SEATTLE — Mikko Rantanen and Ross Colton scored two minutes apart midway through the second period and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken 5-1 on Monday night.
Cale Makar, Jonathan Drouin, and Valerie Nichuskin also scored for the Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon had three assists, and Devon Toews and Tomas Tatar each had two for Colorado. Alexandar Georgiev had 18 saves as Colorado won two of three in the season series, with the road team winning each time.
The win was coach Jared Bednar’s 300th, coming in his 550th game. He is the franchise’s all-time winningest coach.
“As a coach, you want them all to get rewarded for their hard work,” said coach Jared Bednar, who earned his 300th win. “One way to get rewarded is me giving them more ice time, but the production is what they’re looking for and what you need in order to win hockey games. So guys are feeling good about themselves, and it can carry over and give your team a little bit of confidence that you can get the job done under difficult circumstances.”
Brandon Tanev scored his first of the season for Seattle, making his return to action after suffering a lower body injury in the season opener at Vegas on Oct. 10. Joey Dacord finished with 26 saves.
Rantanen lifted Colorado into a 1-1 tie with 7:55 left in the second period. MacKinnon had a shot from the left circle that went off the side of the net. It bounced to Rantanen who swept it in for his 10th goal in 14 games. It is the second straight season Rantanen had tallied his 10th in fewer than 15 games.
Colton gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead with 5:48 left in the period when he was at the left post to poke in the rebound of Toews’ shot that had bounced off the chest of Dacord. It was his fourth of the year.
“I think we did a great job of coming to the rink that next day (after Saturday’s 8-2 loss to St. Louis),” Colton said. “We had a talk and kind of just said, ’All right, we’ve got to flush it. This is unacceptable, took the slap on the wrist with video and then kind of learned from it.”
Makar made it 3-1 at 4:14 of the third with his fourth. Drouin’s goal at 9:09 was his first. Nichuskin’s with 3:17 left was his third.
“There were stretches of good hockey from our group, then there were times when we were not in the game and giving them too much time and space,” Tanev said. “When you give great players too much time and space, you make it look easy for them.”
Vince Dunn set up Tanev’s goal with a hard shot from the left circle. The puck rebounded to Tanev at the right post, and he shoveled it in at 6:13 of the first period.
Seattle thought it had taken a 2-0 lead on a short-handed goal by Alex Wennberg with 5:19 left in the opening period. But the Avalanche challenged it, claiming goaltender interference, and the challenge was upheld.
The title of general manager doesn’t completely capture the many tasks on Danielle Marmer’s to-do list in the two months since taking over the Professional Women’s Hockey League franchise in Boston.
“It’s funny you should mention that,” Marmer said with a laugh. “I just came from the carpentry shop where I was looking at what our locker stalls are going to be like, and making decisions on where we want the hooks to be, how many shelves — things I’m not an expert in.”
She’s not complaining. At 29, Marmer and her fellow GMs are on the ground floor of a newly established six-team league that will feature many of the world’s top players when it begins play in January.
“Like it’s pretty cool to say that I have my fingerprints on not only building the team itself, but the building of the locker room, the offices, the players’ lounge,” Marmer said.
Though the teams have yet to be officially named and the schedule yet to be released, piece by piece the PWHL is coming together. Next up is Wednesday, when players report for the start of training camp in each market — Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa — and teams taking the ice for the first time the next day.
“That’s going to be pretty incredible. I’m sure it’ll be a pinch-me moment to see those players, those names, the caliber of players all on a sheet together,” Marmer said. “I am very excited to when I get to the place where I can just focus on hockey.”
The anticipation is also apparent among players, after having spent much of the past decade playing under a cloud of uncertainty and instability — from salary cuts to a league rebranding and the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folding in 2019.
The PWHL represents a fresh start and the long-hoped-for potential of meeting players’ visions of competing in one North American league offering the promise of long-term stability with the financial backing of Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and his wife Kimbra.
“The excitement is through the roof,” said Hilary Knight, the U.S. national team star who will be playing for Boston.
“We’ve been flying around for years saying we’re pros, but really semi-pro if you take things into consideration,” she added. “Everyone’s excited we’ll have a consistent place to play, have a building you can call home and fans can rally around the home team.”
Aside from her national team duties, Knight spent the past four years competing in barnstorming tours around the continent as a member of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association.
The PWHL became a reality in June when Walter eliminated the competition by buying out the seven-team Premier Hockey Federation, which was established in 2015 as the National Women’s Hockey League.
Though PWHL salaries are lower — ranging from $35,000 to $80,000, not including bonuses — than what the PHF was preparing to offer with a $1.5 million salary cap for each team before it shuttered, the new league provides what players deem to be more of a professional setting.
Each team will have dedicated locker rooms and practice facilities. Walter’s influence has the potential of generating broadcast partnerships in both the U.S. and Canada. Having one league has led to the NHL stepping up its support in promotional and advisory roles. And though the league owns each franchise, teams have the budget to hire support staff.
Perhaps, most important for the players was having a collective bargaining agreement in place that runs through 2031.
“Everybody’s on the same page. You have all the best players in the same place and ownership who believe in the product and the people,” said Canadian national team player Sarah Nurse, who will play for Toronto. “The time is now.”
The GMs are in place. Coaches have been hired. The draft has been held, and there has been a constant flow of announcements of player signings in recent weeks.
New York GM Pascal Daoust was detailing the many administrative and business-related duties he’s been handling when he broke into a laugh upon being informed it was all the boring stuff.
“Exactly, if I may say. The boring. But it’s a huge necessity,” Daoust said, before noting how refreshing it was to meet with his staff on a recent Zoom call to discuss how to approach the opening of training camp. “The feeling to finally start to talk about hockey, it was like if I were finally on top of that mountain, breathing the best fresh air ever.”
“I can only imagine how great it’s going to be when we’re on the ice, watching the best there is skating around and officially representing the PWHL in New York,” Daoust added. “To me, I’m waiting for that moment, for sure.”
___
AP Sports Writer John Marshall in Tempe, Arizona, contributed.
After the tragic death of player Adam Johnson during an ice hockey game on Saturday, his family has spoken out, calling opposition player Matt Petgrave “reckless.”
Johnson was playing for the British hockey team the Nottingham Panthers when they went head-to-head with the Sheffield Steelers at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield on Saturday. In the 35th minute of the game Johnson, 29, collapsed on the ice after suffering a gash to the neck from 31-year-old Petgrave’s skate.
Johnson was helped towards the side of the rink following the collision, but he collapsed a few paces later. He was rushed to the hospital, where the neck injury proved to be fatal, with the Panthers announcing his death on Sunday.
His aunt, Kari Johnson, 62, has said that while she doesn’t think Petgrave intended to kill her nephew, his actions during the game were “reckless,” according to news reports.
