The Maven saw his first hockey game at Madison Square Garden at the age of seven in 1939, but it was not my first Rangers contest.

In those years, the Rangers had a farm team in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League called the New York Rovers. They played every Sunday afternoon at the old Garden on Eighth Avenue between West 49th and West 50th Street.

Every Sunday, it was a double-header. For only a half a buck you could see a Met League game that started at 1:30 p.m. and then the Rovers at 3:30 p.m. It was exciting and fun hockey – but it wasn't the NHL. 

In those days the Rangers games didn't start until 8:30 p.m. Since I had to get up relatively early to got to school at P.S. 54, the next day, my  parents felt that the Rangers games were off-limits. "Too late!" said Dad.

What The Rangers Management And Fans Can Learn From The Panthers-Maple Leafs SeriesNo question, the Panthers-Maple Leafs series was hockey melodrama at its best. 

Finally, in November 1942, I launched a personal campaign to have Dad take me to a Rangers game and, finally, he relented and also agreed that one of my friends, Gerald Sussman, could go with us.

The other problem was that it was raining hard that day and, for some reason, Dad thought a rainy night was equated with not taking us to a game. 

To this day, I cannot recall what changed his mind but at about 5 p.m. he said yes and two hours later Dad, Gerald Sussman and Yours Truly were on the subway headed to the Garden. 

The cheapest seats – for $1.25 – were in the side balcony – you had to climb 

endless stairs to get there – which had a viewing defect.

If you weren't sitting in the first two rows, it was impossible to see the near side boards and about ten feet away from the boards.

Essentially to understand what was going on you had to "fake it," – guess what the crowd noise was all about.

The Rangers were playing the Chicago Black Hawks that night and since World War II had been involving America for more than a year – Canada since 1939 – many of the stars had gone into the armed forces.

Of course, we couldn't have cared less; just being at a genuine NHL game was thrill enough for us; nor did we mind that we couldn't see action along the near side boards.

As for the game itself, the Rangers still featured players who had starred for the Stanley Cup-winners of 1940. Phil Watson, Alf Pike, Bryan Hextall were still there but also plenty of newcomers.

The later-to-be-legendary rookie Steve Buzinski was in goal for one of his precious few victories. Buzinski was the puck-stopper who was so bad, he later earned the nickname, "Steve Buzinski The Puck Goes Insky.".

Like the Rangers, Chicago had a patchwork lineup but we couldn't have cared less. This was a genuine NHL game and the Blueshirts went on to win it, 5-3.

That 1942-43 season turned out to be a Rangers disaster and it got worse a season later and a season after that – and that. 

It didn't matter much to me as I was quite happy going to every single Sunday afternoon double-header until March 1946 when Dad took me to see the Maple Leafs and Rangers play a 6-6 tie.

A year later I was a regular in the END balcony where you could see all the action.

P.S. When I retired from MSG Networks, the Rangers awarded me the official report of that original Ranger game of mine. It's a classic – handwritten. (That's why I think the official scorer wrote the date down as November 12, 1942.)

You get the point; it was a night to remember!

Jalen Chatfield

Chatfield and the Carolina Hurricanes are heading to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in seven years. Notably, despite often being a Stanley Cup favourite, they have yet to make it past this threshold in the same amount of time. In their series-clinching Game 5 win against the Washington Capitals on Thursday, Chatfield was taken out of the lineup for Hurricanes prospect Alexander Nikishin.  

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Anthony Beauvillier

Washington’s second-round defeat marked the fifth playoff run of Beauvillier’s career. In his team’s 10-game postseason run, the former Vancouver Canuck put up two goals and four assists, though he only tallied one goal during the second-round. The lone goal came during the Capitals’ 3–1 Game 5 loss. Beauvillier’s one-year, $1.25M contract was signed at the beginning of the 2024–25 season, making him a free agent come July 1. 

