Oh Canada

TigerBlog watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals a week ago. 

It was a great game, one of the best Game 7s of any sport TB has ever seen. Florida had won the first three games. Edmonton won the next three. 

There was no way at all to predict what might happen when the puck dropped. As it turned out, Florida scored early, Edmonton tied it, Florida jumped back out 2-1 late in the second period and then held on for dear life in the third as the Oilers threw everything they had to try to get the tying goal. By the end, Edmonton's stars were exhausted. 

Would you have given the playoff MVP award to Connor McDavid, by the way? Yes, he had a record-setting playoff run, and it's for the whole playoffs. Then again, he was held without a goal or assist in Game 7. Then again, he was everywhere in Game 7. Then again, his team lost.

TB watched the series and never really figured out which team he wanted to see win. That was before he knew that Princeton men's hockey was represented in the series.

As it turned out, Princeton's own Paul Krepelka, Class of 1991, is Florida's Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. 

Krepelka's bio includes this:

After graduating from Princeton in 1991, Krepelka played for Hampton Roads in the ECHL during the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons before earning his law degree from Suffolk University after retirement. He then went on to a 20-year career as an agent -- including a period where he co-founded Orr Hockey Group -- before joining the Carolina Hurricanes where he served as Vice President of Hockey Operations from 2018-20.

There's also this tidbit:

Krepelka is now the sixth former Princeton men's hockey player to be part of a Stanley Cup championship as a player, coach, or executive -- each coming since 2007. He is joined by George Parros '03 (Anaheim, 2007 as a player), Kevin Westgarth '07 (Los Angeles, 2012 as a player), Jeff Halpern '99 (Tampa Bay, 2020 and 2021 as assistant coach), Brent Flahr '96 (Anaheim, 2007 as an executive) and Chris Patrick '98 (Washington, 2018 as an executive) as Tigers to lift Lord Stanley.

The Panthers' win in Game 7 meant that a Canadian team was once again denied the Stanley Cup. In fact, you have to go back to the 1993 Montreal Canadiens to find a Canadian champ (Canadian teams 11 of the 17 before that). 

That has to be galling to your average Canadian hockey fan, no? 

Perhaps Canada can get revenge next month (hey, it's July 2nd) at the U20 women's lacrosse World Championships in Hong Kong. 

The Canadian team is ranked No. 2 in the world, behind the United States. Australia is ranked third.

There will be 20 teams who travel to Hong Kong for the event. There are four groups of five teams each, and then there will be a knockout round that is, like every other event that has "lacrosse" and "world championship" in it, figures to come down to the U.S. and Canada.

Among the athletes who will be competing there is Princeton's Jami MacDonald. Perhaps TB will ask her if the lack of a Canadian Stanley Cup champion since long before she was born bothers her when she comes to get the refrigerator that TB has been storing for her this summer.

TB and the MacDonald family — including parents Linda and Steve — go way back, to when Mikey MacDonald was a star for the Princeton men's lacrosse team. Mikey, in fact, won the Roper Trophy in 2015 after a career that saw him plaster his name all over the record book.

His senior year saw him put up 48 goals and 30 assists, which was the school single season record until Michael Sowers obliterated it in each of his three full seasons (and which Coulter Mackesy has since tied). MacDonald still ranks sixth in points in Princeton history with 208 and third in goals with 132 (though Mackesy will enter his senior year with 123).

Ah, but now here comes Jami. With two seasons down, Jami MacDonald has 97 career points, including 58 goals. That's not quite halfway to where her brother was, but he was at 89 points on 65 goals and 24 assists through two seasons.

Can she catch him? It'll be a fun race to follow for the next two years.

In the meantime, she has her trip to Hong Kong first. 

After the way the Stanley Cup playoffs ended, Canada really needs this one.