Adam Johnson at Madison Square Garden in 2019. His family has spoken out after his tragic death on Saturday. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Newsweek reached out to the Nottingham Panthers and the Sheffield Steelers for comment via email on Thursday.
“It was very reckless. I just want them [authorities investigating] to get it right. We are looking for justice for Adam,” she said.
Kari is said to have watched the “horrific tragedy” unfold while viewing the game at home with Johnson’s parents. She has seen the video hundreds of times in the days since, concluding that the action was “totally unnecessary.” Now she’s said the family is calling for a complete investigation.
“You don’t take your leg and kick somebody and cut their throat. I’m sorry,” she continued. “We were watching the game in real time and we did witness what happened. Horrific is the word to describe.”
While she said she understands that Petgrave would currently be going through a lot emotionally himself, he took the life of their beloved family member.
“My nephew was 6-feet tall, and whether you lost your balance or not, to have that leg come up that high and do a kicking motion like he did, that is just unacceptable,” she said. “I think the actions were unnecessary. It was just unnecessary. Nobody touched him. I’ve watched that video hundreds of times.”
She continued: “I’m sure Mr Petgrave probably didn’t even think about the consequences could be of that happening, but there comes a time when you have to realise, that’s not hockey.
“And I’m sure he’s going through a lot too, but he took our boy. There are a few of us in the family that think it was a totally unnecessary, very, very bad action to take.”
Matt Petgrave in 2019. He is said to be horrified by what has happened. Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
According to Kari, Johnson’s grieving parents, Sue and Davey Johnson, have been coping with the tragedy in different ways.
She added: “I would have to say his mother has probably been the strongest of us. But I don’t know deep down inside if she’s in shock or crying when she’s alone. She’s just been very strong.
“As far as his dad, my brother, he’s just been a mess. Along with Adam’s grandma and Adam’s brother and myself.”
Kari stated she wanted to make sure the police investigation was as comprehensive as possible, but she was ready to accept the outcome.
“I just want them to get it right. It’s not going to bring my nephew back. We just want to make sure they get it right,” she said. “If they find against what I feel, I will have to accept that. But I’ve felt throughout it’s very, very reckless and unnecessary. It took a life. I don’t want to see it for someone else.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The death of American hockey player Adam Johnson from a skate blade to the neck in a game in England is leading to further discussions about cut-resistant protection in the NHL and other leagues.
Commissioner Gary Bettman and Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh touched based Sunday in the immediate aftermath of the death to set up further talks between the league and union. For several years the two sides have been studying skate cut injuries and how to reduce and avoid them, and now the topic has taken on greater urgency at various levels of the sport.
“We’re going to explore everything,” Walsh said Wednesday. “We have to continue to have conversations on this as we move forward here. It’s a change for the players, but it’s also about protecting them, so I think we will have those conversations as we move forward here.”
Johnson, a 29-year-old from Minnesota, died at a hospital after being cut in the neck by the skate blade of an opponent during a game Saturday night in the Elite Ice Hockey League. The league called it a “freak accident,” and South Yorkshire Police have said they are investigating.
The incident already has had an impact across the Atlantic Ocean, with the American Hockey League and ECHL affiliates of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the organization Johnson once played for, mandating neck guards for players. The AHL and ECHL mandated cut-resistant wrist and foot/ankle protection last summer, in consultation with the Professional Hockey Players’ Association.
“We’ve seen it with other things, particularly with visors: If the players get used to it in the AHL, then they’re going to want to continue to use it in the NHL, so that’s the theory with the wrist guards and the foot socks that it’s something new and the players have to get used to it,” AHL president and CEO Scott Howson told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “Given what’s happened over the weekend with Adam Johnson, we are working with the NHL to figure out what the next step is in term of neck guards.”
The English Ice Hockey Association announced it would mandate neck guards beginning Jan. 1, 2024, citing possible supply issues. T.J. Oshie of the NHL’s Washington Capitals said the apparel and equipment company he co-owns already has run out of its entire supply of cut-resistant neck protection.
No such mandate currently exists in the NHL, though many players have added Kevlar or other protective material in the decade since five-time All-Star Erik Karlsson suffered a torn Achilles tendon from a skate cut. Evander Kane missed more than two months last season after his left wrist was cut by a skate blade.
Such injuries have made skate cuts a matter of great importance for several years.
“It’s been on the burner,” Bettman said. “It’s something that we’ve been looking at in terms of cuts to the wrist, cuts to the leg — and worse — and it’s something we’re going to continue to discuss and continue to study.”
Walsh said skate blade safety was a fresh issue when he met with one team Sunday night and that players have reached out to members of his staff to discuss it. The same goes with minor league players who belong to the PHPA, many of whose opinions have changed rapidly since Johnson’s death.
“The topic’s now front and center in the team meetings — the players bring it up,” PHPA executive director Larry Landon told the AP by phone Wednesday. “Our guys are asking for them. Some guys are asking for neck guards. A lot of guys who knew Adam want neck guards out of respect for him, and we’ll see where it goes in the weeks ahead.”
Although the desire to try out protective gear has increased, there’s no sense yet that the NHL and players in the top hockey league in the world are rushing to make neck guards mandatory. Walsh expects discussions with players and the league office to continue, much as they did with visors and, decades earlier, helmets.
“We don’t impose equipment changes without the agreement of the players’ association,” Bettman said. “This has always been a collaborative effort, and together we’ve been studying cut-resistant materials and the injuries that occur from skate blades over the last few years. This is not something new for us to focus on.”
In her first public appearance since being diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disorder known as “stiff-person syndrome,” iconic singer Celine Dion greeted members of the Montreal Canadiens NHL team this week in Las Vegas.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Mika Zibanejad scored 4:34 into overtime, and the New York Rangers beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Monday night for their fifth straight win.
Rangers forward Artemi Panarin celebrated his 32nd birthday with a goal and two assists, stretching his season-opening point streak to nine games. Chris Kreider scored his sixth goal for New York, and Igor Shesterkin stopped 27 shots.
The Rangers closed out a 5-0 road trip. It was the first time in franchise history that the team had a perfect trip of at least five games.
David Gustaffson and Nikolaj Ehlers scored for the Jets in front of 11,898 fans at Canada Life Centre, the second-highest attendance of the season.
Cole Perfetti had two assists and Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for Winnipeg, which is riding a five-game point streak (3-0-2).
The teams were tied 1-1 going into the third period.
Panarin scored the game’s first goal when he redirected a pass from former Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba into the net with 1:36 remaining in the opening period.
Gustaffson tied it 28 seconds later with his second goal of the season.
New York got the game’s first power play 1:06 into the second and almost scored. Vincent Trocheck’s shot hit Hellebuyck’s pad, then the post and sat on the goal line. Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon swooped in and swiped it away.
Ehlers beat Shesterkin with a wraparound at 5:08 of the third. It was his second goal of the season and 400th career point.
