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In honor of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, we’ve identified a starting lineup of celebrity fans for all 16 NHL teams in the postseason.

Here is how they stack up.

Atlantic Division

The roster: Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Conor McGregor, Bill Burr

This is easily the funniest collection of celebrity fans, which is no surprise given Boston’s legendary stand-up scene.

Carell is one of the better hockey players on this list. The Massachusetts native played at several levels and confirmed his rooting interests during the 2019 Stanley Cup Final. Speaking of “The Office,” Krasinski enlisted David Denman (who played Roy on the show) to troll co-star Jenna Fischer in a video from Game 7 of that year.

Massachusetts native Burr tweets about the Bruins regularly.

McGregor, one of the most famous MMA fighters, visited the Bruins locker room and dropped the puck at a game in 2019. That’s good enough, at the least, to be the enforcer on this squad.


The roster: Justin Bieber, Drake, Will Arnett, Mike Myers, Chris Hadfield

The Leafs have no shortage of celebrity fans. They also have the high-end edge on this list, with Bieber and Drake, two of the most famous human beings on the planet. Bieber has released tributes to the Leafs. Drake was once visited by Mats Sundin at one of his concerts in Stockholm.

Myers is one of the longest celebrity Leafs fans, naming characters in “Austin Powers” after former Leafs Doug Gilmour and Nikolai Borschevsky. “The Love Guru” includes the Leafs in the plot of the film.

Toronto native Arnett also makes the starting five because he’s hilarious and “Arrested Development” still rules.

Finally, we have astronaut Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space. He also dropped the puck at a Leafs game from space, perhaps the biggest flex in recorded history.


The roster: Dick Vitale, Hulk Hogan, Charles Barkley, Stephen King

One commonality among Lightning celeb fans is their positive reactions to Lightning coach Jon Cooper. Cooper has been shouted out by Barkley and Dickie V.

We’re not sure how King became a Lightning fan, but he flew his flag in a reply to actor Kim Coates’ tweet. As for the Hulkster, he’s been an icon on the Tampa sports scene for quite a while and displays his Lightning fandom proudly.


Metropolitan Division

The roster: Stephen Colbert, Petey Pablo, John Isner, Evander Holyfield

Former heavyweight boxing champion Holyfield makes the list because of this incredible Storm Surge:

North Carolina, come on and raise up! Pablo has to be included, thanks to his anthem being the goal song.

Tennis pro Isner makes the list as a fan and as one-time tennis coach for Martin Necas and Teuvo Teravainen. And Isner knows about multiple overtime sporting events, having participated in an 11-hour match at Wimbledon.

Colbert is a native of Charleston, South Carolina. Not only did he celebrate on “The Daily Show” when the Canes last won the Cup in 2006, but he had Canes emergency goalie David Ayres make an appearance on “The Late Show.”


The roster: Kevin Smith, Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Warburton, Edge, Jay Weinberg

Smith is a natural fit since he regularly fashions hockey jerseys and loves to rep his Devils (including a Devils section at his Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash comic store in Red Bank, New Jersey, a must visit).

Wrestler Edge is an interesting one — he certainly reps his Leafs, having grown up outside of Toronto. However, he fell in love with the game, and goaltenders in particular, watching Chico Resch play for the Devils. He’s attended games repping the red, black and white, so he definitely makes the cut.

Warburton will forever be connected with “Puddy” from “Seinfeld” (“gotta support the team!”). It would be a miss if we don’t get Puddy drinking from the Stanley Cup if Jersey wins. O’Neal was born in Newark and certainly doesn’t hide his love for the Devils. Weinberg of Slipknot rounds out the list, bringing the head-nodding, heart-pounding beats.


The roster: Margot Robbie, Liam Neeson, Tim Robbins, Eli Manning

The Rangers also have no shortage of celebrity fans — my personal favorites are Rick Moranis and Michael J. Fox — but the ones listed above are regulars to MSG and often seen on the JumboTron cheering the team. Liam Neeson even reenacted his famous scene from “Taken” for the team.

