Tag: sports

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A Sports Dynasty in the making

Ten days ago the Florida Panthers won the second straight Stanley Cup in 3 years, beating the Edmenton Oilers 4-2. I will admit I only started watching hockey when I they won in 2024 during the start of the playoff run. I won’t go into it to much but it’s important to note they also played Edmenton in the finals that year and won 4-3 after going up 3-0. I don’t know what it was but that run felt so magical and I really fell in love with the team that year. The team is just so much better than everyone else and it seems like they’re going to be that way for a long time. I’m honestly thinking a three peat is very likely.

Let’s break down this historic repeat Stanley Cup Finals Run

Game one happened June 4th Edmenton won at home in OT 4-3. It was 3-1 Florida for like a minute. With under two minutes to go in OT Panthers forward Tomas Nosek Flipped the puck out of play, putting Edmenton in the power play where Leon Draisaitl scored with 34 seconds left in OT. Edmenton 1-0.

Game two This first period might’ve been the best 1st period of hockey I’ve ever seen and certaintly the most dramatic of the series. Bennett stikes early for the panthers on a power play, the pucks kept flying and the goalies actually played pretty well but by the end of the 1st it was 3-2 Edmenton. Kulikov ties it at 3-3 and Brand Marchand the hero of the Toronto series, a series that went 7 and we were down 2-0 in Game 3 but we came Back and Marchand had a game winning overtime goal. He also had a amazing highlight shorthanded break away goal to get us up 4-3 in this game.

It was 4-3 up until the last moment when Corey Perry scored a chip in at the last possible moments of the 3rd.

The first game of the series was seconds away from 2OT if not for that mistake by Nosek in Game 1 this one did go to double overtime when Marchand again scores a game winning goal. Which in a lot of was similar to the 4-3 score earlier in this game.

Believe it or not Marchand had a shot similar to this just hit the post earlier in the overtime. The series doesn’t start to someone loses at home. Florida was able to split the first two away games 1-1 and going home with momentum. Series Tied 1-1

Game Three This was a classic Florida Panthers game where they just seem to have away to break teams that was what happened here. After scoring two goals one being a game winner I thought for sure Edmenton would make a point of not letting Marchand get even close to the puck but that was not the case here as he puts one in after 56 seconds of play.

From then on it was raining cats and cats as six individual panthers players scored. and the final was 6-1 in regular time the first game that did not go to overtime in this series. All the games have been pretty physical in this series and I’ll even admit I think the Oilers had intentionally raised the physicality from this series to the one the year before. But the Panthers whopped butt in this game in ever sense of the word as a big fight broke out towards the end. Panthers 2-1

Game Four Florida went up 3-0 with two from Tkachuck and one from Lindell, and I thought for sure the oilers were leaking. Edmenton pulled their Goalie Stuart Skinner and put in Calvin Pickard; Pickard has posted a 7-0 record with a 2.69 GAA and an .896 save percentage through nine outings this postseason. And was able to do the same it was 3-3 going into the third and I was worried. Than Walman scored to make it 4-3 until Sam Reinhart pulled a Perry and made an amazing buzzer beater to force another overtime, the third overtime in four games.

It really felt like we had it and to be honest we were in control for most of the overtime but Leon Draisaitl strikes again to win the game for Edmenton. And it turns out the Oilers were a bit more resilient than I thought. Series tied 2-2

Game Five

Oilers stayed with Pickard and why not. I don’t think it was a bad descion even if his ceiling wasn’t as high as Skinners he earned the start for his performance in game four alone.

And wouldn’t you know it Marchand again score for the panthers which was a relief to see that pickard is human.

And would you know it but he did it again with an absolute highlight reel goal to make it 3-0 cats. Florida was able to dominate this game and the oilers played with no real heart this game. Final score 5-2 Florida. 3-2 Florida in the series. At this point as a fan I felt we had won the series already but there’s always…

Game Six

It’s always a good sign when you score first in a hockey game and Sam Reinhart was able to score first for the panthers. He also scored three more times and this game was basically the Reinhart show. Panthers would go on to win this game 5-1 and the series in six games.