Kreider tipped in an Adam Fox shot on the power play to tie it at 13:12.
Winnipeg went into overtime on the power play after New York defenseman Ryan Lindgren was called for tripping with 19 seconds remaining in the third, but couldn’t capitalize.
The Jets honored former captain Blake Wheeler with a video tribute midway through the first period.
Wheeler spent 13 seasons with the organization, including his last 12 with the Jets after the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in 2011. The final year of his contract was bought out in the offseason and he signed a one-year deal with the Rangers.
He brought his wife and three children in for the game.
“It’s special to tie a bow on the whole experience together,” he told reporters after Monday’s morning skate.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Return home to host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.
Jets: Travel to Vegas to play the Golden Knights on Thursday.
BRISBANE, Australia — It’s a frequent — and most often frantic — high-pitched yell when kids playing street hockey in North America know their game is about to be interrupted.
“Car!” screams one of the players, and the nets at either end of the makeshift asphalt or cement “rink” are quickly — and most often begrudgingly — pulled to the side of the road to allow a vehicle to pass. Then the nets are back on the street and play with the often tattered hockey sticks and a battered tennis ball resumes — at least until the next car approaches.
If the National Hockey League has its way, youth in Australia — where it’s common to see cricket being played in parks and on quiet streets — will soon have an opportunity to do the same with a variation of North American street hockey.
The NHL, attempting to build on its first foray into the Southern Hemisphere with two preseason games between the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes on Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne, is expanding its NHL Street Hockey program to Australia.
The program is designed for children ages 6 to 16. The North American version has incorporated various aspects of previously successful NHL club programs in non-traditional hockey markets such as Las Vegas, Nashville and Tampa, Florida.
Although Australia fits the non-traditional hockey market, Mark Black, the NHL’s vice president of international operations, told The Associated Press that the league feels it’s a long-term viable market.
“There is an interesting history of hockey in Australia and a lot of passion there for all sports,” Black said in a telephone interview. “It may be a smaller market, but there is a lot of knowledge.”
The NHL’s plan Down Under will be to use the upcoming year to pilot the program within a selection of interested local schools in Victoria state, with a focus on the Melbourne area. It will then attempt to expand it across the country by mid-2024.
While ice hockey in Australia is definitely non-traditional, it’s been around for a while, and has a profile.
The semi-professional Australian Ice Hockey League has 10 teams, made up of a lot of expatriate and some former pro players, and it completed a 26-game schedule this season.
Ice hockey has a surprising 120-year history in Australia. The first rink in Australia was the Glaciarium Ice Palace in Adelaide, South Australia where the first games of “bandy” were played using field hockey sticks with a ball on the ice.
In 1904, a notice at the Glaciarium asked for skaters to express their interest “in the introduction of a new form of amusement on the ice.” So hockey on ice, unlike its distant field hockey cousin which is played outdoors on grass or artificial turf and with a slew of different rules, equipment and styles — no serious contact among competitors, for the most part — was born.
And field hockey in Australia has plenty of street cred. The men’s Kookaburras and women’s Hockeyroos have won numerous Olympic medals and World Cup or world championship titles.
Organized hockey games featuring more North American rules started when ice rinks opened up a few years later in 1906 in Melbourne and Sydney. It’s had its dry spells, particularly with the fledgling domestic league over the past 20 years.
Australian ties to the NHL are somewhat distant.
The first Australian-born NHL player — Jordan Spence — made his NHL debut during the 2021-22 season with the Kings. He was born in the beachside Sydney suburb of Manly and started playing hockey in Osaka, Japan before moving to Prince Edward Island in Canada as a teenager.
Spence, who identifies as Japanese-Canadian because he was only a year old when his family moved to Japan from Australia, is expected to play this weekend for the Kings against Arizona.
Ice Hockey Australia says St. Louis Blues forward Nathan Walker made NHL history twice: in 2014, when he became the first player of Australian nationality to be drafted by an NHL team when he was selected by the Washington Capitals in the third round — at No. 89; and again in 2017 when he became the first Australian player to appear in an NHL game in his debut for the Capitals.
Walker was born in Cardiff, Wales, but grew up in western Sydney and moved to the Czech Republic in 2007 after dominating local competition in Australia. He will soon begin his seventh season in the NHL and his fifth with the Blues.
The lack of top-notch talent currently in Australia is highlighted by the fact that Ice Hockey Australia has asked on its website for “expressions of interest” from potential players to fill its men’s and women’s teams for the world championships next year.
Australia, which has more than 6,000 registered hockey players, has been a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since 1938 and played at the 1960 Olympics, though it lost both of its games, outscored by a combined 30-2 by Czechoslovakia and the United States.
The NHL’s Black says he hopes that the two preseason weekend games at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena and the street hockey program in schools might result in more home-grown Aussies in the NHL in the future, and help create a player pool for Australian teams in international competitions.
“We are looking at leaving a lasting impact beyond the weeks that we are in the market,” Black said. “It’s not a tomorrow thing, it’s a 20-year thing.”
The International Ice Hockey Federation ruled in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday by agreeing that Russian goaltender Ivan Fedotov had a valid NHL contract for the upcoming season when he signed with CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
The decision paves the way for Fedotov to play in North America, like he planned to do a year ago before being conscripted into the Russian military.
It was not immediately clear if he’d seek to leave Russia to play in North America. Relations between Russia and the U.S. are strained over the war in Ukraine, the NHL cut ties in Russia last year and no transfer agreement exists between the league and the KHL.
Fedotov, drafted by the Flyers in the seventh round in 2015, signed a one-year contract with them in May 2022. He said during the Beijing Olympics earlier that year that he was expecting to go to the NHL.
Instead, last summer his NHL agent, J.P. Barry, said Fedotov was taken to a remote military base in northern Russia. The Flyers, as a result, tolled his contract to the 2023-24 season.
CSKA announced last month that it signed Fedotov to a two-year contract. Fedotov at the time said he completed his military service, according to comments reported by Russian government daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The IIHF, hockey’s world governing board, determined the deal to be a breach of international transfer regulations because Fedotov did not obtain a release from his contract with the Flyers, and it sanctioned the 26-year-old and CSKA. Fedotov was given a four-month IIHF suspension, spanning from CSKA’s first regular-season game on Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.
Fedotov would not be suspended from NHL games if he performs in accordance with his contract with the Flyers, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed.
CSKA was given a one-year ban through Aug. 10, 2024, on international transfers. The Russian Hockey Federation said in a statement that it would provide full support if CSKA decides to appeal.
The KHL, in a statement reported by Russian news agencies, said it would only comment after taking time to study the ruling. Messages sent from The Associated Press to the IIHF, Flyers and CSKA were not immediately returned.