East wild cards

The roster: Kevin Connolly, Ralph Macchio, Chloë Grace Moretz, Billy Joel

Connolly has done plenty with the Isles, from making a pick at the NHL draft to making an ESPN 30 for 30 film on John Spano’s infamous efforts to buy the team. He was the easiest pick on this list.

Long Island native Macchio — star of “Karate Kid” and “Cobra Kai” — has been spotted at Isles games and had an Isles bobblehead in his honor.

Fellow screen star Chloë Grace Moretz is also frequently spotted at games rocking an Isles jersey. She also trolled Caps fans on social media.

Despite his famed sellout streak at Madison Square Garden, Joel is a Long Island native and has been around for the team’s big moments, including the announcement of UBS Arena and postseason games at the Coliseum. He also has had a bobblehead night dedicated to him.


The roster: Ariana Grande, Josh Gad, Lexi Thompson, Tua Tagovailoa

Grande has one of the best celebrity hockey origin stories. Well before she became a megastar, she rode the Zamboni as a kid at a Panthers game. She also has the dubious honor of being the first person struck by a puck in the stands at the Panthers arena. Her fandom didn’t waver, though.

Star of the stage and screen — and, importantly for a sport played on ice, the voice of “Olaf” in the “Frozen” movies — Gad is a South Florida native and counts the Panthers among his favorite teams.

One of the team’s newer celeb fans is Miami Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa, who celebrated his birthday with the Panthers. Sticking in the realm of athletes, LPGA tour member Thompson has also attended Panthers games.

Central Division

The roster: John Elway, Larry Walker, Trey Parker

We’ve got some great former Colorado athletes on this list, including Broncos legend Elway, who has golfed with Avs GM Joe Sakic and wished the team well on social media. Baseball Hall of Famer and Rockies legend Walker once served as the Avs’ honorary emergency goaltender.

Perhaps the most passionate celebrity Avs fan is “South Park” co-creator Parker, who has featured the Avs in the series.


The roster: Pantera

Members of the group Pantera might be some of the best celebrity fans of any NHL team — their goal song, specifically written for the Stars, has endured for decades. The team also partied with Pantera after the 1999 Stanley Cup win.


The roster: Richard Dean Anderson, the Hanson brothers, Prince, Nick Swardson

We start with the original “MacGyver” himself, Anderson. MacGyver can solve any problem, with seemingly any objects at his disposal; that sounds like a useful trait in a hockey player. Anderson is also renowned as a ringer in celebrity hockey games.

Next up are the Hanson brothers, from the greatest hockey movie of all time, “Slap Shot.” The Carlson brothers, who portrayed Steve and Jeff Hanson, are from Minnesota, while the third brother, David Hanson, is from Cumberland, Wisconsin.

Prince makes the list posthumously, as he deserves to be on any rundown of famous Minnesotans.

Another famous Minnesotan is comedian Swardson, who has been vociferous on social media about his fandom.

Pacific Division

The roster: Bryce Harper, Lil’ Jon, Wayne Newton, Gordon Ramsay, Daniel Negreanu

There’s no shortage of celebrities in Vegas. But it starts with Philadelphia Phillies star Harper, a Vegas native and huge Golden Knights fan.

Then there’s Lil’ Jon, who has served as hype man at T-Mobile Arena, as has Newton. The pair even performed a collaboration for the Golden Knights, which is the most random but most Vegas thing in recent memory:

Ramsay has joined Lil’ Jon at VGK games, donning the Golden Knights threads, so we’ll include him here too.

Then there is Toronto native Negreanu, one of the greatest poker players and a Golden Knights season-ticket holder. He is a die-hard hockey fan and been vocal about having a team in Vegas long before the Golden Knights arrived.


The roster: Jordan Buhat, Brett Kissel, Todd McFarlane, Kurt Browning, Kevin Smith

Buhat is an actor on the show “Grown-ish,” a spinoff of the show “Black-ish.” He is an Edmonton native and a die-hard Oilers fan.

