Need a weird NHL superstition? We can help you

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Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox. 

Good morning to everyone except people who have strong feelings about whether it’s “offside” or “offsides” and get weird about it. I’m honestly still a little disoriented from the absolutely wild end of Saturday’s Oilers/Knights game, but let’s try to get organized.

While You Were Sleeping

(Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

Dallas Stars alive and kicking

The Stars and Jets opened the action yesterday with an afternoon tilt, and it was a back-and-forth contest until things got weird in the third. The Stars scored three unanswered to earn the win, but it’s the goal that held up as the winner that we’ll be talking about for the next few days.

THE STARS HAVE A GOOD GOAL TO START THE THIRD ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/oZcBGascdx

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 11, 2025

That’s Stars defenseman Alex Petrovic giving his team a 3-2 lead early in the third. He sure seems to do it with the dreaded distinctive kicking motion, but after a long (long) (LONG) review, the official determined the goal would count anyway, ruling that Connor Hellebuyck directed the puck into the net. The Jets goalie certainly makes contact with the puck, but the rulebook says that’s not supposed to matter. This time it did, and even having read the league’s unofficial explanation, I’m still not sure I get it. The Jets don’t either.

Still, Winnipeg had time to mount a comeback and couldn’t manage it, in part due to yet another big game from Mikko Rantanen. We’re officially at the point in this storyline where former teammates are roasting the Avs for letting him go, so … yeah.

Also, don’t hit the referee with your stick, kids.

(Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

Panthers get even with Leafs

We’re tied again in the Atlantic, with the home teams winning all four after last night’s 2-0 Panthers win. It was mostly a penalty-filled snoozer, but Florida will be fine with that — after two straight Eastern Conference crowns, I’m guessing they’ve figured out there are no style points handed out at this time of year.

We’ve got two nights off before the series resumes Wednesday, which should be good news for a Leafs team that looked like it was stuck in slow motion for most of the night. They took undisciplined penalties, the power play was a mess and the stars have gone quiet again. Auston Matthews is still looking for his first career goal past the opening round, if you’re keeping count.

Coast to Coast

🚨 This is a fun one from Fluto Shinzawa, who asked several NHL goalies if they could have made it as forwards or defensemen. And sure enough, a few of them think they could have.

🏒 Remember Alex Ovechkin, the sniper who set the all-time goals record a few weeks ago? Fun fact: He’s still playing in the postseason. We think. Other Sean (Gentille) looks into how the Hurricanes have neutralized the GOAT.

🥅 At the start of each season, I make my oddly specific predictions, which is fun. At the end of the season, I have to report back on how I did, which is not as fun. This year, I got a couple right, and I’m calling for a coach’s challenge on one more.

🔥 The PWHL playoffs are underway, and Game 2 between the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge needed extra time. Four overtimes worth, to be exact — the longest game in league history.

Feedback Loop

(Courtesy of Utah Hockey Club / the Utah Mammoth)

Last newsletter, I gave my thoughts on the big Utah Mammoth reveal and asked you to share yours. And you sure did, with over 800 of you filling out our survey. Let’s see what you had to say …

You (mostly) like the Mammoth 🔥

More specifically, you like the name …

… and kind of love the logo …

… but are a little less sold on the uniforms.

A representative sampling of your feedback:

Sure, it isn’t the Yeti name that would have worked so well, but for the names they were working with, I think this was easily the best option. Plus, that logo is CLEAN, along with already cool uniforms. — Ryan, the depressed Lightning fan

Mammoths would’ve been infinitely better than Mammoth. — Mike

The mountains being part of the Mammoth is spectacular. — Tom

The home jersey is pretty good, honestly. The road jersey is just template stuff. — Jeff

Nice color scheme and great logo. Not 100% sold on the name. But overall, well done. — Brian

Kind of boring uniforms … the name mammoth could have been so much bigger! — Barbara

Should have stayed Utah Hockey Club. That was nostalgic & unique at the same time. — Tyler