CSKA, whose name translates to “Central Sports Club of the Army,” was founded as the Soviet army’s hockey team in 1946 and still has traditional ties to the military. It is owned by Rosneft, a Russian state-run oil company.
Fedotov is considered one of the top goalie prospects not currently in the NHL, and the Flyers hoped he would be a part of their future. He helped the Russians reach the Olympic final before losing to Finland and helped CSKA win the Gagarin Cup as KHL champion, earning first-team All-Star honors.
Since signing Fedotov and expecting him to compete for the backup job last season, the Flyers have launched into a long-term rebuild under new president of hockey operations Keith Jones and general manager Danny Briere, who was promoted to replace fired executive Chuck Fletcher. The team already has a logjam in net but could trade starter Carter Hart to make room for Fedotov.
___
AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth contributed to this report.
There’s an obsession with incremental changes and bullet-point features in the sports game scene, one which challenges fan’s ability to take a step back and assess each game as its own standalone title. It’s something I try and address in my own sports reviews on this site, and it’s something I’m taking to its logical conclusion here in this Quixotic attempt to pluck one game out of hundreds and call it the “best”.
Sports games by their nature don’t turn up for each new season as entirely fresh products. The economics of the industry have determined that they re-use the same engine and models for years at a time, which means the difference between them can often be limited to current uniforms, a few new features and some adjustments to ball physics. And those changes are usually influenced as much by fan feedback as they are by the development teams working on them.
So it’s tough looking at say Madden 17 as something entirely separate, since its creation was heavily influenced by the sales and reception of Madden 16, and it will in turn play a big part in how Madden 18 is designed. How do you pick one of those games and say, ok, THIS ONE is the best, when much of what made it great may have been inspired by—or come directly from—an entirely different video game?
Then you have to take into account the way sports games have changed their entire outlook over the last 20 years. In the 90s, series like FIFA and NBA Live were perfectly happy being fast, accessible, almost arcadey. Fast forward to today and advances in technology have turned blockbuster sports games into simulations, each one trying its hardest to replicate the on-field experience as best it can (or, if it can’t, then the broadcast experience instead). This makes direct comparisons between games in long-running series pretty damn hard!
Making matters worse is that each sport is different, with its own set of fans, style of play and culture. What makes the #1 baseball game better than the #1 hockey game? Is football better than basketball?
……Image: FIFA 98
I think I’ve found one way to compare all sports games, though, and as weird as it may sound at first, it’s through the one thing they all have in common. The one thing they’re more fixated upon than anything else, and which in many ways defines sports video games as their own distinct space in video games. And that’s content.
Every sports game is stingy. It’s possibly the most defining thing about the business, and is often the first thing that non-fans will mock. The genre’s business model is built entirely around balancing the need to make gamers happy with the game they just bought, but unhappy enough that they’ll turn around 12 months later and buy an incredibly similar product.
So after lingering over a short list of truly great sports games—Madden 2002, NBA 2K11, Pro Evolution 6, NBA Jam, NFL 2K5—I’ve settled the tie by going with one that wasn’t just a very good sports game in its own right, but one which decided to just say “fuck it” and give fans everything they could have wanted or needed for years to come, all in the one box.
That game is FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, as bizarre but beloved a major sports game as I think we’re ever going to see.
At the time of its release in 1997, it was a damn fine football game. It had very flash polygonal visuals, audio commentary, all the things we’ve long associated as being hallmarks of the FIFA series. But it’s where the game went above and beyond what we expect of a sports game can include, whether at the time or today, that marks it as truly great.
INDOOR FOOTBALL – In addition to regular 11v11 football, FIFA 98 also included an entirely separate 5v5 indoor mode, with its own rules and conditions, like the fact the ball never went out of bounds. It was just as fun as the actual FIFA. Maybe more fun. And while it had actually been introduced in FIFA 97, the fact it stuck around in 98 when there was so much else in the box is one of the things that helped cement this game’s legacy.
AN ACTUAL WORLD CUP – The reason for the game’s longer title was the fact that the development team decided to include, alongside domestic leagues, the 1998 World Cup. Not just the finals in France, but the entire qualifying system as well. That meant over 170 nations and their squads made it into the game, an absolutely ridiculous number that literally represented every football-playing country on Earth at the time (modern FIFA games usually only include a few dozen). You could, if you wanted, play as one of the smallest nations on the planet, take them all the way through qualifying then win the tournament itself, a feat so monumental that after FIFA 98 it would only be seen again in standalone video games specifically made for World Cups.
Image: FIFA 98
CUSTOMISATION: Besides the 170+ national teams, there were almost 200 club sides included in the game as well. And you could customise the lot. Home kits, away kits, even a player’s appearance. I remember spending what must have been weeks tinkering with this, making sure that every major team’s kit matched its actual design, and that player haircuts had been accurately recreated. This wasn’t just useful in 1997, either; people were playing FIFA 98 for years to come because as 1998, then 1999 rolled around, you could just update the kit designs again.
Here’s the most incredible thing about all this: FIFA 98 was so big it made another of EA’s own video games completely pointless. In addition to FIFA 98 (released in 1997), EA Sports had a game in development designed to cash in on the World Cup itself, due for release in early 1998. Simply called World Cup 1998, it had official branding throughout, from the tournament mascot to branded kits (a first for the series). But with only 40 teams, what was the point of buying it it when you could just fire up FIFA 98, edit some kits and enjoy much the same experience?
To get non-FIFA fans up to speed on just how crazy this was, it’s like NBA 2K18 shipping on four blu-rays, or the next MLB game deciding to include the entire Japanese and Korean pro leagues, just for one year, just for the hell of it.
This kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen with sports games, because it gives fans everything they need to not buy your game the next year. Yet here we have, for one beautiful year, EA sports giving away the keys to the kingdom. Amongst the blur of year-to-year releases, FIFA 98’s largesse looms large like no other sports game’s inclusions ever have.
But it’s not just the excess content that’s helped FIFA 98 endure. Quantity would be nothing without quality, and the game includes several other series favourites, from the humble free kick arrow (still somehow superior to anything EA comes up with these days) to the ability to slide tackle a goalkeeper and get instantly sent off, which despite its punishment ranks as one of the most cathartic moves in all of video games.
Then there’s the matter of the game’s soundtrack, beginning with its intro, perhaps the most iconic in sports game history:
Don’t let Blur’s cameo overshadow the game’s real musical hook, though, which is the fact much of the menu music was provided by The Crystal Method:
Sports games using popular music is nothing new today, but in 1997 it was a coup for FIFA (for reference, check out FIFA 97’s tragic attempts at hip-hop and rock). Indeed, you could trace the series’ current place on the pop culture landscape back to FIFA 98 and its soundtrack, which dared to suggest that, hey, maybe these sports video games can be cool.
In a world where sports games are and always have been seen as disposable, FIFA 98 stands apart. By including so many teams across such a breadth of competition, and allowing for such a degree of customisation, people were able to dig in and play it not just throughout 1997, but well into the next few years as well.
