EDMONTON – Well, wouldn’t you look at that.
The Edmonton Oilers have gone from down 0-2 against the Los Angeles Kings to up 3-1 on the Vegas Golden Knights.
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Life comes at you fast.
The Oilers know what is at stake tonight in Vegas. And unlike their Finals series against the Florida Panthers, they don’t want to “drag them back to ‘Berta.”
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The Oilers are one win removed from doing something they haven’t done in 35 years – advance to the Western Conference Final for two consecutive seasons.
To do so, they will need to defeat the Golden Knights in their own barn, with their fans behind them. Luckily, the Oilers have a good track record in this situation.
Since 2017, the Oilers have an 8-2 record in potential series-clinching games. That gives them an .800 winning percentage, which was the second-best in the NHL at that time.
However, their success in these scenarios extends further than that. The Oilers are 42-19 all-time in games that are potentially series-clinching. That’s a .689 winning percentage.
They have had tremendous success as the road team, too. The Oilers have a 20-11 record and a .645 winning percentage as the road team in potential series-clinching scenarios.
No matter how you slice it, the Oilers have the Golden Knights with their backs against the wall. All they have to do is play like they did in Game 4, and they will move on to the winner of the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets series.
Easier said than done, but at least they have destiny on their side.
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While the Montreal Canadiens only have three players participating in the 2025 World Championship, former Habs are also involved. On Tuesday afternoon, Mike Matheson and Canada took on France and a pair of former Canadiens organization members.
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Behind the French bench stood former Canadiens goaltender Cristobal Huet, who is now an assistant coach for France. The Frenchman spent part of three seasons in Montreal after being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings alongside Radek Bonk for goaltender Mathieu Garon and managed to steal the number one job away from Jose Theodore.
In 137 games in the Canadiens’ net, he kept a 58-39-13 record, with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage while also posting 11 shutouts. He was traded to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick at the 2009 draft at the trade deadline of the 2007-08 season when Montreal felt it was time to give rookie netminder Carey Price the reins.
Huet would finish the year in D.C. before signing a four-year pact with the Chicago Blackhawks. Unfortunately for him, he would eventually lose the starter role to Antti Niemi, but he still became the first Frenchman to get his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, even if it was as the backup.
Due to cap constraints, the Hawks loaned Huet to Fribourg in Switzerland the following season, and he never made it back to the NHL. When he first skated in the NHL, Huet became just the second French national to do so after Philippe Bozon. Interestingly, in this World Championship, he is coaching Bozon’s two sons, Kevin and Tim.
The latter was also once a member of the Habs’ organization. He was drafted 64th overall in the 2012 draft but never made the big club. He had a significant health scare when he caught Meningitis in March 2014, he lost 40 pounds, had trouble speaking and needed to re-learn to walk.
He was limited to two seasons in the Habs’ development system, skating with the St. John’s IceCaps for 41 games before being demoted to the ECHL with the Brampton Beast. After three seasons in the minors, Bozon returned to Europe and spent the last eight seasons playing in Switzerland’s League A.
Unfortunately for Huet and Bozon, France suffered a 5-0 loss against Canada.
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The Anaheim Ducks announced the hiring of Joel Quenneville as the 12th head coach in franchise history on Thursday, May 8. With him he brings substantial baggage and potential negative attention, but also the second-most impressive coaching resume in NHL history.
News of Quenneville’s hiring came nearly three weeks after the team decided to part ways with Greg Cronin after two years. In those two years, and despite a 21-point jump in the standings from year one to year two, the Ducks were near the bottom of the NHL in most statistical metrics. Still, levels of defensive standards and principles were established unseen in Anaheim since they last made the playoffs in 2017-18.
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“I think it's going to build upon that foundation that's already been laid by Greg Cronin,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said of the culture Cronin left behind. “I believe a really good foundation has been laid. Certainly, Joel is gonna build upon that, and that's what I'm excited about.”
Quenneville is perhaps the coach most responsible for ushering in the current era of skill and speed-based hockey, winning three Stanley Cups with a Chicago Blackhawks team that valued creativity, dynamism on the rush, and puck possession over shot volume.
His statements when asked about the brand of hockey he aims to instill with Anaheim reflect what most coaches say in these instances, but the on-ice product has done the talking for him in his 20-plus years as a head coach in the NHL.
“We want to play (a) fast game. We want to be competitive. We want to be known as a very hardworking team,” Quenneville said. “Eventually, we want to be known as the hardest-working team. We feel that we've got some good energy with our younger players, but we want to play a puck possession game, and we want to be relentlessly trying to get it back when we don't have it. So, there's a lot of emotion, a lot of intensity playing the right way and staying out of the penalty box.”
