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AUTZEN STADIUM WAS in a state of pandemonium Saturday night after Oregon‘s Noah Whittington bolted 100 yards on a kickoff return for what was presumed to be a game-tying, fourth-quarter touchdown against Boise State.

But just as the Ducks were about to kick the extra point to make the score 34-34, referee Chris Coyte waved for a stoppage and turned on his microphone.

“The play is under review,” he said. “The runner may have let the ball go before crossing the goal-line plane.”

Gasp.

Sure enough, replay showed Whittington had committed one of football’s cardinal sins, letting go of the ball just shy of the end zone as he began to celebrate.

But within seconds, Coyte popped back on the microphone with a confusing explanation: “After review, the ruling on the field is confirmed,” he said. “It’s a touchdown.”

The initial replays on the television broadcast were incomplete. They showed Whittington dropping the ball, but left out the key element that followed. Oregon’s Jayden Limar, part of Whittington’s escort down the sideline, briefly ran past the fumbled ball, but he turned around and quickly picked it up to avoid a disaster of epic proportions. (He was officially credited with a 0-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.)

Nearby on the sideline, Ducks coach Dan Lanning cycled through the gamut of emotions as anger turned to relief.

“Believe it or not, it’s a situation that we coach a lot and obviously we don’t coach it well enough,” he said. “That ball should make it all the way in the end zone and be handed to the official. But I promise we’ll be coaching that really hard here moving forward.”

The act of dropping the ball before the end zone isn’t exactly an epidemic in college football, but it happens regularly enough — maybe a few times a season — to instill collective fear across the country. Several coaches emphasized to ESPN this summer it’s a real concern and something many of them address regularly with their players throughout the year.

“I see it all the time on TV and I cringe because I have not been a part of it yet,” Kansas State coach Chris Klieman said.

“Yet,” as in this embarrassing play is always looming, ready to disrupt a football game at the most inopportune moment.


WHEN OREGON FANS heard Coyte’s reason for stopping the game on Saturday, it would have been only natural for them to recall perhaps the most consequential act of “Dropping the Ball Before the End Zone” in college football history.

In fact, if it’s a safe bet many people looked to the person next to them and asked, “Did he just pull a Kaelin Clay?”

On Nov. 8, 2014, No. 4 Oregon visited No. 17 Utah for a game that would have massive postseason implications in the first season of the College Football Playoff. The Ducks (8-1) were led by the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, Marcus Mariota, and needed to avoid a second loss to stay in the playoff mix.

Utah jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and on the first play of the second quarter, quarterback Travis Wilson hit Clay on a deep pass and he raced for what appeared to be a game-changing 79-yard score. Fireworks were set off in the stadium, and for 15 seconds, the TV broadcast focused on the celebration before awkwardly transitioning to an aerial shot of Oregon’s Joe Walker running with the ball in the other direction.

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4:11

Utah WR Drops Ball Before Scoring, Oregon Runs It Back

Travis Wilson completes a 78-yard pass to Kaelin Clay, but Clay fumbles just before scoring. Oregon DB Erick Dargan recovers the ball and fumbles, and LB Joe Walker returns it 100 yards for a TD.

It wasn’t until Walker was on the opposite 15-yard line before broadcaster Brad Nessler spoke for everyone by asking, “What’s going on on the field here?”

Clay’s fumble was obstructed in the live television shot, but the replay showed he had let go of the football before crossing the plane. Oregon’s Erick Dargan initially attempted to pick it up before Walker got possession and — in one of the most heads-up plays of all time — flipped what appeared to be a 14-point deficit into a tie game.

It’s impossible to say how things would have played out if Utah went up 14-0, but the Ducks quickly built on their good fortune and built a 24-7 second-quarter lead before winning 51-27.

“A huge turn of events, obviously, on the fumble going into the end zone,” Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said at the time. “A great lesson for all of us.”

Oregon would win its next three games to secure the Pac-12 title and the No. 2 seed in the playoff, where it beat Florida State before losing to Ohio State in the title game.

For Utah, it’s a moment that lives in infamy.

“It’s something that you certainly teach and practice and drill and hope to never have it occur, particularly in a game, but it did,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “And Kaelin is a heck of a football player, he felt worse about it than anybody. So it’s one of those things that happens on a very, very rare occasion.”

Whittingham is one of many coaches who not only instructs his players to cross the goal line and hand the ball to the official — the fail safe way to prevent a repeat occurrence — but also to pick up any loose balls if the play is in question.

Against Washington last year, the Huskies led 33-28 when Alphonzo Tuputala intercepted then-Utah quarterback Bryson Barnes and looked to have returned it 76 yards for a score. It was similar to the Clay play in that the television broadcast showed fans celebrating, flashed a “pick-six” graphic and updated the scoreboard to read 39-28.

But, again, replay revealed the premature celebration and showed Utah’s Michael Mokofisi sprinting from 10 yards away to cover it up at the 1-yard line.

