Smith, defender Nate Schmidt, and star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights bested the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks before beating the Winnipeg Jets in the conference final. The Jets playoff crash continued the Stanley Cup drought for Canadian teams. The last team from north of the border to reach the final was the Vancouver Canucks in 2011, and the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993—lamentable statistics for hockey’s home country.

Vegas was the first expansion team to reach the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season since the St. Louis Blues did it in 1968. Like the Golden Knights, the Blues ran out of magic in the final, where they lost to the Canadiens four games to none.

November 30, 2017

The National Hockey League (NHL) was formed 100 years ago on Nov. 26, 1917, in Montreal, Quebec. The four original teams (reorganized from the National Hockey Association) were the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and Toronto Arenas (later the Maple Leafs). The first games were played on December 19 as the Canadiens downed the Senators 7-4 and the Wanderers outscored Toronto 10-9. The Arenas won that first NHL season, and the team advanced to a best-of-five championship series against the Vancouver Millionaires of the rival Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Toronto defeated Vancouver 3 games to 2 to take home the 1918 Stanley Cup.

This 1918 Toronto Arenas team composite shows the players and staff (and earned hardware) of the first NHL Stanley Cup champion team. Credit: Public Domain

In 1924, the Boston Bruins became the first United States team to join the NHL. In 1926, the New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks (later shortened to Blackhawks), and Detroit Cougars (later the Red Wings) joined the league. By 1942, the NHL consisted of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, the Canadiens, New York, and Toronto. This membership, known as the Original Six, remained unchanged until 1967. That year, the NHL doubled to 12 teams. All six new teams were in the United States. The NHL has since expanded several times, and there are currently 31 teams: 7 in Canada and 24 in the United States.

On Jan. 1, 2017, the puck dropped on centenary events with the NHL Centennial Classic, a frigid outdoor game between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs at BMO Field in Toronto. The next day, the NHL sponsored a float called “A Century of Greatness (1917-2017)” in the Rose Parade in a much-warmer Pasadena, California. Also in January, a mobile exhibition called the NHL Centennial Fan Arena began its year-long tour of NHL cities. The exhibition included the venerated Stanley Cup trophy, a pop-up hockey rink, a virtual reality Zamboni® experience, and numerous items from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. A special NHL Centennial Exhibit also ran at the Hockey Hall of Fame throughout the year. Special centennial events also took place at the 2017 NHL All-Star Game in late January and at the NHL Hall of Fame induction ceremony in November. The NHL100 Classic, an outdoor game between the Canadiens and Senators, will wrap up the league’s centennial celebrations at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park on December 16.

To further mark the anniversary, the league named the all-time 100 Greatest NHL Players. In a diplomatic move, the players were not presented in order of supposed greatness, but rather as a whole listed alphabetically. Naturally, the list included such ice legends as Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, and Bobby Orr, as well as such current stars as Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, and Alex Ovechkin. The league also named the Greatest NHL Team of all time, a somewhat less diplomatic process voted on by hockey fans. The vote began with every NHL Stanley Cup champion team, from the Arenas all the way up to last season’s Pittsburgh Penguins, and was cut down to 10 finalists. Fans then gave the NHL Greatest Team honor to the 1984-1985 Edmonton Oilers. The Gretzky-led Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers to win the Stanley Cup that season. The second and third greatest NHL teams were named as the 1991-1992 Penguins and 1976-1977 Canadiens.

November 14, 2017

Yesterday, November 13, Finnish right wing Teemu Selanne headlined the high-scoring class inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario. Selanne, in his first year of eligibility, was joined by left wingers Dave Andreychuk and Paul Kariya and right wing Mark Recchi. Former women’s star Danielle Goyette, Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, and college coach Clare Drake were also enshrined in the hall.

Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Canada. Credit: © Shutterstock

Selanne set a National Hockey League (NHL) rookie record with 76 goals for the Winnipeg Jets during the 1992-1993 season. He went on to tally 684 goals (11th all time) and 773 assists over 21 seasons spent mostly with the Anaheim Ducks. Andreychuk scored 640 career goals and led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the team’s only Stanley Cup (NHL championship) in 2004. Kariya had 402 goals and 587 assists over 15 seasons with Anaheim, the Colorado Avalanche, the Nashville Predators, and the St. Louis Blues. Recchi won Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins (1991), Carolina Hurricanes (2006), and Bruins (2011), and racked up 577 goals and 956 assists over his 22-year NHL career.

Goyette won three Olympic medals—two gold (2002 and 2006) and one silver (1998)—playing for Canada’s women’s national team. Jacobs has owned the Bruins since 1975 and has been chairman of the NHL Board of Governors since 2007. Drake won six Canadian championships over 28 seasons as head coach at the University of Alberta. He also coached professionally with Winnipeg and the Edmonton Oilers.