Nic Dowd

As a member of the Capitals since 2018, Dowd missed Washington’s 2017–18 Stanley Cup-winning run. He has played in a playoff game nearly every season since then, missing only the 2022–23 season due to the Capitals not qualifying for the postseason. Prior to this year’s second-round loss, Washington had been eliminated in the first round during every playoff run since winning the Stanley Cup. In 10 playoff games in 2025, Dowd had one assist. 

Nate Schmidt 

Of all former Canucks still in the playoffs, Schmidt tallied the most points in the second round with four assists in seven games. He leads all former Canucks in points with three goals and four assists in all 12 of the Florida Panthers’ playoff games. Schmidt is one of nine roster players who were not on the Panthers when they won the Stanley Cup last season — if things go his way, this could be his year. 

Jonah Gadjovich

Gadjovich slotted into his first NHL playoff game during the Panthers’ second-round matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The forward previously won the Stanley Cup with Florida last season, but didn’t end up playing during their championship run. He scored his first career NHL playoff goal in his first game, Game 3 of the series, and also scored in Game 7 to make it 3–0.  

Chris Tanev

Tanev, one of two former Canucks defenders on Toronto, had a goal and two assists in his first Stanley Cup run as a member of the Maple Leafs. This was Tanev’s second straight appearance in the postseason, as he also went on a Conference-Final run with the Dallas Stars the season before. This year, he scored a goal and an assist during the second round, with both of these coming during Game 1 of the series. 

Oliver Ekman-Larsson

2024 Stanley Cup winner Ekman-Larsson followed his time with Florida up with a Game 7 defeat in the second round with the Maple Leafs. He potted two points in each round this season, adding two assists in the second round to his two goals from their series against the Ottawa Senators. Both of these helpers came in their first two games of the second round.  

Former Canucks In The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Round 1 RecapSprong was a member of the Vancouver Canucks for a grand total of nine regular-season games in the 2024–25 season. After some defensive gaps were spotted in his play, he was quickly traded to the Seattle Kraken in exchange for future considerations. He was dealt to the New Jersey Devils at the Trade Deadline in exchange for a seventh-round pick in 2026. Sprong played one playoff game with the Devils and did not register a point. 

Casey DeSmith

While DeSmith only played in one game this playoffs, which came during Round 1 against the Colorado Avalanche, he and the Stars are heading back to the Conference Finals for a rematch against the Edmonton Oilers. DeSmith didn’t play for the Stars at the time of their six-game defeat in 2024, but this year’s Dallas team looks very different. Regardless of the outcome, this series is sure to be an exciting one. 

Luke Schenn

Schenn and the Winnipeg Jets’ six-game defeat against the Stars marked the veteran defender’s fifth playoff run in the last six seasons. While his lone point this season came in the first round against the St. Louis Blues, Schenn played in 11 of his team’s games — four of which were in the second round. He has one more season left in his three-year contract. 

Vasily Podkolzin 

Round 1 and Round 2 have proved that Podkolzin is built for the playoffs. He only slotted into Vancouver’s lineup for two postseason games last season, but has played in all 11 of the Oilers’ this year. Podkolzin nabbed a goal and an assist in Game 2 against the Vegas Golden Knights, though he had the biggest impact on giving Edmonton an edge on possession with his forecheck. On many occasions, Podkolzin’s drive towards the net helped set up key goals for the Oilers. 

Troy Stecher

Stecher missed the Oilers’ entire first round against the L.A. Kings but finally got his chance to play in Game 4 of the second round. His last game was near the end of the regular season on April 13, though he was cleared to play around the time of Game 4 of the first round. He played excellently during his 2025 playoff debut, earning himself another game to help his team win their second-round series. 

Tanner Pearson

Former Canuck Pearson and the Golden Knights were shockingly eliminated in five games, though nearly every match of the series was as close as they could get. Ultimately, Vegas’ depth couldn’t stand up to Edmonton’s, which was not led by their usual stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Pearson finished his 2025 postseason with one assist logged back in the first round against the Minnesota Wild. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.

