Florida Panthers avoid historic Stanley Cup collapse, plus JJ Redick’s debut f-bomb

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Rings: The Panthers escape history

The Stanley Cup has found its home for the next year, the place where hockey’s innovators surely always envisioned: Sunrise, Fla., a suburb of Fort Lauderdale that sits 40 miles north of Miami. Hockey paradise, right?

It might as well be after last night’s enthralling Game 7 Panthers win, which ends one of the best Stanley Cup Finals in recent memory:

With the 2-1 win, Florida avoided one of the biggest meltdowns in North American sports history. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky regained the form he’d lost during the Panthers’ three-game losing streak in this series. He registered 23 saves, at times fending off a whole crowd of Oilers.
The Panthers have their first Stanley Cup. They made it as difficult as possible, but that no longer matters. The Oilers had a chance to realize the NHL’s greatest comeback ever, but are now relegated to a mere historic footnote — and this season might’ve been their last shot for a while.
You have to feel for Connor McDavid, who was great in this series but didn’t make an impact last night. He won the Conn Smythe anyway, becoming just the sixth player in NHL history to win the postseason MVP award after losing in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Athletic Hockey Show has more instant reactions to last night’s game. The Panthers are already 2025 Stanley Cup title favorites, too.

Also, we crowned a college baseball champion last night:

Tennessee won the Men’s College World Series with a nail-biting 6-5 victory over Texas A&M, completing a comeback after going down 1-0 in the championship series. The Volunteers won 60 games this year, the first CWS champ to hit that mark since Wichita State in 1989. After the game, Aggies coach Jim Schlossnagle got very angry when asked about his potential candidacy at archrival Texas … without exactly saying no. Hm.

Moving on:

Giving a F—: Well, that’s one way to win the press conference

Less than a week after the Celtics won the NBA title, the offseason is chugging. JJ Redick is officially the Lakers head coach, as the team introduced him in a news conference that frankly was a banger. Two things:

Many have scrutinized Redick’s lack of coaching experience prior to accepting one of the premier sports jobs on the planet. Asked if he’s excited to dispel any specific criticism, he said: “I don’t really have a great answer because I really don’t give a f—.” Honestly, bravo. We are cruising out of the gate.
Redick and Lakers top brass Rob Pelinka said all the right things you say at one of these pressers, but the most important takeaway for me: Redick will abandon his podcast empire, which is the right move, though I did hope we’d get LeBron James questioning Redick nightly about coaching decisions on their joint show. Redick also said he and James did not communicate during the hiring process, which I find extremely hard to believe.

Now we have four months or so to wonder whether Redick will be any good at this. One thing is certain: This is Showtime Lakers as hell. Will we get tired of talking about them at some point next year? Likely. But they are the most entertaining storyline already, bar none.

Two other notable NBA news pieces from yesterday:

The Cavaliers hired Kenny Atkinson as head coach, a move that makes a ton of sense on paper. He is known as an offensive mastermind who earned positive marks for his tenure as Nets coach from 2016 to 2019 (including coaching current Cavs Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen). He’s spent most of the time since on Steve Kerr’s coaching staff in Golden State.
The Raptors signed Scottie Barnes to a five-year max rookie extension, cementing the young guard as the cornerstone of the franchise’s rebuild. Last season, the 22-year-old averaged just under 20 points per game in his third season and made his first All-Star appearance. Eric Koreen writes that the deal should be worth somewhere between $225 million and $270 million, but more importantly, Barnes has to own his role for the rebuild to work.

Tune in to The Bounce later this morning for more, and peep John Hollinger’s NBA free-agent rankings for a refresh before the madness truly begins Sunday night.

News to Know

Two matches, two disappointments
Yesterday’s international soccer slate was marked by two surprising results, for two quite different reasons: Despite dominating the match, mighty Brazil failed to score against lowly Costa Rica in a 0-0 Copa America draw, while Italy crushed Croatian dreams by pulling off a 1-1 Euros draw at the literal whistle to send the Italians through to the round of 16. Croatia will need help to make it out of group play now.

More news

The Phillies pulled off a rare 1-3-5 triple play yesterday, the first time that has happened in 95 years.
Heartbreaking: Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 800 meters, will not defend her title after falling at the U.S. Olympic trials yesterday.
Quincy Wilson, the 16-year-old sprinting phenom, fell just short of automatic qualifying in the men’s 400-meter race.

GIFs of the Day: A backless suit?

Quickly, two images you must see today:

1. Joe Burrow’s backless Paris adventure
The Bengals quarterback walked in Vogue’s fashion show yesterday, showing off a, um, backless suit as he walked with Vikings star and former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson. Just look at this:

🐯 Des terrains de Baton Rouge aux défilés de Paris pour les amis @JoeyB et @JJettas2 🇫🇷

Les deux joueurs les mieux payés de la NFL à leur position ont visité la France pour la Fashion Week, avant de participer au défilé Vogue World !

Via @voguemagazine / @kyleforserious pic.twitter.com/8flo5LxxF0

— NFL France (@NFLFrance) June 24, 2024

I will never besmirch my beloved 2019 Tigers QB, but I will not be pursuing a backless suit for my wardrobe.

2. Sign this guy up
A fan at yesterday’s Guardians-Orioles game in Baltimore made the best play of the day, catching this foul ball from Josh Naylor:

WEB GEM 💎

🎥 @MLB pic.twitter.com/WSVGwdRMWM

— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) June 24, 2024

He deserves a free beer or something. Put it on the Pulse tab.

Watch This Game

Euros: England vs. Slovenia
3 p.m. ET on FOX
The English are huge favorites here, but after a disappointing draw against Denmark, there is no team in this tournament with more added pressure. I wonder if Harry Kane will feel disrespected after this one.

MLB: Yankees at Mets
7 p.m. ET on TBS
The Subway Series comes at a great time. The Yankees are tied for the most wins in baseball, but the Mets might be the hottest team in the sport. Gerrit Cole is on the mound for the Yanks. Should be fun.

WNBA: Lynx at Liberty
8 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime
Sure, Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese is fun, but the Liberty are the WNBA’s best team. Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu are Nos. 5 and 6 in league scoring, and New York averages a league-high 88.1 points per game.

Get tickets to games like these here.

Pulse Picks

This past week, we’ve talked plenty about the NHL’s present. Its future could include two players with familiar last names: Ryder Ritchie and Tij Iginla, children of former teammates (Byron Ritchie and Jarome Iginla) and born one day apart. They are top prospects, of course, and have an extremely cool backstory.

Steven Kwan is hitting nearly .400. He credits pinball.

Where does Scottie Scheffler’s season rank among the all-time golf greats? Brody Miller breaks down the question, which has a more complicated answer than I expected.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our report on the 16-year-old Wilson’s stunning showing at the U.S. Olympic track trials.

Most-read on the website yesterday: The first part of our new Missing Bats series, an astounding read.

(Photo: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)