Latest news with #FloridaPanthers
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Yoshinobu Yamamoto strikes out the side
Major Panthers-Sam Bennett Free Agency Update Revealed Sam Bennett has been simply incredible for the Florida Panthers this post-season. In 19 games this post-season thus far, he has recorded 13 goals, 19 points, and a plus-3 rating. He has also set an NHL record by scoring 12 road goals in a single post-season. 1:28 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Connor McDavid Answers 'Pretty Heavy Question' on Stanley Cup Pressure
Connor McDavid Answers 'Pretty Heavy Question' on Stanley Cup Pressure originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The stakes are sky-high for the Edmonton Oilers heading into Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Advertisement Down 3–2 to the defending champion Florida Panthers, they're facing elimination on the road for the second year in a row. Connor McDavid, now in his 10th NHL season and widely considered the best player in the world, once again finds himself one win away from forcing a Game 7 as well as one loss away from another crushing end to a season without the Stanley Cup getting back to Edmonton, and neither being added to his personal trophy cabinet once and for all. McDavid has already collected three Hart Trophies and five Art Ross titles among a plethora of other accolades and feats. The Oilers' superstar was asked Monday whether the weight of his stature in the NHL fuels pressure to deliver a championship. Advertisement 'That's a pretty heavy question,' McDavid said. 'If you think about it that way, you'd probably be pretty crippled in terms of how you prepare and how you play.' McDavid said the moment is bigger for the team than for him or his individual legacy. "It's not really about me," McDavid said. "It's about us trying to get a win here tomorrow night. That's what we're looking forward to." "I think everybody has another level, myself included.' Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) against the Florida Belski-Imagn Images McDavid enters Game 6 tied with teammate Leon Draisaitl in postseason points, each having 33 in 21 playoff games. The Oilers captain, however, only has one goal in the finals and has lacked his usual punch. Advertisement 'We've put ourselves in another difficult spot and it's our job to work our way out of it,' McDavid said. 'I'm excited. I'm excited about the opportunity.' Game 6 will take place in Sunrise on Tuesday night, with puck drop set at 8 p.m. ET and the Panthers having their first of two chances at winning back-to-back championships. Related: NHL Makes Historic Connor McDavid Announcement Amid Stanley Cup Final Related: Oilers Player Makes Bold Stanley Cup Final Guarantee Before Game 6 This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Contract extension on the cards? Sam Bennett drops major hint on staying with Panthers after playoff success
Is Sam Bennett hinting at a long-term future with the Florida Panthers? (Getty Images) Sam Bennett has just delivered a postseason for the ages, and as the Florida Panthers celebrate their back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, fans are now holding their breath over one critical question: will Bennett be back? The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs were a career-defining stretch for Bennett, who not only helped power the Panthers to glory but also walked away with the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason. His 15 goals, including a record-setting 13 on the road, along with seven assists across 23 games, made him an unstoppable force throughout the playoffs. The performance was punctuated by five crucial goals in the Finals, including key tallies during the decisive 5–1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6. Are the Panthers and Sam Bennett close to reaching a new deal? While Bennett is set to hit unrestricted free agency on July 1, the signs of a potential return are impossible to ignore. In the middle of postgame celebrations, fans surrounded Bennett with chants of 'eight more years,' and rather than deny the idea, he embraced the moment—smiling, acknowledging the fans, and fueling speculation about a contract extension. The mutual admiration between player and franchise has never been clearer. 'It's harder than I ever imagined to win the Stanley Cup once, and twice was even harder,' Bennett reflected. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Memperdagangkan CFD Emas dengan salah satu spread terendah? IC Markets Mendaftar Undo 'So it's a huge honor to be a part of this group. I'm not going to take it for granted. I love being here, and I love this team.' Bennett's statement carries weight, not just for its emotion, but for the journey it represents. His transformation in Florida has been remarkable. After arriving from Calgary with doubts clouding his potential, he has evolved into one of the league's elite playoff performers. 'I always believed in myself,' he said. 'I always knew I could be more than I was when I first got traded. But it's all a dream, I guess, until you actually do it. ' Head coach Paul Maurice also highlighted Bennett's journey: 'There's a lot of heaviness that he had... There's a lot of work that had to go into it. He didn't show up with his talent and say, 'OK, feed me, and I'll show you how good I am.'' Sam Bennett | 2025 Conn Smythe Trophy Winner While contract negotiations will test the Panthers' salary cap flexibility, there's a growing sense that both sides want to make it work. With FanDuel having taken down the odds on Bennett's return—previously favoring it at -230—it's clear insiders suspect a deal might already be in motion. For now, Bennett has etched his name into Panthers lore. The only thing left is to see whether that legacy will continue to grow in Sunrise. Also Read: After being 'silenced' in Final, Connor McDavid's name surfaces in bold Maple Leafs trade prediction Game On Season 1 kicks off with Sakshi Malik's inspiring story. Watch Episode 1 here
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Forbes
The Improbability Of Canada's Stanley Cup Drought