Famed comic book writer McFarlane, who worked on “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “Spawn,” among many other projects, once owned part of the Oilers, despite being a Calgary native.

Country singer and Alberta native Kissel had a famous moment when a faulty mic turned into a memorable anthem rendition by a packed house of Oilers fans.

We’ll also include Browning, who was one of Canada’s more prominent figure skaters. He was an honorary captain when the NHL appointed celebrity captaincies in 1991.


The roster: Taylor Swift, Will Ferrell, Snoop Dogg, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum

Of course, L.A. is going to have the most star power. Swift alone would have dominated this whole thing, but add Ferrell, perhaps the most vocal of the bunch, along with Snoop, who hilariously has done Kings commentary, Tatum, who’s been sighted at games, and Efron, and you have a starting five fit for Hollywood.

West wild cards

The roster: Chris Jericho, Doc Walker, Fred Penner, Neil Young, Burton Cummings

The obvious choice here is Jericho, who grew up in Winnipeg. His father, Ted Irvine, played in the NHL mostly for the Rangers, later skating for the Kings during their first three seasons in the NHL. Jericho is an avid Jets fan and this video of him doing hockey highlights (including his dad fighting Bobby Orr) is definitely worth a watch.

The Jets celebrity fan group includes people whom Canadians would know pretty well:

  • Country music group Walker, who once wrote a parody song cutting up the Nashville Predators

  • Children’s show star Penner, who every Canadian who grew up in the 1980s knows extremely well

  • Singer and Winnipeg native Cummings

The legendary Young has deep roots in Winnipeg, particularly early in his career, which definitely qualifies him for this group … as does this video of him welcoming the Jets back to Winnipeg.


The roster: Sue Bird, Macklemore, Marshawn Lynch, Rainn Wilson

A strong group for the young Kraken. They’ve got Bird, one of the best athletes of her generation; Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute on “The Office,” and rapper Macklemore and Seahawks legend Lynch, who are both part-owners of the team.

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Passan: Jorge Polanco has the Mariners on the way to a Hollywood ending

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Passan: Jorge Polanco has the Mariners on the way to a Hollywood ending

TORONTO — Every so often in the Seattle Mariners clubhouse, the “Top Gun Anthem,” full of soaring guitar notes and pick-me-up vibes, will randomly blast from inside a locker. Everyone knows the culprit. Jorge Polanco, the Mariners’ veteran second baseman, is not a fan of silencing his phone.

“But he loves Maverick and Iceman,” Mariners star Cal Raleigh said.

Nobody really minds. When a player is doing what Polanco has done this postseason — rescuing the Mariners from the danger zone seemingly daily, with his latest trick a go-ahead three-run home run that paved the way for Monday’s 10-3 victory — his ringtone could be Limp Bizkit and nobody would utter a peep.

Instead, it’s the perfect soundtrack for this Mariners run, which currently sees them up two games to none against the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. The “Top Gun Anthem” is an epic ballad filled with the sorts of ups and downs that personify an organization that has spent 49 years alternating among the desolation of mediocrity and the heartbreak of underachievement. The only team in Major League Baseball to never to play in a World Series, Seattle is two wins away from capturing its first American League pennant and is heading home to T-Mobile Park for Game 3.

The Mariners’ dominant position is in large part thanks to a 32-year-old infielder whose feats have earned him the right to be called Iceman himself — and yet that’s not the nickname Polanco wears these days.

“He’s George Bonds,” M’s catcher Mitch Garver said.

Yes, Polanco’s alter ego is the anglicized version of his first name and the surname of Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader. He earned it earlier this season, Garver said, when “everything he hit was 110 [mph] in a gap or over the fence. It was unbelievable.”

Particularly when considering that last winter, Polanco didn’t know whether he would be healthy enough to keep hitting major league pitching. Polanco, who had struggled for years with left knee issues, underwent surgery in October 2024 to repair his patellar tendon. A free agent, Polanco drew limited interest on the market and wound up re-signing with the Mariners for one year and $7.75 million.

