Deen’s Daily: Landeskog Documentary Finale; Panthers Stomp Oilers; Bennett Hired in NY

Gabe Landeskog hosted a private early screening of the finale of his documentary. The Islanders added a former Avs assistant coach to their staff. And in the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers made a statement at home.

All that and more on this edition of Deen’s Daily — June 10.

Colorado Hockey Now

Ray Bennett was fired just over a month ago by the Avalanche, but he’s officially back in the game. Patrick Roy hired the former Avs assistant coach to join his staff on Long Island.

When Roy resigned in August 2016, Jared Bednar kept Nolan Pratt as a holdover from Roy’s staff and hired Bennett. Coincidentally, it’s Bennett now that’s heading over to work for Roy, along with former Avs defenseman and Roy’s former teammate, Bob Boughner.

A Clean Sheet: Gabe Landeskog

Last week I was invited by the wonderful team at Fresh Tape Media to attend a pre-screening event for the finale of Gabe Landeskog’s documentary. The episode was released ahead of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday, but this event took place the night before.

My wife and I both attended, and it was honestly one of the nicest NHL-related events I’ve attended. The episode was great — as were the stories Landeskog told afterward. (The one about his son pretending to be Cale Makar was hilarious).

Landeskog and I spent some time catching up before the screening, and he was very nice to my wife and chatted with her for a bit, too.

The entire event brought me back. Back to 2011 when I was a young fan excited for the Avs to draft this Swedish kid that was, at the time, highly regarded as a future NHL captain. It brought me back to the professional relationship I built with him from 2019-2022, leading up to the Stanley Cup championship.

It brought me back to congratulating him on the ice in Tampa Bay and how much he enjoyed soaking in the moment of that successful Cup run. It brought me back to the many, many pressers we’ve had with him over the past three years, often to announce a surgery, a setback, anything but his return.

And it brought me back to the Colorado Eagles conditioning assignment and his eventual return in the playoffs.

At that event on Sunday, Landeskog was just another guy who loved hockey. But over the past three years, he’s been so much more. He mentioned many times how he’s excited to spend the offseason improving his game rather than trying to get healthy. It truly does feel like a reborn career — one that hopefully isn’t anywhere close to being over.

They say when you do the job I, and many others do, as credentialed NHL media, you no longer cheer for teams. You cheer for players. For individual stories. For people.

You’ll never find me anywhere but in Landeskog’s corner. I’ll always root for that guy.

If you haven’t yet, you should absolutely take the time to catch the entire six-part documentary. The team at Fresh Tape Media did an excellent job. Good people run that company.

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Read More: Deen’s View: Nelson Deal Sets the Table — Now the Real Work Begins for the Avalanche (+)

Stanley Cup Final Recap

Game 3: The Panthers absolutely mugged the Oilers in Game 3 on Monday. It was the first home game in Florida of the series and they took complete control. Florida won 6-1, thanks largely to a handful of irresponsible penalties taken by Edmonton (before things got ugly). I don’t want to say Game 4 is a must win for Connor McDavid and the Oilers given how last year went. But it’s getting pretty close to that.

Stanley Cup Final Series

Game 1: EDM 4-3 OT (Series: 1-0 EDM)
Game 2: FLA 5-4 OT (Series: 1-1 tied)
Game 3: FLA 6-1 (Series: 2-1 FLA)
Game 4: EDM at FLA (Thursday, June 12)
Game 5: FLA at EDM (Saturday, June 14)
Game 6: EDM at FLA (Tuesday, June 17)
Game 7: FLA at EDM (Friday, June 20)

Around The NHL

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Penguins are one of two teams rumored to be going hard after Vegas defenseman Nic Hague.

Montreal Hockey Now: The Habs are the other team. Is there a fit for Hague in Montreal?

NYI Hockey Now: How Roy’s staff is shaping up after these last two hires.

Vegas Hockey Now: This was a whopper on Monday. The Golden Knights reportedly spoke to Toronto and Carolina about a three-way trade around the deadline that would’ve landed Mitch Marner in Vegas. Guess who would’ve ended up in his place in Toronto?