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flohockey: All smiles from the Abbotsford Canucks after winning their first Calder Cup! 🏆

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spoiler alert: geno didn't take the money

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Unlike most, a ball player must confront two deaths. First, between the ages of thirty and forty, he perishes as an athlete. Although he looks trim and feels vigorous and retains unusual coordination, the superlative reflexes, the major league reflexes, pass on. At a point when many of his classmates are newly confident and rising in other fields, he finds that he can no longer hit a very good fast ball or reach a grounder four strides to his right. At thirty-five, he is experiencing the truth of finality. As his major league career is ending, all things will end. However he sprang, he was always earthbound. Mortality embraces him. The golden age has passed as in a moment. So will all things. So will all moments. Memento mori.

— Roger Kahn, The Boys of Summer

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sharks @ pens | 11.16.24

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🏒🇨🇦

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2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Preliminary Round: Latvia vs Canada | May 11, 2025

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canuckspup: To be the best you have to learn from the best. 💪 Thanks Petey for teaching me new tricks!

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canada vs slovakia ... iihf world championship 2025 ... 17.05.2025

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He was perfectly polite with Swedish reporters when they asked about his experience here in Stockholm. He was even funny. Yet, his grumpiness was noticeable.

MacKinnon’s peak years are coming to an end. He turns 30 in September. What he surely thought was the beginning of a potential dynasty has instead resulted in one playoff series win in three years, leaving MacKinnon in Sweden.

Do you like Sweden, Nate? 

“We love it,” he said. “We all might move here. Really nice, clean city. People are really nice. It’s been a nice experience.”

Then came the question he was dreading.

Why did you decide to come?

“I have nothing else to do,” he said. “I might as well play hockey.”

“It is fun,” MacKinnon said. “I love playing Worlds, honestly. It just feels like I can have fun again. The season is stressful. It’s more work. This is optional. So, it’s a lot of fun. And, like I said, it’s May. I have nothing better to do.”

MacKinnon, of course, should have something better to do in May. His decorated teammates know the feeling.

The visual was striking after Canada’s win against Austria on Thursday.

At one end of a hallway stood MacKinnon, surrounded by European reporters who were asking polite but redundant questions about playing in Sweden. MacKinnon handled it like a pro, but you could feel him seething from 20 feet away. He wasn’t seething at the reporters. He was still wearing the pain of the Game 7 loss to Dallas all over his face.

Crosby and Fleury stood a few feet to the right.

Fleury was giving a comedy routine and had the European media cackling, as only he can. One reporter noticed that Fleury was giving air high fives to players from afar after one of MacKinnon’s goals. Fleury didn’t understand the question at first, so he asked the reporter to repeat himself.

After hearing the question again, Fleury explained that he’s a man of many superstitions, and one of them is high-fiving people when they aren’t nearby.

“Good observation,” Fleury said. “You were watching.”

Crosby was done speaking with the media while Fleury was busy entertaining a new wave of reporters. Team Canada’s captain walked behind the goaltender and gave him a playful punch while walking past. Crosby then turned around and grinned at Fleury.

B-level tournament or not, they’re having fun. It’s good for the soul.

MacKinnon, legendary for his uncommon level of intensity, followed his buddy Crosby a moment later. Even MacKinnon stopped and grinned at Fleury.

“Never played with him before,” MacKinnon said. “Amazing person.”

MacKinnon hasn’t just walked a few miles around Stockholm. He has walked a few miles in the shoes once worn by Crosby and Fleury.

It’s not easy when you’re in your prime and not playing NHL playoff hockey in mid-May. But Crosby and Fleury have been there, and they never lost their ability to smile.

This could be yet another lesson MacKinnon has learned from Crosby over the years. Having Fleury along for the ride can only help.

I wouldn’t expect MacKinnon to start high-fiving himself anytime soon. But a smile or two would do him good.

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swe vs slo — 5/16/25

mika_speed_up_reaction.gif

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stomp stomp stomp - 19/5/25

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[25.05.16] vs. slovenia (iihf worlds 2025, preliminary round)

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nate & jimmy roughing it up swe vs can @ iihf worlds | 20 may '25

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computer enhance

small. cute. fun sized.

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someone who can read lips tell me what he’s yelling

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