“It’s been a journey, man,” Polanco said. “That’s the way I can put it. I wouldn’t say it’s been bad. I wouldn’t say it’s been easy. I think God just prepared me for this year. I’ve been hurt a little bit, so yeah; but now we here, and I’m glad to be back.

“You just have to have faith. You overcome. Come back stronger.”

Polanco’s strength has been on display all October. It first appeared in the second game of Seattle’s division series against the Detroit Tigers when he hit two home runs off ace Tarik Skubal, who is about to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award. It continued three games later in a winner-takes-all Game 5 when he lashed a single into right field in the 15th inning that advanced the Mariners to their first ALCS since 2001. It didn’t stop there, with Polanco’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning of Game 1 against the Blue Jays on Sunday.

Then came Monday’s fifth-inning blast off Toronto reliever Louis Varland, who fed a 98 mph fastball over the plate and watched it leave the bat at 105.2 mph, flying 400 feet to turn a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 Seattle lead.

“He’s always been a great hitter,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “His swing right now is very short. That ball tonight, I wasn’t sure it was going to go out of the ballpark, but I think he’s just getting that kind of spin on it right now where it stays up.”

That is no accident. Polanco arrived in the major leagues with the Minnesota Twins in 2014 at age 20, a bat-to-ball savant whose ability to hit from both sides of the plate carved him out a regular role with the team.

“He wasn’t George Bonds before,” Garver said. “He was Harry Potter. Because he was a wizard. He’d just make hits appear.”

Polanco found power five years into his career, and he maxed out with 33 home runs for the Twins in 2021. But the degradation of his knee sapped the juice in his bat and left him flailing too often at pitches he’d have previously spit on. Last year, in his first season with the Mariners, his numbers cratered, but the organization appreciated Polanco’s even-keeled demeanor and believed fixing his knee would fix his swing too.

The Mariners were right. George Bonds was born during a ridiculous first month of the 2025 season when he whacked nine homers in 80 plate appearances. Polanco had embraced the M’s ethos of pulling the ball in the air. Raleigh led MLB with a 1.594 OPS on balls pulled. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was second at 1.497. Polanco hit 23 of his 26 home runs this season to the pull side, and both of his homers off Skubal (hit from the right side) and the one against Varland (left) were met in front of the plate and yanked over the fence.

“Throughout the years, I hated going to Minnesota just solely because of him,” said shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured Mariner. “The guy single-handedly beat us so many times. We all know the type of player he is when he is healthy, and it’s clearly showing right now.”

Never in the game’s 150-year history had a player logged three consecutive game-winning hits after the fifth inning in the postseason. It’s the sort of performance teams need to win pennants — and championships. As brilliant as Raleigh has been in a could-be-MVP campaign and as conflagrant as Julio Rodriguez was in the second half and as dominant as Seattle’s pitching has been en route to this point, winning playoff baseball takes more.

Like, say, a guy who over the winter was an afterthought hitting cleanup and never wavering, even in the highest-leverage situations.

“What’s most impressive is bouncing back after a rough year last year,” said Bryan Woo, who will start Game 3 on Wednesday against Toronto’s Shane Bieber. “Especially for a guy on his second team, back half of his career. To do what he’s doing — get healthy, come back, help the team like he has — is even more impressive than just playing good baseball.”

Playing good baseball helps too. Polanco has helped get Seattle in a place that barely a month ago looked impossible to conceive. From mid-August to early September, the Mariners lost 13 of 18, trailed Houston by 3½ games in the AL West and held a half-game lead on Texas for the final wild-card spot. From there, the Mariners went 17-4, won the West, earned a first-round bye and charted a course for history.

They’re not there. And yet even Polanco admitted that Mariners players can’t ignore the team’s history and recognize what it would mean to get to the World Series.

“Yeah, we think about it,” he said. “We’ve heard it a lot. We know.”