Anyone who has been invested in the National Hockey League over the years knows that, as the seasons pile on, the game evolves.

Training evolves. Players evolve. Pace of play evolves, getting faster and faster. And that "just right" formula for sustained success evolves, too.

And every so often, a team comes around that makes the league rethink how to win.

Right now? That team is the Florida Panthers, who are headed to their third consecutive Eastern Conference Final. They'll have a chance to punch their ticket to their third consecutive Stanley Cup Final as well if they can handle Rod Brind'Amour's structurally-oriented Carolina Hurricanes.

If they can accomplish that, they will become the first team since the New York Islanders from 1980-84 to reach at least three consecutive Cup Final series in full-length seasons, which is a testament to how unbeatable and relentless these Panthers have become. 

So how have they done it?

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Reinventing the wheel

Back in 2016, the Pittsburgh Penguins took the league by storm. Prior to the emergence of former head coach Mike Sullivan's Penguins, the entire league was mired in a mini-dead-puck era, as scoring was stymied, teams were heavy and slow, and defenses were heavy on the trap-style structure again, similar to what was happening in the actual dead-puck era of the late-1990s and early-2000s. 

But Pittsburgh adopted a fresh strategy: beat teams with speed, relentless forecheck, and dominant possession. They decided that the best defense was offense, and that, if they always had the puck on their stick, it would be very hard to teams to generate anything against them.

Suffice to say, it worked. The Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, largely off the backs of the new system they had implemented. Even though they were defeated by the Washington Capitals during the second round of the 2018 playoffs - the Caps eventually went on to win the Cup - they still altered the game as a whole in a very significant way.

Before you knew it, that speed, relentless forechecking, and possession dominance started showing up on teams all across the league. Like the Penguins, other teams began to form an identity around that style of play.

Sullivan - now with the New York Rangers - has discussed, at many points, that the league is a copycat league. Other coaches have said the same. When something unequivocally works for one team - and they become a dominant, near-dynastic force - other teams tend to adopt the same or a similar formula for success.

Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find a successful team at the NHL level that doesn't skate well and have that speed element. All four teams remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs - the Panthers, Hurricanes, Dallas Stars, and Edmonton Oilers - have that.

But, as the Panthers seemed to have figured out, merely having speed isn't enough anymore.

On This Day In Penguins Playoff History: May 18The Pittsburgh Penguins just wrapped up their 57th season, missing the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third consecutive season. Despite their recent lack of success, the franchise has appeared in the playoffs 37 times and won five championships.

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Old-time hockey meets modern hockey

Of all active players on Florida's playoff roster, only three of them - Evan Rodrigues, Mackie Samoskevich, and Brad Marchand (acquired at the trade deadline from the Boston Bruins) - are under six feet tall, and just four weigh less than 190 pounds. Their roster also has 10 players standing at 6-foot-3 or higher and 10 weighing more than 200 pounds.

This is not just a fast roster. It's a big one, too. And it's chock-full of players who aren't afraid to throw the body as well as take hits to make plays.

Even the team's smallest player, Marchand (5-foot-9, 180 pounds), doesn't play the game in a small way. He plays a punishing brand of physical hockey, can establish positioning down low, forechecks relentlessly, and wins a lot of puck battles along the walls.

On the Penguins' 2017 Stanley Cup champion roster? Only five players on their playoff roster stood at 6-foot-3-plus, and - although 10 players also came in at 200 pounds or more - they had nine players weighing under 200 pounds and 12 players under six feet tall.

In 2016-18, the speed, forechecking, possession system that the Penguins were playing was still a novel concept, and it worked for them. But there reached a point where, once other teams caught on and began to deploy similar systems, it simply wasn't enough for them anymore.

The Tampa Bay Lightning - who reached the Cup Final three seasons in a row from 2019-22 but had two shortened seasons mixed in - also deployed a pretty big roster during their Cup runs, but they weren't exactly beating teams with blazing speed. They swarmed teams defensively, had a lethal power play, used their size and physicality to their advantage, and had the best goaltender in the world playing his best hockey. They had effective solutions for neutralizing the speed of opposing teams. 