The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers for the second straight year in a row to capture the Stanley Cup on June 17. This marks the sixth Stanley Cup final in a row featuring a hockey team from the Sunshine State. It has been an incredible stretch of hockey at the highest levels for both the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Canadians are once again left waiting to bring the Cup back to the birthplace of ice hockey. There was a sense that this might finally be the year Canada broke its long, frustrating drought. Hopes were high going into this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, as five of seven Canadian NHL teams qualified for the postseason. The last time a Canadian team won the cup was in 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings. That was also the debut season for the Tampa Bay Lightning and came just one year before the Florida Panthers joined the league. In the time since, teams from Florida have hoisted the Cup five times. For Canadian hockey fans, this is not just another painful moment, it is a gut punch laced with irony. The notion that teams from sun-soaked Florida could be celebrating year after year while Canada remains empty-handed feels almost cruel. And yet, as improbable as it seems, this run of southern dominance is very real. This is where probability theory can offer a new perspective. What are the odds that Canada could go over three decades without a Stanley Cup? How likely is it that two relatively young franchises from a non-traditional hockey market could have this much success? And perhaps most importantly: when, statistically speaking, might Canadian fans finally get to celebrate again? To put a number to Canada's hockey heartbreak, I built a Bayesian model. This is a statistical approach that is designed to capture long-term trends while staying grounded in a fair and interpretable framework. At its core, a Bayesian approach is a way of updating a belief state in light of new evidence. It starts with a prior belief which is an initial estimate of how likely something is to happen. As new data comes in, that belief is updated to form a posterior belief, which becomes a more refined, data-informed estimate. The model begins with a neutral prior belief known as a Beta(1, 1) distribution, which assumes no preconceived belief about whether Canadian teams are more or less likely to win the Stanley Cup in a given season. This assumption that replicates the extreme uncertainty inherent in sports. From there, each season after the NHL-WHL merger becomes a data point. The model looks at whether a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup. If one of them did, that year adds a 'success' to the tally. If not, it's another 'miss.' With each new season, the model refines its estimate of how likely it is that a Canadian team will win in a given year. The beauty of the Bayesian approach is that it balances the weight of history with the possibility of change. What emerges is a dynamic, evolving probability. It is a quantifiable value that captures just how long the Cup has stayed away from Canada, and how likely it is to come home anytime soon. Between 1980 and 1993, Canadian teams were a dominant force in the NHL, capturing eight Stanley Cups in just 14 seasons. The Edmonton Oilers led the charge with five titles during their dynasty years, followed by the Montreal Canadiens with two, and the Calgary Flames with one. At the time, it felt like the Cup belonged to Canada. Heading into the 1993–1994 season and fresh off the Canadiens' most recent Cup win, the Bayesian model, would have estimated about a 60% chance that a team from Canada would win the Cup that year. But as the seasons passed and the Cup stayed south of the border, that probability began to fall. Over time, it gradually leveled off around 20%, aligning closely with what you would expect if every NHL team had an equal shot in a 32-team league. Using this model, the probability that no Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup since 1993 is 0.0000037 or roughly 1 in 300,000. That is roughly the same odds as flipping a fair coin and getting heads 18 times in a row. In a sport defined by randomness and parity, this kind of losing streak is not just heartbreaking. It is statistically absurd. The same Bayesian model that tracks Canada's teams' annual probability to win the Stanley Cup can be used to predict when a Canadian NHL team will win again. In simple terms, the expected wait time is just the inverse of the annual win probability. After updating the model following the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, the estimated probability that a Canadian team wins in any given season is 19%. Flip that number, and the math tells us something hopeful, if not immediate: on average, we can expect a Canadian team to bring home the Cup in about 5.2 years. Of course, this is just an average. Canada could win as soon as next season, or the drought could drag on longer. Canada's Stanley Cup drought is more than just a sporting oddity. It is a statistical anomaly that defies expectation. For a country that lives and breathes hockey, the fact that no Canadian team has lifted the Cup since 1993 feels more like a cosmic joke than a cold streak. The numbers suggest that Canada's fortunes will eventually turn. And when a Canadian captain finally hoists the Cup again, it will not just be a victory for one team. Rather, it will feel like the end of a national exile, long overdue and deeply earned.
Time of India
7 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Connor McDavid rumors explode as Leon Draisaitl speaks on uncertain Edmonton Oilers future
After back-to-back Stanley Cup Final losses, questions are rising about Connor McDavid's future with the Edmonton Oilers. Fans are wondering if the team's biggest star will stay or move on. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Though McDavid hasn't said anything about leaving, the rumors are louder than ever. Now, after the team's second straight defeat to the Florida Panthers, teammate Leon Draisaitl has shared his honest thoughts and his answer might surprise you. Leon Draisaitl says he has not discussed Connor McDavid's future yet Leon Draisaitl spoke to the media on Tuesday, June 18, 2025, just one day after the Edmonton Oilers lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Florida Panthers in Game 6. The loss happened at Rogers Place in Edmonton. During a postgame interview, Draisaitl was asked directly if he knew anything about Connor McDavid's plans. 'I'm going to be honest,' Draisaitl said. 'I haven't really talked to Connor about it. There comes a time when we talk about it, but there's nothing I can tell you right now that you want to hear or need to hear.' Draisaitl made it clear that while he doesn't know what McDavid will do, he respects his teammate's decision. He added, 'That's his situation, and he will do what's best for him and his family. Do I want him here forever? Yes, of course. I think everybody does.' Draisaitl himself recently signed a contract extension that will keep him with the Oilers through the 2032–2033 NHL season. But McDavid has only one year left on his current deal and could request a trade if he wants a fresh start elsewhere. Connor McDavid praises Florida Panthers after back-to-back losses Connor McDavid also spoke after the final loss on Monday, June 17, 2025. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The Oilers had once again fallen to the Florida Panthers, who won the Cup for the second year in a row. Last year, Edmonton forced a Game 7. This year, it ended in Game 6. Also Read: 'They're a really good team,' McDavid said in the press conference. 'We kept saying we wanted to win a 2–1 game, and we never found a way to do that. They're deep. How many guys had 20-plus points in the postseason? Six? That says everything.' McDavid also said, 'Nobody quit, nobody gave up, but they're back-to-back champs for a reason.' Brad Marchand, who joined the Panthers this season, played a big role and was even in talks for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