Even today, when the FIFA series is known as much for its licensing as it is its football and has over 20 years of experience under its belt, you’ll find fans still talking about FIFA 98 in reverent tones. Amazing what some decent music, tiny teams and the ability to let try and murder a goalkeeper will do to a fanbase…
The Bests are Kotaku’s picks for the best things on (or off) the internet.
All-trans and nonbinary hockey team gives youth players sense of community
Caption: Ice hockey’s Team Trans is believed to be the first all-transgender and nonbinary sports team in the U.S. Roxana Saberi reports on how the team is helping trans and nonbinary youth players find a sense of community.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Mason Lefebvre said that growing up, he felt out of place playing hockey. But the goalkeeper transitioned in 2016, and now he’s one of more than 150 members on the Team Trans ice hockey team, believed to be the first all-trans and nonbinary sports team in the U.S.
Lefebvre said the team helps provide “a sense of community.”
“I never understood the concept of found family until I joined Team Trans,” he said.
For safety reasons, the team doesn’t publish players’ personal information, but Lefebvre said the support it provides has saved lives.
“There are players who have told me outright that they wouldn’t be around anymore without Team Trans,” he said. “I’m glad that we were able to help them, but I hate that we’re in a space where they needed that help.”
Jayce Moe, who learned how to skate just two years ago, said even if they can’t change what’s in other people’s hearts, the players are lifting themselves up.
“Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned from this group is that we’re all human, we’re all gonna fall,” Moe told CBS News. “And what really makes us a classy operation is that we’re a team of people who get back up again and keep going.”
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free account or log in for more features.
Organizers announced plans Friday to launch a new women’s professional hockey league in January that they hope will provide a stable, economically sustainable home for the sport’s top players for years to come.
The North American league is expected to start with six teams — three in the U.S. and three in Canada — according to a person with knowledge of the league’s plans. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the details were not made public.
There are still some unanswered questions — where exactly teams will play, will the economic model work after earlier leagues fell short, will there be a broadcast deal — but an initial framework is in place. The effort also has deep pockets behind it: Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and wife Kimbra, team President Stan Kasten and tennis legend Billie Jean King will help run the league.
“Over the past four years, we have worked tirelessly to close the gap on what young girls and boys dream to become in this sport,” said U.S. women’s star Kendall Coyne Schofield, a member of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association.
The agreement ends a long standoff between the seven-team Professional Hockey Federation (PHF) and the PWHPA. The latter group includes Schofield and many other U.S. and Canadian national team players who were unwilling to join the PHF, whose assets were purchased by Walter’s firm.
It also could bring the National Hockey League to the table in a support role, perhaps in a way similar to how the NBA supports the WNBA. Commissioner Gary Bettman has said the NHL did not want to get involved in a dispute between leagues and would throw weight behind one, once it was formed.
“The National Hockey League congratulates the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association and the Premier Hockey Federation on their agreement,” the NHL said. “We already have initiated discussions with representatives of this unified group regarding how we can work together to continue to grow the women’s game.”
The PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises over the past 14 months on the new venture. PHF Commissioner Reagan Carey called the agreement the most significant development in the sport “since women’s ice hockey became an Olympic sport 25 years ago.”
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to advance women’s sports,” King said. “I have no doubt that this league can capture the imagination of fans and a new generation of players.”
The new league is expected to bring together North America’s most accomplished female players as well as players from Europe and Asia who have played in the PHF. Carey and PWHPA chief Jayna Hefford are expected to have leadership roles.
The PWHPA was certified as a union this spring and has completed negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement. A 62-page CBA was presented to PWHPA members on Thursday night, and they have until Sunday night to ratify it and the new league’s constitution, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity before the deal was announced.
If approved, the deal will run through 2031 and features a minimum salary of $35,000 for players on active rosters, the person said.
Among the many issues that need to be sorted out is where the six teams will play. The PHF, which had recently doubled each team’s salary cap to $1.5 million, had seven: in Boston, Toronto and Montreal, along with East Rutherford, New Jersey; Hartford, Connecticut; Buffalo, New York; and Richfield, Minnesota.
In the meantime, existing PHF player contracts have been voided, though an agreement is in place to pay those under contract a portion of their salary through September, two people with knowledge of the information told AP. Some players are losing out on contracts they signed worth more than $150,000 over two seasons.
The higher salaries helped the PHF attract several high-profile international players as the league headed toward its ninth season, including Switzerland’s Alina Muller, Sweden’s Emma Soderberg and former Finland goalie and ex-PWHPA board member Noora Raty.
North American women’s pro hockey has seen leagues come and go, with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folding in 2019 after 12 seasons featuring some of the best players in the world. Dani Rylan Kearney launched the National Women’s Hockey League in 2015 as an investor-funded, four-team league, but it scuffled at times and was later rebranded as the PHF.
The PWHPA was formed in 2019 in the fallout of the CWHL demise. Its members balked at joining the NWHL and instead pursued their vision of a league with a sustainable economic model and better compensation.
Earlier this month, PWHPA board member and U.S. star Hilary Knight insisted that the PHF was not the best model for building the women’s pro game, even as the divide in the sport persisted.
“I make this distinction: The more women we can have get paid to do the sport they love, I think that’s awesome,” Knight said. “What bothers me is the illusion of professionalism and what women’s hockey should be, and settling for what it is, right? And I think that’s the big distinction is let’s call it what it is.”
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Early in his time in the NHL, Darnell Nurse says he did not notice a lot of players talking about what to do after hockey. Going into his ninth season, the chatter is now normal.
“People are curious as to what there is outside the game and what you can do to prepare yourself,” Nurse said.
Plenty of players have taken it upon themselves to prepare for the future, like Zdeno Chara getting his real estate license and others finishing college degrees or exploring business opportunities. The NHL Players’ Association on Thursday launched a program that gives its members the chance to do a personality analysis and delve into real estate, business or other avenues while still in the league.
The hope is to help them develop interests outside of hockey while playing and ease the transition to life afterward.
“It’s something that’s been missing a little bit,” veteran center Lars Eller told The Associated Press. “It’s kind of well known that one of the struggles for a professional athlete is the transition on to the next thing once he’s done with his professional career. And this platform helps you with that transition, and it’s something you can start even while you’re still playing so you can sort of hit the ground running once you’re done.”
New union boss Marty Walsh made helping former players one of his top priorities. His arrival in March coincided with a process two years in the making, after player feedback indicated the desire for more assistance outside of hockey.
The result is the NHLPA UNLMT program. Retired defenseman-turned-psychologist Jay Harrison is available to do an assessment, and players can get involved with companies ranging from Money Management International to The Second City comedy and improv theater and institutions like the University of Florida and Stanford’s graduate school of business.