I’m so happy to be a fan of this team and its been amazing to see two dynastys in Florida in my life. The other being the Miami heat 2011-2015. This one feels different and more built for longevity and I truly believe this could be the big bad wolf of hockey for years to come. Edmenton is good just two top heavy. Panther PRIDE. Stocked for the sucess and future success of this team.

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Obsessions the past two months: Hockey and Karen Read

Man I really don’t know what my life would be like without sports. I’ve never really watched hockey but when I saw that my Florida panthers were in the finals in 2023 versus the Las Vegas golden knights I watched. We lost in 5 games including one 9-3 loss. I didn’t watch again until the playoffs but for some reason my level of interest increased more than last year.

I lived for hockey the past two months, love these group of guys and all Florida sports teams, but this team just felt like champions to me after seeing them beat swayman and the bruins and tarasenko and the rangers I was sure we’d beat the winner of the Dallas or Edmonton series. Going into game 7 it looked like Edmonton would domintate the Panthers and I was nervous. We got Edmonton and it was a crazy series. After getting to a dominating 3-0 series lead we let them come back and tie the series 3-3 including one 8-1 loss. It was looking like the panthers were going to go in the history books for the wrong reasons. No hockey team had blown a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup finals since 1947. But credit to the guys and coach because they just flat out controlled the game, scoring the first goal certainly helped but Edmonton came back a few minutes later to tie it 1-1. Both teams had a lot of chances but Reinhardt scored the go ahead goal in the 2nd period to give us the 2-1 lead which would end up being the final score.

Moment Paul Maurice gets Stanley Cup

What was the better story? An impossible comeback by Edmonton who has hockeys golden boy in McDavid or the team that lost last years finals to go back and win it. I’m biased but preferred the later. And how can you not love the look on coaches face when he gets the trophy.

To me though the best moment of the whole thing was seeing the emotion of the teams coach Paul Maurice when he gets to hoist the trophy. The emotion he shows is raw but relatable and you can’t help but feel his joy and gratitude for the moment.

Now my next obsession Karen Read.

Karen Read is a woman who has been accused of running over her Boston cop boyfriend after a night of drinking and bad weather. But the truth seems to be that it was all a massive cover up. When determining guilt investigators often use “consciousness of guilt” to determine guilt. What that means is how you act say after a murder shows that you were aware of your guilt. Things that could be considered consciousness of guilt would be a murderer leaving the state suddenly and without reason, having odd google searches or selling/ getting rid of some personal items after the crime in question. Something that this case has all of.

It was a cold Janurary day when Karen Read and her boyfriend, John O’Keefe had a night of drinking with some other police officers. After leaving the bar one of the cops, Brian Albert (a powerful and influential family in the area) suggested to keep the party going at their house. Which would be O’Keefe’s final resting place. Karen dropped John off but did not join the party. The evidence presented by the prosectuion suggested that Karen Read actually ran him over in the driveway and John actually never entered the home. The only evidence to support this theory is damage to Read’s tail light, there was testiomony that Karen Read said the words “I hit him” the day of he was killed, words funnily enough don’t appear anywhere on any of the police reports. You think a confession like this would end up on the police reporting of the incident but alas they don’t. The defense suggests a much different story. It suggests that John was in the house, got into a fight and was tossed outside in the cold to die. The evidence that supports this is that one of the people in the house had typed “Hos long to die in cold.” At “2:27AM. (consciousness of guilt)” only a few hours after John was discovered dead in the front yard of the albert’s home. Responding officers were also very careless with evidence collecting from the crime scene with red solo cups, not exactly professional and would cause blood collected in these cups to freeze up. Brian Albert also got rid of his phone right as it was supposed to be subpenaoed. Also the Alberts got rid of thier dog Daisy after the incident, seemingly unnotable until you learn O’Keefe had injuries on his arms consistent with bite marks from a dog, again remember consciousness of guilt. This is only some of the evidence on what has so far been a 33 day trial which is now currently under deliberation for a verdict. To me as someone who has been following this case closely for the past month or so it reeks of a cover up by the police and Ms. Read is innocent, curious what the jury will say.

John O’Keefe and Karen Read.