There are more than a handful of players on the Ducks roster who could very likely benefit from a coach who accentuates their skillsets and prioritizes the aspects of their games that make them special, as Quenneville has been known to do with players like Patrick Kane, Carter Verhaeghe, Duncan Kieth, and Brandon Montour.
Which players on the current Ducks roster could benefit the most from having Quenneville behind the bench?
Zellweger (21) had one of the most impressive resumes a defenseman coming out of the CHL could possibly have. He scored 158 points (46-112=158) in 110 games in the two seasons following his draft year. He won an IIHF U18 World Championship gold medal, two World Junior Championship gold medals, two WHL Defenseman of the Year awards, and one CHL Defenseman of the Year award.
Zellweger is typically one of the most fearless, hardest-working, and talented players in any locker room he steps foot in, including with the 2023-24 San Diego Gulls, where he scored 37 points (12-25=37) in 44 games.
In 2024-25, Zellweger was often a casualty of a defensive logjam on the Ducks' blueline that led to him serving as a healthy scratch for 20 games.
When he was in the lineup, both because he was playing how the system required and possibly because he was anxious for fear of landing back in the press box, he played a much safer brand of hockey than is conducive for his skillset.
He worked tirelessly to improve his game in the tight and physical areas of the ice defensively, eliminating much worry that comes with being an undersized defender in the NHL. If Quenneville affords him the mental space to display the potential of his creativity and offensive aggression, Zellweger could provide a level of offense from the back end that the Ducks haven’t seen in recent memory.
Zegras (24) burst on the scene in his first two-plus seasons in the NHL. He scored 139 points (49-90=139) in his first 180 games for the Ducks and was the 2022 runner-up for the Calder Trophy (Moritz Seider).
He dazzled on a nightly basis, displaying new heights of creativity at the highest level of the sport.
After a lengthy, potentially detrimental contract negotiation in the summer of 2023 and ensuing injuries over the next two seasons, compounded with the hiring of a head coach (Cronin) who demanded new standards of defensive responsibility and accountability, Zegras’ shine dimmed dramatically.
He often attempted to play through some of those injuries, but still missed 76 of 164 games in 2023-24 and 2024-25. When he was on the ice, he only showed flashes of his inventiveness while committing himself to a detail-oriented, 200-foot effort. He only scored 47 points (18-29=47) in 88 games over the last two seasons, causing many to question his future in Anaheim and place him on lists of players in the NHL who could “use a change of scenery.”
It seems like that change of scenery could come in the form of a coach who has had success with players in Zegras’ mold, like Patrick Kane, who Zegras is said to have looked up to growing up and modeled his game after, and Jonathan Huberdeau.
Zegras, similarly to Zellweger, has the capability to build off the defensive foundation that’s now been laid in his game while unleashing the dynamic elements that previously made him one of the most exciting players in the NHL.
Strome (31) has produced three straight 41-point seasons since joining the Ducks in the summer of 2022, after three successful seasons as a member of the New York Rangers. While assuming more of a leadership role in the locker room in 2024-25, Strome was asked to do more on the ice than in his prior two seasons in Anaheim.
He centered the teams’ top line (from a TOI perspective) between Troy Terry and Frank Vatrano, a line that was often hard-matched against opposing top lines while being asked to provide offense to a team severely lacking.
Quenneville is known to tinker with lines, like most coaches in the NHL, but has always ultimately managed to place his players in positions to succeed, in roles suited for them.
Strome, like many players on the Ducks' rosters over the past two seasons, suffered from attempting to play a system that was non-conducive to his skillset and in a role incompatible with his capabilities.
Strome is at his best when playing alongside puck-transporters like Artemi Panarin or Troy Terry. He isn’t the fleetest of foot, so asking him to provide a heavy presence deep on the forecheck may be out of his depth. He’s one of the better play-builders and connecters on the roster who has the vision to spring his teammates from a standstill.
In a system that enhances and caters to his knack for getting pucks to the team’s most talented players in space and with speed, he can have a greater overall impact on a nightly basis.
Strome may be suited for a role as a middle-six forward tasked with providing needed depth offense at this stage in his career, a role he could thrive in if and when given the opportunity.
“I think it's a great thing for all our players on our team, but especially for our young guys, because I think that they're so good and they're so ready to take that next step, and you heard Pat and Q kind of talk about that,” Strome said at Quenneville’s introductory press conference. “I really believe that those guys are ready for premier roles in our league and on our team. And they've shown that that’s what they're capable of.
“I think that they're going to be a huge beneficiary of this move, and for guys like us, it's exciting. We're a little older, but to be able to be coached by a great is not something everyone gets to say. So I feel really lucky standing here today and very proud to be an Anaheim Duck.”
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