Former goaltender Rob Zepp, who’s spearheading the program as the union’s director of strategic initiatives, said an extensive survey provided the building blocks for something that was designed to be 1-on-1 and customized for players to figure out what might interest them.
“What we’ve seen so far it really runs the gamut: anything from enhancing one’s personal brand to starting a podcast to taking these certificate-level courses in real estate, in entrepreneurship, in business, in leadership, communication skills, networking skills,” Zepp said. “We have players that are interested in or are currently pursuing commercial real estate avenues or farming ventures or construction.”
Eller, Nurse and Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo are among the players who have tried UNLMT so far. Okposo has already graduated from Stanford’s business leadership program, while Eller has spoken with Harrison and taken some of the courses offered.
“They’re not waiting until people’s careers are over,” said Nurse, who is still in his prime at 28. “It’s something that you can dip your feet into and grab a hold of while you’re still playing and giving you resources and opportunities to kind of figure out what you want to do.”
Zepp got a degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Liverpool the old-school way — tapes and textbooks sent by mail and tests taken in front of a proctor — while playing mostly in the minors and Europe before before 10 games with Philadelphia in 2014-15. He felt like having something to study made him a better goalie and understood there was plenty of idle time on the road.
Eller, who is a silent partner involved with helping start-up businesses, thinks the same way.
“We, as players, we have — not a lot of freedom once the season is starting — but we do have a lot of free time,” said Eller, who scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for Washington in 2018 and is a pending free agent at 34. “It’s a huge positive if you have something else that you can take your mind off of hockey and do something productive with that time.”
Walsh got to know several Bruins alumni when he was mayor of Boston and has since talked to other former players and come away with a mandate to protect guys beyond their time on the ice.
“When they played, they gave it their all, and a lot of them didn’t really have anything after that,” Walsh said. “They didn’t make big contracts. They really didn’t have a strong pension system. A lot of them, even going back further than that, lost stuff. We can’t let that happen again.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Marty Walsh wasn’t a man in a hurry to leave the Biden administration.
Less than halfway through the president’s term, Walsh was in a comfortable spot in the Cabinet as labor secretary. Then he got a call about an interesting opportunity: running the NHL Players’ Association.
The former mayor of Boston and longtime Bruins fan was intrigued and earlier this year accepted the role as executive director. Now three months in, Walsh is trying to get to know players and what they care about most, learning about everything from the Arizona Coyotes’ arena situation to the salary cap and future international competition.
“This job is more like being the mayor,” Walsh said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press during the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas. “You wake up in the morning, you’re planning on a smooth day and there’s an issue that pops, and that’s the issue of the moment. And then when that issue’s over, there’s another issue that comes right behind it. And if there’s a celebration on anything, that celebration’s short-lived because you’re on to the next issue.”
With the current collective bargaining agreement in place through the 2025-26 season, the most pressing issue concerns the Coyotes, set to go into a second season in a 5,000-seat rink on Arizona State’s campus after a referendum for a new arena in Tempe failed.
Walsh has met more with Arizona’s players than anyone else among the nearly 200 members he has spoken to so far.
“These are National Hockey League players playing in a college arena,” Walsh said. “Players that are heading into the prime of their career now playing in this arena for a couple seasons — it’s just not right. It’s not good for the game.”
When Walsh speaks to players, he finds out what they think is good or not so good for the game. Many, like Connor McDavid, prioritize returning to the Olympics after a lengthy absence and getting a World Cup of Hockey on the schedule, while others are more concerned with the cap going up and keeping escrow payments down.
Several months after helping the U.S. avert a nationwide rail strike, this job hearkens back to the days when Walsh was president of the Laborers’ Union Local 223 in Massachusetts. With players aged 18-38 in various stages of their careers, he said the NHLPA membership is diverse in what it cares about, just like any other workplace.
“One thing I’ve learned quickly is that this truly is a union because every player has a different concern,” Walsh said. “And I think it’s important for me to get to know the membership so I can represent them the best I can, understanding the challenges they have.”
Walsh, 56, also has gotten to know Commissioner Gary Bettman since taking over in March. They attended an event together at the Canadian Embassy in Washington in April and have met several times to discuss the cap, the Coyotes and more.
“To me, the vital signs seem good,” Bettman told the AP recently. “We’re getting better acquainted. I like him. I respect him. I think he’s smart. I think he’s going to be good for the players, and I look forward to working with him.”
Walsh called it a “very cordial working relationship,” while acknowledging there will be disagreements ahead “that put us on two different sides of a fence — and we will have to deal with that when the time comes.” Collective bargaining talks in the coming years almost certainly will bring that conflict.
Kevin Shattenkirk, a veteran defenseman who was on the search committee, said Walsh was engaging and commanding right away and gave out his cellphone number to players to call any time after his first interview.
“Part of his pitch was that he was going to be readily available to players at any moment — any time that we needed him,” Shattenkirk said Sunday. “With his experience in working in labor unions, I think he knows how important that is. It’s important for the head of it to be accessible and also at the same time to be strong and powerful and know which way he’s leading his organization.”
For now, Walsh is trying to lead the way in preparing players for life after hockey and growing the game beyond the nearly $6 billion in revenue. He watches football, basketball and baseball differently since shifting from politics to sports, thinking about what other leagues have done and how it might apply to the NHL.
Walsh is a fan of increasing interest in Sweden and other places in Europe with games there and wonders about opportunities for hockey in Latin American countries and among underserved populations in North America.
“We have teams like the Dallas Stars and the Coyotes and even the (Florida) Panthers to some degree: large Latino populations,” Walsh said. “You think of Boston — are we tapping into Latino population in Boston, New York, Chicago, places like that?”
Just getting a chance to tackle tasks like that excites Walsh, who said he still has a very strong, close friendship with Joe Biden. The president, when Walsh left in February, called him “one tough union chief” and a model for future labor secretaries.
This is just a different challenge, one that Walsh feels his entire career has prepared him for.
“There’s not many opportunities that probably could have come on my plate that I would’ve been like, ’Oh, this is perfect,’” he said. “This is kind of my whole life coming full circle: labor movement, running a union, opportunities to grow the game, to be progressive in thinking as to how do we grow the game, how do we strengthen the union.”
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
The NHL Stanley Cup Finals are still going strong. These games are scheduled to continue until June 19, if necessary. On Tuesday, June 13 at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT), Game 5 of the 2023 NHL finals will take place. The game will feature the Vegas Golden Knights against the Florida Panthers in their fifth matchup of the championship finals.
The Golden Knights are still ahead after winning the first two games and Game 4, while the Panthers snagged a win in Game 3. In Game 5, we could see the Golden Knights take home the Stanley Cup or the Panthers could keep the finals going.
Find out how to catch Game 5 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals and see who might end up as NHL champions and bring home the championship prize. You don’t even need a cable subscription — just Sling TV.