The knowledge hasn’t deterred them. Raleigh is raking. Rodriguez is slugging. Josh Naylor, who grew up in nearby Mississauga, blasted a two-run home run in Game 2. And George Bonds has shown up in style, cold as Iceman, cool as Maverick, perfectly happy to eschew silent mode in favor of loud contact.

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Snell joins elite company as Dodgers take opener

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Snell joins elite company as Dodgers take opener

MILWAUKEE — Few teams have a lineage of great pitching as long as that of the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise. With this postseason, Blake Snell is making that star-studded line longer by one.

Snell dominated the Milwaukee Brewers over eight innings Monday, leading Los Angeles to a 2-1 Game 1 victory in the National League Championship Series before a packed house at American Family Field.

“That was just so good from the start,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose sixth-inning homer broke a scoreless tie. “Sometimes it takes an inning or two for someone to settle in. [Tonight] it was from the get-go.”

Snell held Milwaukee to one hit in going a full eight innings for only the second time in a career that has netted him a pair of Cy Young Awards. He struck out 10 and picked off the only baserunner he allowed — Caleb Durbin, who singled in the third.

Snell became the first pitcher to face the minimum through eight innings in a postseason game since Don Larsen threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The only longer outing in Snell’s career was the no-hitter he threw for the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 2, 2024. Has he ever felt as locked in as he did Monday?

“The no-hitter, yeah,” Snell quipped.

Snell improved to 3-0 in a postseason during which no other starting pitcher has recorded two wins. He is the second Dodgers pitcher to win his first three playoff starts for the franchise, joining Don Sutton (1974).

If Los Angeles keeps winning, Snell will get more chances to add to his numbers, but for now, his 0.86 ERA over three outings is the second best for a Dodgers left-hander in a postseason (minimum 20 innings), behind only Sandy Koufax’s legendary run (0.38 ERA over three starts) in the 1965 World Series.

This is the kind of company Snell knew he’d be keeping when he signed with the Dodgers before the season.

“Even playing against them, watching, it was just always in the back of my mind, like, I wanted to be a Dodger and play on that team,” Snell said. “To be here now, it’s a dream come true. I couldn’t wish for anything more.”

Snell’s gem continued the Dodgers’ stretch of dominant starting pitching that began over the last month of the season and has propelled a postseason run for the defending champs, positioning them for a repeat despite an offense that has at times struggled to put up runs in the playoffs.

Dodgers starters are 6-1 with a 1.65 ERA so far in the postseason, logging six quality starts in L.A.’s seven games.

“Our starting pitching for the last seven, eight weeks, has been — I don’t know if you can write enough words in your stories about our starting pitching,” Freeman said. “It really has been amazing. They seem to feed off each other.”

But no Dodgers’ starter is on a run quite like that of Snell, who is hoping to win his first championship ring with the team he lost to as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 World Series.

Despite Snell’s dominance, the Dodgers still had to withstand a ninth-inning push by the stubborn Brewers and understand the series is just getting started. Still, with the way Snell is rolling, he’s conjuring names of Dodgers present and past, like Koufax, Kershaw, Sutton, Valenzuela and Hershiser.

“I feel like the whole postseason I’ve been pretty locked in, pretty consistent,” Snell said. “Different outings, but eight innings, went deeper. The last three I felt really good, really locked in. Consistent. Similar.”

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M’s take two in Toronto for commanding ALCS lead

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M's take two in Toronto for commanding ALCS lead

TORONTO — J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured member of the Seattle Mariners, has experienced some disappointment in his seven seasons in the Pacific Northwest. A last-place finish. Falling just short of reaching the postseason three times. Playoff exhilaration getting abruptly extinguished the year they made it.

Sometime early this season, the shortstop believed this team was different.

“We know we’re a good team,” he said shortly after the Mariners completed perhaps the most important road trip in franchise history with a 10-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the American League Championship Series. “And now everyone knows that we can do this thing, and that’s what’s lighting the fire underneath everyone.”

