Liberal Arts Blog — The Stanley Cup, The Florida Panthers, the Edmonton Oilers, The Tampa Lightning
Liberal Arts Blog — Saturday is Sports, Dance, Fitness, and All Things Physical Day
Today’s Topic: The Stanley Cup, the Florida Panthers, the Edmonton Oilers, the Tampa Lightning
Who knew? Florida has not one, but two NHL (National Hockey League) ice hockey teams! And one of them, the Florida Panthers just won the Stanley Cup! Wow! The other one is the Tampa Lightning — winners of three Stanley Cups! The Panthers are based in Miami and this year they defeated the legendary Edmonton Oilers to capture ice hockey’s crown.Today, a few more notes on the Panthers, Oilers, and the Lightning.
The premise of the series is that the more you know about the more topics more people care most about the greater your chance of having a meaningful conversation and a moment of shared joy. And the more beautiful the world becomes.
What do you know about ice hockey that the rest of us would delight to learn?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE FLORIDA PANTHERS — founded in 1993. First appearance in the Stanley Cup finals: 1996. First Stanley Cup — 2024; Aleksander Barkov is considered the greatest Panther of all time (below)
1. Aleksander Barkov, born in Finland, is the number one Panther in terms of goals, assists, points and games played” and won the Frank J. Selke Trophy for best defensive player in the NHL in both 2021 and 2024. He is “ the son of former Russian ice hockey player Alexander Barkov Sr, and holds dual Finnish and Russian citizenship.”
2. Other great Panthers are goalies Robert Luongo, Canadian, who played from 2006 to 2009 and then again between 2014 and 2019. And John Vanbiesbrouck, from Detroit, who played from 1993 to 1998.
3. In 2024, the Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers four games to three to win their first Stanley Cup. ‘For the fifth consecutive season, and eighth in the last ten seasons, a Florida-based team made it to the penultimate round.”
NB: The team is named after an endangered species of wild cat native to the Everglades. The first owner was Wayne Huizenga, the founder of AutoNation and Waste Management who also owned or co-owned the Florida Marlins baseball team, the Miami Dolphins football team, and Blockbuster Video.
https://sports.betmgm.ca/en/blog/nhl/best-florida-panthers-players-all-time-bm18/
THE EDMONTON OILERS — five time winners of the Stanley Cup (1984, 1985,1987,1988,1990) Greatest oiler of all time: Wayne Gretsky (below). One of two Alberta teams. The other is the Calgary Flames
1. Wayne Gretsky is “the leading career goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history, and has more career assists than any other player has total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times.”
2. Edmonton is the capital city of Alberta and is located on the North Saskatchewan River and part of the “Calgary-Edmonton corridor.” Calgary is Alberta’s largest city. Alberta is called the “Texas of Canada” because of the importance of oil in its economy.
3. Mark Messier is the second greatest Oiler of all time. “He is a six-time Stanley Cup champion — five with the Oilers and one with the Rangers — and is the only player to captain two teams to Stanley Cup championships.His playoff leadership while in New York, which ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994, earned him the nickname “The Messiah”, a play on his name. He was also known, throughout his career, as “The Moose” for his aggression and strength.”
The Greatest Edmonton Oilers of All Time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton
THE TAMPA LIGHTNING — founded in 1993, winner of three Stanley Cups (2004, 2020,2021) Steven Stamkos (below) is usually ranked the best player in franchise history.
1. Stamkos, of Scottish and Macedonian descent, captained the Lightning to two back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 as well as appearances in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015 and 2022.” He is also a two-time Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer (2010 and 2012). Nicknamed “Stammer,” he has scored the most goals and the most points of any player born in the 1990s decade.”
2. Nikita Kucherov, a Russian player, is the Lightning’s alternate captain, and holds the franchise record for most points, goals, and assists, He is the winner of the NHL’s Hart Memorial Trophy for most valuable player in 2018–19, and the Art Ross Trophy for the league’s leading scorer during the regular season (2023–24).
3. Martin St, Louis, a Canadian player, led the Lightning to their first Stanley Cup in 2003–4. He won the Art Ross Trophy for that season as well.
NB: Tampa is on the Gulf Coast of Florida and is the third largest city in the state after Jacksonville and Miami. “The city is part of the Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater Florida Metropolitan area, which is a four-county area composed of roughly 3.1 million residents, making it the second-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the state…The Greater Tampa Bay Area has over 4 million residents and generally includes both the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas.”
Tampa Bay Lightning — Wikipedia
The Best Tampa Bay Lightning Players of All Time
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
For the last four years of posts organized by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to sports, dance, fitness.
Or the coolest thing you learned about Sports, Dance, of Fitness in your life — whether on the field, on the dance floor or in the gym, whether from a coach, a parent, a friend, or just your own experimentation.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. Or even change their life. It’s perhaps a chance to put into words something you have never articulated before. And to cement in your own memory something cool you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