Best way to live stream the Stanley Cup Finals
If you want access to live stream all the games in the Stanley Cup Finals, the most cost-effective way is with Sling TV. The low-cost cable streamer’s Orange tier includes all games in the NHL finals on TNT, while the Orange + Blue tier includes games from the NBA championship finals.
Stanley Cup Finals game schedule
Don’t miss a single moment of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals, including Game 5 of the finals on Tuesday, June 13. All NHL championship games will air on TNT.
Don’t have cable TV? Luckily, Sling TV carries TNT so you can watch those games live.
Schedule for the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals (Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights)
Game 1: Saturday, June 3 (Golden Knights won 5-2)
Game 2: Monday, June 5 (Golden Knights won 7-2)
Game 3: Thursday, June 8 (Panthers won 2-1)
Game 4: Saturday, June 10 (Golden Knights won 3-2)
Game 5: Tuesday, June 13 at 8 p.m. EDT on TNT
*Game 6: Friday, June 16 at 8 p.m. EDT on TNT
*Game 7: Monday, June 19 at 8 p.m. EDT on TNT
*These games will only be played if needed.
Watch the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals on Sling TV
Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The best and most affordable way to watch the 2023 NHL championship games airing on TNT is through Sling TV. The most budget-friendly tier that includes TNT, Orange, is only $40 a month. The Orange + Blue tier gives you access to the maximum amount of live sports, including not only TNT but NFL Network, ABC, Fox and NBC broadcasts, for $55 per month after the first month half-off. You’ll get 50 hours of DVR storage to record all the games you want.
There’s no contract. You can cancel at any time. Best of all? Sling is offering half-off your first month. Right now, you’ll only pay $20 to access TNT with Sling Orange, or $28 for the Orange + Blue tier.
Don’t have a smart TV to watch Sling TV on? Not a problem: Right now Sling TV is offering subscribers a free Amazon Fire TV Stick to use.
Digital antenna
Amazon
If TNT is on your market’s local channels, you may also be able to access it with a digital antenna. While Sling TV does carry more channels than a digital antenna would, this is a one-time, more inexpensive option for minimal channel options.
This one supports smart TVs in 1080p, 4K and 8K displays and works with older models too. It’s also currently discounted at Amazon.
It’s not as affordable as Sling TV, but the Hulu + Live TV bundle has a huge library of content thanks to their partnerships with Disney and ESPN, including TNT. In the bundle, both Disney+ and ESPN+ are included and it’s totally ad-free. If you want it all, get the Hulu + Live TV bundle.
DirecTV streams all the networks a sports fan could want, including TNT, NBC, Fox, ESPN and more. No matter what your viewing needs are, DirecTV Stream should have a monthly package that will serve you. Prices on DirecTV Stream services start at $65 a month for the first three months, then $75 a month thereafter.
Looking for a new television for all your sports watching needs? Watch the 2023 NHL finals on a smart TV. We’ve rounded up some great deals for the latest in high-quality TV technology.
Jennifer Martin is an expert on streaming and deals for CBS Essentials. She has a soft spot for foodie culture, beauty and wellness products and all things pop culture. Jennifer lives in Richmond, VA with her family of five, plus a cat, a dog and a frog.
LAS VEGAS — LAS VEGAS (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk lined up Jack Eichel and leveled him with a thunderous open-ice hit that sent him to the ice.
Eichel quickly skated off and retreated to the locker room, for more than a few moments putting a scare into the Vegas Golden Knights late in the second period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Instead of his night being over, Eichel returned for the third period and set up the fifth goal of seven in a rout of the Florida Panthers that put Vegas up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series and two wins away from a championship.
The hit debated ’round the hockey world was quickly determined by all involved to be clean, and Eichel’s bounce back to play another important role in this playoff run only further exemplified a team mantra that “it hurts to win.” Players, after checking in with Eichel at intermission to make sure he was OK, repeated that phrase over and over.
“It was definitely a big collision,” Eichel said. “It’s a physical game. You’re going to get hit sometimes. You just kind of move on.”
Eichel refused to complain about the hit and even took responsibility for putting himself in that position. “Got to be aware of it, you know? You’ve got to keep your head up.”
That kind of hit used to be commonplace in the NHL but has faded with the evolution of players toward skill and away from potentially brutal contact. Tkachuk, the Panthers’ leading scorer this postseason and their emotional leader, is not afraid to throw his body around to make a difference and carries with him an old-school mentality about players protecting themselves.
“It doesn’t matter who you are: You shouldn’t be going through the middle with your head down,” Tkachuk said. “You’re going to get hit. I mean, I would get hit, too, if I had my head down in the middle. It’s nothing. It’s not a big deal. He’s a really good player, and really good players can get hit, too.”
The hit itself was made worse by Eichel losing his footing – “toe-picked a bit” – seconds before contact. He landed awkwardly and grimaced while skating off.
Eichel later conceded he got the wind knocked out of him, but it appeared worse in real time.
“You don’t want to see a guy like Jack go down,” teammate William Carrier said. “He looked bad out there, to be honest.”
Eichel didn’t think it was bad enough to writhe on the ice and wait for medical attention when he could skate off and begin the process of collecting himself.
When did he know for sure he was OK? It didn’t take long.
“I just came (into the locker room) and regrouped,” Eichel said. “I got my wits back about me and realized I was fine.”
Vegas led 4-0 at the time after chasing Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, and Eichel sitting out for precautionary reasons would not have been all that unusual. But after coach Bruce Cassidy confirmed everything was all right, Eichel was back on the bench at the start of the third, providing a boost by his mere presence.
“Not only does it give us juice, but sometimes it can take away juice from the other team if they see a guy come back,” Cassidy said. “It was good for the group.”
It got better.
On Eichel’s first shift back, he won a puck battle and fed the puck to Jonathan Marchessault for his second goal of the game and the Golden Knights’ fifth.
“That’s the resiliency we have in that locker room,” Marchessault said. “It starts with your top guys and goes right through the lineup.”
The announcement of Eichel’s assist drew a louder-than-usual cheer from the crowd of 18,561. That meant a lot to Eichel, who also appreciated teammates making sure he was good to go.
“Everyone’s taken a couple hits in their career,” he said. “This is a physical game we play, so it’s all part of it.”
Not letting it derail his and the Knights’ title might make the hit and Eichel’s response part of franchise lore if they can finish off Florida and hoist the Cup for the first time in the franchise’s brief, six-year history.
Already, teammates called Eichel strong and “a warrior.” His coach was most proud of Eichel boasting the toughness of a hockey player willing to take a hit and pop right up and continue contributing.
“That’s hockey,” Cassidy said. “It’s OK to get hit in June. This is part of the journey. It hurts to win, and it’s not supposed to be easy. Good for him.”