A mammoth is a cool choice — they look awesome, they’re rough and tumble, and since they’re extinct, they can’t do anything to get themselves canceled. But for the sake of heaven and hell and all the limbos in between, STOP USING SINGULARS FOR TEAM NAMES! — Matt

The Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse) have been around since 2003. This is a lazy ripoff of an already existing team name from the state next door. Utah … aka Colorado’s shadow. — Rob

By the way, that last bit of feedback about the lacrosse team showed up surprisingly often. Colorado sports fans are feeling feisty about this. Congrats on your new name, logo and uniform, Utah; it sounds like it might have come with your first rivalry too.

Now we want your feedback on all the team names. Take our ultimate team name survey and let us know who ranks where.

• 💡 Trivia time 💡 The Mammoth give Utah two teams in North America’s “big four” pro men’s leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL), and they’re the only metro market to have the NBA and NHL but not MLB or NFL. Can you name the other four NHL markets that have a team in exactly one of the other leagues?

What to Watch

📺 Capitals @ Hurricanes
7 p.m. ET on TNT / Sportsnet
So far, the series has followed some pleasingly predictable beats. Game 1 was the classic Hurricanes playoff experience, with them dominating the stat sheet but just barely eking out enough offense to win. Game 2 was the Capitals’ statement game, where they reminded us that they’re the top seed and don’t plan to roll over, no matter what the experts think. And Game 3 was just an old-fashioned flex by Carolina, dominating start to finish on home ice and regaining their status as series favorite.

Now, do we see Washington return serve and turn this into a best of three? Or do we see another dominant Hurricanes performance that leaves the Caps floundering? Honestly, maybe both.

📺 Golden Knights @ Oilers
9:30 p.m. ET on TNT / Sportsnet / CBC
The good news for the Oilers is they’re still leading the series and are on home ice with a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead. The bad news is Game 3 was the sort of disastrous loss that can derail a championship run. The Golden Knights are two years removed from a championship, and not the sort of team you want to let up off the mat.

One thing we already know: Calvin Pickard is not returning for Game 4. Stuart Skinner wasn’t the problem Saturday, because hey, not many goalies can stop Leon Draisaitl with the game on the line. But he’s now 0-3 in the postseason, while Pickard is 5-0, and you don’t need Dom’s model to crunch those numbers.

Full NHL schedule here. Try streaming games like these for free on Fubo. 

Superstition Corner

Any weird superstitions you need help with?

Let’s be clear on what I mean by “help” here. I don’t mean that you need me to help you stop being weird, because I would never do that. Weird superstitions are part of being a sports fan, and if you don’t have any at all, then you’re not doing enough to help your team win. Remember, you’re talking to the guy with the Good Luck Bag of Chips, and who recently had an incident involving a stuffed animal that I was later asked to defend in detail on a major radio show. You think you’re weird? I’m not here to judge.

But I am here to help, which is where you come in. If you’ve got a superstition that’s working for you and your team, great, keep at it. But maybe it’s not working, or at least not firing on all cylinders, and you think a tweak could help. Or maybe you’ve got one of those dilemmas, where you’re not sure if the lucky shirt only worked for Game 1 or is ready for an expanded role. Maybe your significant other is trying to get you to wash the playoff underwear you’ve had on for three weeks, and you need breakup tips.

The point is, I’m here for you, and I have expertise on the subject. If you find yourself in need of any superstition-related advice, you can reach me at redlight@theathletic.com, and we’ll run anything good in future editions of Red Light.

Trivia Answer

(Timothy T. Ludwig / Imagn Images)

Did you get all four?

In addition to Utah being in the NHL and NBA, the other North American metro markets that have a team in the NHL and exactly one other league are: St. Louis (MLB), Nashville (NFL), Buffalo (NFL) and Las Vegas (NFL, at least until the MLB’s Athletics arrive in a few years).

📫 Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Top photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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