Taking a moment to appreciate how far Florida Panthers have comeThe Florida Panthers sure seem to enjoy playing hockey in May.

But the thing that makes Florida so dangerous is that they've managed to marry those two styles: Pittsburgh's speed, forechecking, and possession game and Tampa's size, physicality, defensive structure, and "swarm" mentality to, essentially, create the perfect playoff team for the present-day NHL.

It's hard to beat a team that can beat you in so many different ways. Florida can play a run-and-gun style if need be, and their speed and physicality shines in those types of games. They can play a tight defensive game if need be, and their defensive structure and swarm mentality in the neutral zone thrives in those games.

And they can play a suffocating game on the forecheck, dominating possession and controlling play like they did against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Games 5 and 7 during their second-round victory.

Florida can deliver a game however the game demands. Coaching has a lot to do with it, and - make no mistake - Paul Maurice has done an excellent job. But they also have the personnel required to be able to get it done. 

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Will other teams follow suit?

Simply put, they should.

Of course, one could make the argument that goaltending always helps, and it's something most teams need in order to go all the way. Matt Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury got it done for the Penguins throughout the course of their back-to-back runs. No one was better than Andrei Vasilevskiy during Tampa's back-to-back. 

But it's not that Sergei Bobrovsky has performed poorly for the Panthers, it's just that his team's play hasn't required him to be spectacular. Sure, he's making most of the big saves in big moments, but the 36-year-old veteran still owns just a .901 save percentage during this year's playoffs. And he had a .906 save percentage during last year's Cup run.

Florida has, simply, been that good in front of him. The way they've managed to fuse old-time hockey with the modern speed game is the perfect combination, and it's something that is going to help them in a playoff atmosphere that requires all of that in order to win.

Other teams need to be taking notes. Just having speed, or just having size, or just having goaltending isn't going to cut it in today's game. 

Sure, there are bound to be exceptions. The Oilers don't have the defensive structure or the punishing physical style of play, but they do have the speed, the lethal power play, and the star power to push them through the shortcomings in their game. Having, arguably, the two best players in the world on the same team - and the same line, when things get dire - is one way to win.

But it's not a sustainable winning strategy. Sure, Edmonton made it to the Final last season against Florida, and they forced a Game 7 after going down 3-0 in the series. However, they're playing from behind more often than they're playing ahead, and - while it shows resiliency - it's not something that can be repeated year-over-year. And they're playing from behind because of the deficiencies in their game.

Panthers play excellent Game 7 in Toronto, advance to conference finalThe Florida Panthers are moving on to conference final.

In contrast, Florida seems to have cracked the code with roster construction. Their star is Matthew Tkachuk, but he's not a top-five player in the game. That isn't a problem, though because there are five Panthers players in this year's playoffs - Marchand, Eetu Luostarinen, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell, and Aleksander Barkov - who have more than Tkachuk's nine points. And Sam Bennett, who also has nine, has potted six goals.

And none of these guys shy away from going to the dirty areas, forechecking hard, getting physical, and asserting themselves in the neutral and defensive zones. But they also have a big, effective blue line that can play on both sides of the puck and deliver on a punishing, demanding brand of hockey. 

The Panthers have managed to build a formidable four-line team with speed, size, skill, physicality, grit, and meanness. The Stars may be the closest comparison, and - arguably - the deepest team in hockey, but they're missing that element of meanness, which makes a difference in the playoffs.

More likely than not - just as it was when the Penguins took over the league in 2016 - we're going to start to see more and more teams mimick the Panthers' makeup and roster construction. Once again, it's a copycat league, and Florida has proven to be one of the very best - if not, the best - team in hockey.

So if the rest of the NHL wants to catch the Florida Panthers, they're going to have to become more like them. 