October 12, 2017

Last week, on October 4, the puck dropped on the National Hockey League (NHL) season as the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins began their title defense with a 5-4 overtime loss to the visiting St. Louis Blues. The Penguins have won five Stanley Cups since joining the NHL for the 1967-1968 season. The Blues, who also joined the league that year, have yet to win their first championship. The Blues’ title drought is a long one—49 years—but it is not the longest in the NHL. That dubious honor belongs to one of hockey’s signature franchises, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Leafs, winners of 13 Stanley Cups, have not fared well since their last trophy was hoisted 50 years ago at the end of the 1966-67 season.

Toronto Maple Leafs players rejoice during their Stanley Cup Final victory over the Detroit Red Wings in 1942. The Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups, but none since 1967. Credit: Archives of Ontario

Toronto is one of the NHL’s oldest and most storied clubs. The team was one of the four original members of the NHL when it was established in 1917 (the other three were the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, and the Ottawa Senators). Toronto, then known as the Arenas, won the first NHL Stanley Cup in 1918. The team nickname was changed to the St. Patricks in 1919 and finally to the Maple Leafs in 1927.

The Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup again in 1922 and 1932, but the team’s greatest years came from 1942 to 1967. During that period, Toronto won an impressive 10 Stanley Cups, and many Leafs stars from those teams were later elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame (which is also in Toronto). Toronto’s success ended with the expansion era, however, as six new teams (all in the United States) entered the NHL for the 1967-1968 season. Toronto struggled through turbulent years in the early 1970′s, but the team managed to reach the NHL semifinals in 1978. The Leafs’ troubles resumed, however, and lasted until 1993, when the team roared back to prosperity before losing a tough conference finals to the Los Angeles Kings. Toronto returned to the conference finals in 1994, 1999, and 2002, but failed each time to reach the coveted ice of the Stanley Cup Final.

There is hope on the northwest shore of Lake Ontario, however. Last season, Toronto—led by budding superstar center Auston Matthews—finished tied for third in the NHL’s Atlantic Division before bowing out in the first round of the playoffs. Matthews, barely 19 years old when he debuted a year ago, won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most outstanding rookie player. Maple Leafs fans hope that a strong offense led by Matthews and fellow young forwards Mitch Marner and William Nylander can help end Toronto’s long wait for a Stanley Cup championship.

June 13, 2017

On Sunday night, June 11, the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL) defeated the Nashville Predators 2-0 to win the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final four games to two, capturing their second straight title. After scoring two late goals to win the deciding game six at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the Pens rushed the ice to collectively and jubilantly hoist the Stanley Cup trophy. Pittsburgh, which defeated the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 final, became the first team since the Detroit Red Wings of the late 1990’s to repeat as NHL champions. This year’s championship is the team’s fifth since the Penguins joined the NHL in 1967.

Players, coaches, and staff of the Pittsburgh Penguins pose happily with the Stanley Cup trophy after winning their second-straight National Hockey League championship on June 11, 2017, in Nashville, Tennessee. Credit: © Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

Pittsburgh forward Patric Hornqvist banked in the game-winning shot off the back of Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne with about a minute and a half to go in the third period. Pens winger Carl Hagelin then added an empty-net goal with 14 seconds remaining. The Pens’ 23-year-old goalie, Matt Murray, saved 27 shots en route to recording his second consecutive shutout to clinch the final’s tightest game. The series began on a fluky note as the Pens scored 5 goals on only 12 shots to win game one, 5-3. The ensuing games were never terribly close as the Pens dominated games two and five and the Predators easily won games three and four.

The Penguins’ captain, star center Sidney Crosby, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. Crosby rang up 8 goals and 19 assists during the Pens’ postseason march, his 27 points trailing only teammate Evgeni Malkin’s playoff tally of 28 points. The Crosby-Malkin duo secured their third Stanley Cup together, their first coming in 2009. To reach the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, the Penguins finished second in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division before brushing away the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs and winning tough victories over the Washington Capitals and the Ottawa Senators.

The Predators made their first Stanley Cup Final unexpectedly, having barely qualified for the playoffs with a fourth-place finish in the Western Conference’s Central Division. The Preds showed their mettle in the playoffs, however, knocking off the powerhouse Chicago Blackhawks before taking down the St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks to reach the final. The team’s unlikely playoff run—behind Rinne, star defenseman P. K. Subban, and a host of talented young forwards—generated unprecedented hockey excitement in “Music City” (Nashville’s nickname), as fans roared their team to a deafening home-ice advantage while sporting gold shirts bearing the image of the team’s namesake fanged predator, a saber-toothed cat.