The Mariners are two wins from doing the thing — winning their first AL pennant and advancing to the World Series for the first time in franchise history — with Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. It is the first time they’ve led an ALCS by multiple games. It is the 28th time in postseason history that the road team has won the first two games of a best-of-seven series. Only three of those clubs lost the series.

“We think about it,” said second baseman Jorge Polanco, who swatted a go-ahead, three-run home run in the fifth inning to give Seattle a lead they didn’t relinquish. “We hear it a lot. We know. But the mentality is just keep it simple. Just try to refocus on playing game by game.”

Less than 24 hours after the Mariners — wearied after an emotional 15-inning win in Game 5 of the AL Division Series on Friday — won Game 1 thanks to a late-inning comeback fueled by adrenaline, they used a less dramatic blueprint in Game 2.

The Mariners pounded three home runs and got six scoreless innings from three relievers to complete Monday’s demolition inside an open-roofed Rogers Centre on Canadian Thanksgiving before heading back to Seattle to potentially close out the series.

The Mariners did not waste time inflicting heavy damage against a pitcher they never had faced. Eight days ago, Trey Yesavage held the New York Yankees hitless over 5⅓ innings in his fourth career start in Game 2 of the ALDS. His abnormally high release point and arm angle, coupled with a fastball-splitter combination, overwhelmed the Yankees.

The Mariners entered the encounter with a simple game plan to avoid falling victim to the splitter, which limited the Yankees to 0-for-11 with eight strikeouts: If it’s low, let it go. Wait for a mistake up in the zone and do not miss.

Julio Rodriguez did not miss. Three batters into the game, after Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked, Yesavage threw a mistake splitter to Rodriguez up and over the plate on a 1-2 count that Rodríguez cracked down the left-field line for a three-run shot.

It was the first home run Yesavage has allowed in his brief major league career — he had previously surrendered just two extra-base hits in four starts — and the first extra-base hit he has surrendered with his splitter in the majors.

“I feel like, at the end of the day, you got to see the ball and get your pitch,” Rodríguez said. “We have seen what he’s been doing, and obviously we respect that, but we went out there to compete.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider called for a reliever to warm up as Yesavage’s pitch count approached 30 after Rodriguez’s crowd-silencing blast. But the rookie right-hander stranded a runner at second base with consecutive strikeouts. He then settled into the game as Toronto responded with three runs in the first two innings to tie the score. Yesavage held the Mariners without another run until departing with one out and two runners on base in the fifth inning.

Two batters after Yesavage’s exit, Polanco continued his torrid October by launching a 98 mph fastball from right-hander Louis Varland just over the right-center-field wall to give the Mariners the lead with their second three-run homer. The home run was the switch-hitting Polanco’s third of the postseason and first batting left-handed. His first two were against Detroit Tigers ace lefty Tarik Skubal in the ALDS. Polanco, a 12-year veteran, has eight RBIs in the playoffs, already tied for the third most in the Mariners’ concise postseason history.

Josh Naylor delivered the final blow, a two-run home run to right field off right-hander Braydon Fisher for Naylor’s third hit of the day to give Seattle a 9-3 lead in the seventh inning. A native of Mississauga, Ontario, the first baseman became the first Canadian-born player to hit a home run in the postseason as a visiting player in Canada.

“I went 0-for-4 yesterday, and we won,” Naylor said. “So, if I did it again today, maybe [it] was good luck to go 0-for-4, and we would win again. But I was very thankful to get some hits, help the team out. Super cool to do it in front of my family, too.”

Naylor celebrated the homer by pointing to the crowd behind the Mariners’ dugout as he began his trot. He and third baseman Eugenio Suarez were the two sluggers the Mariners acquired at the trade deadline to bolster an offense that failed to adequately complement an elite pitching staff in previous years. The moves solidified Crawford’s belief early in the season — that this team could do what no team has done since the franchise’s inception in 1977.

“We’re two wins away,” Crawford said. “If that doesn’t fire anyone up, I don’t know what can.”

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