If You're An Ex-Penguin, The Second Round Of The Playoffs Has Been Your Calling CardThis year's Stanley Cup playoffs have already been chock-full of great performances and unbelievable moments.

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The Florida Panthers looked pretty good in Game 7.

Is anyone really surprised by that at this point?

Florida has done nothing but show why they are built for the playoffs, overcoming adversity, injuries, suspensions and deficits in both series’ and games, and now they’re back in the conference final for the third straight season.

It took an impressive effort against the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning a pair of games at Scotiabank Arena by a combined score of 12-2 that left a fanbase desperate for some semblance of postseason success equally shocked and saddened.

Now Florida will face the Carolina Hurricanes, another team that should give the Panthers an extremely strong fight for the right to play for the Stanley Cup.

But first, let’s get to the Game 7 takeaways:

A PLAYERS’ WIN

At this point of the season, hockey players generally know what needs to be done in order to find success.

Some are able to continue doing their thing, because they are that good and can impose their will on other talented teams during the playoffs.

That certainly appears to be the case with the Florida Panthers.

Entering Sunday’s winner-take-all Game 7 against the Maple Leafs, which also happened to be the biggest game played in Toronto in over 20 years, there was a quiet confidence surrounding the Panthers.

They have a veteran room full of postseason experience, and boy did it shine through on Sunday.

“Game 7s are players’ games,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “We're at game 94 this year, there's not much coaching. We've been doing it for 93 games coming in. There's nothing new. There's no tactics.”

BUILT FOR THIS

When the Panthers hired Maurice during the summer of 2022, it was with the idea that he would make them a better playoff team.

More physical and defensive in style, more aggressive in nature and overall, just tough as nails to play against.

To say that it’s been a success to this point would be an understatement.

Maurice has shaped the Panthers into a group that combines an old school mentality with elite players that utilize the tools of today to help research, react and perhaps most importantly, recover, so they can go out and do it again in a day or two.

This team has it all down to a science.

“If the core foundation of your game is the simplest things, it doesn't matter how your hands feel, it doesn't matter how your body feels. It doesn't matter how well you execute, if it's how comfortable you are in hard situations, then you have a chance,” Maurice said. “It starts in training camp for us, it's a grinder. This has been a grinding season for us, not just because the games we played, our schedule was abusive, but that turned out to be the right adversity that we would need to play. We talk about Game 7 in training camp. Let's want to play a style of game that gives us a chance to win tonight. It gave us a chance to win tonight.”

CLOSER GAME THAN THE SCORE

Just like in Game 5, Maurice was quick to point out that Sunday’s Game 7 was not the blowout that the score would indicate.

Earlier in the series, the bounces and puck luck were going in Toronto’s favor, but later in the series, Florida started getting many of the favorable bounces, particularly around the net.

The Maple Leafs did their darndest to keep goaltender Joseph Woll clean and protected, blocking shots left and right, but ultimately, the Panthers were just too much to handle, and the fortune usually follows the deserving side.

“Those games are so tight, the emotion, the buildup to the games,” Maurice said. “When we score the first goal, we own the first 10 minutes of the first period. They own the second 10 minutes. That's it. If you flip it, they'd say, ‘Oh, they came out right.’ We came out right. They found the answer to come back at us. That's the truth, right? We scored a goal, and then we got those two (goals), and it's just a puck to the net. It's so much closer than you think, but you're going to kill these guys, and they don't deserve it. That’s seven games, and we played well. I didn't like our first period in Game 1, we played well in the two losses, we played well in Game 6 and got beat, that's how tight it is. So that's how I feel about it. I mean, the margin for error is small. Before the puck dropped tonight, there were five teams in the NHL left. Five, all of them capable of winning. The puck went our way tonight. That's it.”

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Photo caption: May 18, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Florida Panthers forward A.J. Greer (10) celebrates a goal by forward Jonah Gadjovich (12) as Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll (60) lies on the ice during the second period of game seven of the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images