Welcome back!

The Bruins are still keeping quiet while the throes of panic moves have already begun with the Dylan Larkin news, and why not? Why not let all the other teams decide to go make a dumb move first then pick through their mistakes? Don has all the time in the world on that front.

Meanwhile in the Stanley Cup Final, I regret to inform you that the SCF has been straight heat. Nothing but excellent back and forth hockey where Carter Hart is considered an all-time awful finals goalie to the celebration of literally everyone who , Jordan Staal scored a goal from an impossible angle while also falling down, and a series tied 2-2 after multiple lead changes, come-from-behind desperation at the drop of a hat, goalie changes, and all-timer performances by guys you’d never think would be a hero in the Stanley Cup are now required if you wanna get anywhere.

There cannot be any stragglers, and if there are, everybody works three times as hard to compensate.

The back and forth of this final as a result, has been fantastic stuff. Who’s got any momentum? Who’s got the will to win it? Who knows, the series changes on a dime with each shift. Frankly? Who cares, it’s phenomenal stuff. Part of me wants a Game 7, but I don’t want the Knights getting any more momentum than what they’ve been getting.

Let’s just get through this with the maximum amount of Toronto suffering then move on to the Draft.

Meanwhile in the PWHL, chaos is unfolding.

The addition of Hamilton, Vegas, Detroit, and San Jose to the league as each team has been rummaged through to fill out their rosters. Seattle got absolutely raided, but Minnesota and Toronto also ended up losing major points of their game. Detroit definitely comes away looking strong (and maybe the villain of the offseason) with players like Hilary Knight, Britta Curl-Selamme, Hannah Bilka, and Cayla Barnes. San Jose meanwhile went all in on youth; going for Rory Guilday, Anne Cherkowski, and Maddi Wheeler. Vegas meanwhile…helped get Hilary Knight to Detroit through a trade; the likes of which we only know very vague details of well ahead of time and will likely end with the PWHL very unhappy with the Associated Press for leaking it.

Good to know the ladies also get a mercenary mentality team out in Clark County as well. Hopefully they keep the tradition of hating their guts.

The Boston Fleet meanwhile, actually managed to get away largely scott-free of any major pulls from their ranks…with specifically one painful exception; Alina Muller. Muller was the Swiss-born engine on which the Fleet’s offense, such as it’s been, has rested. She has been a tireless force of good for the Green and Lighter-Green and the all-time leader in points for the team; 63 in 92 games. Ever since she joined the team back in 2023, it’s been fairly clear that she has been the beating heart of Boston among the players who don’t wear goalie pads in Lowell.

Didn’t matter to Danielle Marmer; she was an older player, she’s got hot young talents to develop, so exposed she got. Muller is set to play for Hamilton now.

Danielle Marmer has a lot of work to do for Fleet fans, who have spent a lot of time sort of looking at her and going “You ARE going to make us a team that can score goals now, right?” and have come away disappointed for year after year, and so far has done little to actively do that. This Muller exposure only exacerbates that.

Aerin Frankel can’t do it alone, after all.

Meanwhile, the World Cup and all the fun* that entails is fast approaching, and while the frontrunners obviously have crushing expectations to live up to, the host countries have some solid storylines a-brewin’! The US doesn’t look entirely embarrassing on the pitch (for right now) during friendlies! Canada’s strides made in CONCACAF are now being put to the test! Mexico said school is out for summer and the country will look to take their recent strides of improvement through the last few years in the local federation and apply it to the world stage!

Of course, the expectation is that Argentina, Spain, France, or Portugal are probably due for another finals appearance, but it’s still fun to speculate! Especially if it comes time for some country nobody’s ever thought about outside of it’s immediate neighbors goes on a cinderella run!

* = When it comes to the world cup you can just assume “fun” is standing in for “sociopolitical boondoggle”. We’ll see how that goes.