• It’s Patrick Kane’s ‘first hockey card.’ Can you find the little dude in the stands? [Puck Junk]
• Incredible piece on the darkness and sadness in the Lightning locker room after losing the Stanley Cup. [Grantland]
• BABIES IN THE STANLEY CUP! And with their championship dads. If this doesn’t melt your heart, you’re probably dead. Or a Lightning fan. [Sporting News]
• Joel Quenneville’s legacy as an NHL coach and future Hall of Famer has been cemented with his third Stanley Cup. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• To create a Stanley Cup winning monolith, follow the Blackhawks blueprint. [What’s Going On In Buffalo]
• Weather caused the cancellation of the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians game. Cubs players Anthony Rizzo and Jason Kipnis decided to head over to The Madhouse on Madison to take in the festivities. [Big League Stew]
• Could this be the last hurrah for the Blackhawks due to their impending contract and salary cap issues? The rest of the league probably wouldn’t mind if it was. [Vice Sports]
• Game of Thrones fans: here’s the Champs as characters from the series. [THN]
• Dave Lozo’s winners and losers of the Stanley Cup playoffs. [Bleacher Report]
• What did we learn from each of the playoff teams? [ESPN]
• The long Long Island nightmare is finally over: Alexei Yashin finally comes off the Islanders books. They’d been paying him since 2001. [Lighthouse Hockey]
• Figuring out what to do with Milan Lucic is just one of many decisions the Bruins have to make in the off-season. [TSN]
• Braden Holtby had a career year for the Capitals. Does it merit a big pay check going forward? [Today’s Slapshot]
• Henrik Lundqvist will make $8.5-million for the Rangers next year. Does having his contract on the books help or hurt New York going forward? [Sather On Waivers]
• Torrey Mitchell is a Montreal Canadien for the next three years. [Rabid Habs]
• Alex Galchenyuk is looking to get his chunk of change from the Habs. Perhaps a bridge contract like the one PK Subban signed earlier in his career would be the best option for now. [The Hockey Writers]
• The best time period of drafting and trading for the Flames was 1980-1985, just after the team relocated from Atlanta to Calgary. [Flames Nation]
• Meet the Top 5 defensemen available in the NWHL draft. [NWHL]
• The Penguins have named Jacques Martin as the ‘Special Assistant to the Head Coach.’ He’ll watch games from the press box and relay info to the bench. [Penguins]
• The Kings will play the Coyotes in a ‘neutral site’ pre-season game in Bakersfield, California. If you’ve never been to Bakersfield… that’s probably a good thing. [Mayor’s Manor]
• The complete pre-season schedule for Los Angeles. September feels so far away… [LA Kings]
• Worst-to-first fantasy preview: Philadelphia Flyers. [The Puck Exchange]
• Donate to our friends at Kukla’s Korner to help keep going all the great work they do. [KK]
• Finally, Jonathan Toews was mic’d up when he received and lifted the Stanley Cup. Earmuffs were provided for his first word. [NHL]
Jen Neale 