___
Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
A CBS Miami sports reporter covering a hockey game is being praised for showing off some serious football skills after she stiff-armed a fan trying to get into her shot on Monday night.
Samantha Rivera was recapping Game 2 of the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals, in which the Las Vegas Knights beat the Florida Panthers, 7-2, when the fan butted in.
Or rather, the fan tried to butt in ― because as the footage shows, Rivera wasn’t having it:
“Listen, I don’t give a damn what team you’re rooting for,” Rivera wrote on Twitter afterward. “Get the hell out of my face when I’m working and respect that I’m here to do my job.”
Vegas now has a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which now heads to Florida.
“Excited to get back home to some classy #Panthers fans for game 3!!” Rivera wrote.
And speaking of fans, Rivera has more than a few on Twitter:
NEW CANAAN, CT—Sources familiar with the man’s role in his child’s life confirmed to reporters Monday that local dad Marcus Weir’s parenting strategy is solely focused on ensuring his son doesn’t become a New York Yankees fan. Beginning shortly after his son Miles’ birth nine years ago, Weir reportedly concentrated the entirety of his fatherly influence on making the boy a supporter of any sports team besides the Yankees, a project he initiated by acquiring several Mets onesies in his son’s infancy. Several reports indicated that as his son has grown older, Weir has provided little encouragement for the boy’s budding interests in Legos, hockey, and books, instead looking for any sign that his son might be entertaining thoughts of liking the Yankees. To date, the strongest show of emotion the father has displayed to his son reportedly followed an instance in which Miles said “This is boring” when Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was up to bat during a Yankees–Red Sox game. However, sources close to the family noted that Weir also expressed concern that his son won’t like baseball at all, which would undermine the careful work the father has put in to raise his son as a devoted Yankee hater. At press time, reports stated that Weir had shown his first interest in his son’s social circle, offering a tactful suggestion that a boy in Miles’ class who wore a Yankees hat to school was the kind of bad kid his son shouldn’t associate with.
104-Year-Old Man Awarded WWII Medal Just To Be Nice
The NHL conference finals have been underway since last week, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs are going strong. These games are scheduled to continue until May 31, if necessary. Tonight, at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) on Thursday, May 25, Game 4 of the Western Conference will feature the Vegas Golden Knights taking on the Dallas Stars. The Golden Knights currently hold a 3-0 lead. Yesterday, the Florida Panthers clinched the Eastern Conference title after beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0, so if the Vegas Golden Knights win tonight, we’ll see them face the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals staring June 3.
Find out how to catch tonight’s game and see who might end up as NHL champions and bring home the Stanley Cup. You don’t even need a cable subscription — just Sling TV.
Best way to live stream the Stanley Cup Playoffs
If you want access to live stream all the games in the NHL conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, the most cost-effective way is with Sling TV. The low-cost cable streamer’s Orange tier includes games on ESPN and TNT, while the Orange + Blue tier includes games on ABC (certain markets).
NHL conference final game schedule
In the NHL division finals, the Florida Panthers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, while the Carolina Hurricanes ousted the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference. The Florida Panthers beat the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so they’ll be facing whoever wins the Western Conference finals.
In the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars eliminated the Seattle Kraken, and the Vegas Golden Knights triumphed over the Edmonton Oilers. The upcoming game will be the fourth matchup between the Stars and the Golden Knights. If the Golden Knights win tonight’s game, they’ll be in the Stanley Cup Finals. Will the Golden Knights clinch the Western Conference or will the Stars mount a comeback? (If you want to record this game tonight, Sling TV offers 50 hours of DVR storage.)
NHL conference final game schedule
Don’t miss a single moment of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, starting with the conference finals tonight. All Western Conference games will air on ESPN, unless there is a Game 5, which will air on ABC.
Don’t have cable TV? Luckily, Sling TV carries both TNT and ESPN so you can watch those games live.
Schedule for the 2023 Western Conference finals (Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights)
Game 4: Thursday, May 25 at 8 p.m. EDT on ESPN
*Game 5: Saturday, May 27 at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC
*Game 6: Monday, May 29 at 8 p.m. EDT on ESPN
*Game 7: Wednesday, May 31 at 9 p.m. EDT on ESPN
*These games will only be played if needed.
When does the Stanley Cup Final begin?
The Stanley Cup Final will begin on Saturday, June 3 at a time that’s TBD. When the conference finals are complete, all games of the NHL finals 2023 will be shown on TNT.
Watch the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sling TV
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The best and most affordable way to watch the 2023 NHL playoff games airing on ESPN is through Sling TV. The most budget-friendly tier that includes ESPN, Orange, is only $40 a month. The Orange + Blue tier gives you access to the maximum amount of live sports, including not only ESPN but NFL Network, ABC, Fox and NBC broadcasts, for $55 per month. You’ll get 50 hours of DVR storage to record all the games you want.
There’s no contract. You can cancel at any time. Best of all? They’re offering the first month for $10 off. So you only need to pay $30 right now to get access to ESPN and TNT with Sling Orange, or $45 for the Orange + Blue tier.
Don’t have a smart TV to watch Sling TV on? Not a problem: Right now Sling TV is offering subscribers a free Amazon Fire TV Stick to use.
Digital antenna
Amazon
If you’re worried about being able to access the games that will be playing on ABC, like the potential Game 5 of the Western Conference, you can get a digital antenna to access your local TV stations, which will include ABC. While Sling TV does carry ABC in several of its large markets, the antenna will give you peace of mind so that you won’t have to miss a single game of the NHL playoffs.
This one supports smart TVs in 1080p, 4K and 8K displays and works with older models too. It’s also currently discounted at Amazon.
It’s not as affordable as Sling TV, but the Hulu + Live TV bundle has a huge library of content thanks to their partnerships with Disney and ESPN. In the bundle, both Disney+ and ESPN+ are included and it’s totally ad-free. If you want it all, get the Hulu + Live TV bundle.
FuboTV is a sports-centric streaming services that has live TV events for almost every sport imaginable, including international ones, plus over 100 other channels. Did we mention that they give you 1,000 hours of DVR space as well? Get a free seven-day trial by signing up here.
DirecTV streams all the networks a sports fan could want, including NBC, Fox, ESPN and more. No matter what your viewing needs are, DirecTV Stream should have a monthly package that will serve you. Prices on DirecTV Stream services start at $65 a month for the first three months, then $75 a month thereafter.
The best TV deals ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
Walmart
Looking for a new television for all your sports watching needs? Watch the 2023 NHL playoffs (and the NHL finals) on a smart TV. We’ve rounded up some great deals for the latest in high-quality TV technology.
Jennifer Martin is an expert on streaming and deals for CBS Essentials. She has a soft spot for foodie culture, beauty and wellness products and all things pop culture. Jennifer lives in Richmond, VA with her family of five, plus a cat, a dog and a frog.