Lesson learned, on one side, at least.


THE PATRON SAINT of the premature touchdown celebrations is former NFL receiver DeSean Jackson, whose fumble at the 1-yard line against the Dallas Cowboys as a rookie for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2008 remains the most high-profile example of this unique lapse in concentration.

It was the type of moment that could make someone say, “Well, you know he’ll never make that type of mistake again.”

Except in Jackson’s case, this wasn’t his first time. A few years earlier in the Army All-American high school football game, Jackson broke free for an easy score before he vaulted himself from the 5-yard line in an attempt to flip into the end zone. He came up a half-yard shy and fumbled the ball in the process.

It’s Jackson’s fumble in the NFL, though, that has gotten the most mileage for coaches as they try to guard against repeat gaffes. Compilation videos are easy to find on YouTube, and coaches have made their own cutups in which Jackson is often shown as the prime example of what not to do.

“He did it in high school and the pros, so we’ve shown all of those to make sure that our guys learn from other people,” Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “That’s one of the deals, like score the football, hand the football to the official and then celebrate with your teammates. That’s what we really try to do.”

The lessons don’t always stick.

In 2021, Louisville receiver Ahmari Huggins-Bruce turned a short completion into a 95-yard score, but coach Scott Satterfield noticed immediately that the officials were not treating it like a touchdown.

“I’m, like, ‘What’s going on?’ And they told me, ‘Coach, he dropped the ball,'” Satterfield said.

It was largely forgotten as part of a 30-3 win against Eastern Kentucky, but not by Satterfield.

“Every August — I mean every August — we show film to our players about that particular play because we’ve seen it,” he said. “Whether it be a Leon Lett situation where Don Beebe runs and knocks the ball out or in this case a guy who lets it go too early, we try to show it. So, that’s the only time that’s happened to me, but man, it’s a bad feeling.”

At TCU, coach Sonny Dykes has made it a habit to show a compilation of about 10-12 clips from college and NFL games on Friday nights before games about what not to do. It’s mostly mental mistakes that can unnecessarily swing a game, and three staples are Jackson’s fumble with the Eagles, Clay’s against Oregon and a similar example in Cal‘s win against Texas in 2016, when Dykes was coaching the Golden Bears.

With 1 minute, 22 seconds left and Cal leading 50-43, running back Vic Enwere rushed for what appeared to be a 55-yard touchdown only to enter the premature celebration club by letting go at the 1.

“Vic was like, ‘Yeah, I thought I scored,’ and it was really in style at the time,” Dykes aid. “I think the guys wanted to drop it as soon as they could and it was kind of a thing, but he didn’t mean anything by it.”

The play was ruled a touchdown on the field only to be overturned on replay. However, the officiating crew ruled that because there wasn’t an immediate recovery by Texas, the Bears would take over where Enwere dropped the ball. It was a controversial decision because a Texas player did pick it up in the end zone before handing it to an official.

“He handed it to whoever was near the play,” said Mike Defee, the game’s referee and current coordinator of officials for the Mountain West. “If he had picked it up and started to run the other direction, maybe it would’ve been interpreted differently. But his body language showed that he thought the play was over.”

Instead of a Texas touchback, Cal took over at the 1-yard line and kneeled out the clock.

“[Texas coach] Charlie Strong was losing his mind,” Defee said. “He felt like they should have got the ball. It was a big play, but it got to the point where I explained to him the rules are very specific about how we handle this. Your guys didn’t pick up on the fact that it was loose and didn’t do anything with it.”

As this type of play became more of a known issue, officiating crews have also become more adept at noticing it in real time, though it’s not always immediately obvious.

“These plays probably drive coaches crazy,” Defee said. “It drives us crazy because it puts us in a tough situation, but I think for young players, they’re thinking they just made a tremendous play. They’re scoring. I think that it’s a loss of focus on their standpoint, but it creates another dimension for us.

“If we see the ball loose, obviously we want to keep officiating. But if there’s no one that we pick up visually that is making that attempt to recover the ball, we’re going to give it a healthy two, three seconds or so before we kill the play and then invoke the rule that covers that.”


EVEN THE BEST coaching can’t prevent these fumbles.

It happened to a Nick Saban-led team last year on what should have been a 79-yard touchdown for Alabama. It happened to Bob Stoops’ Oklahoma team in 2016, although the officials missed it and Joe Mixon got away with it. (It appears to be a coincidence that both Hall of Fame coaches retired after those seasons.)

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0:58

Alabama QB drops the ball before crossing the goal line

Ty Simpson breaks free for the longest run by an Alabama QB in over 20 seasons, but drops the ball just short of the goal line.

It has happened to Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers and Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs.

And as much as coaches teach it and fans scream at the television, it will almost certainly happen again.

In those instances, the players will need to pick themselves (and, hopefully, the ball) up and move forward.

“It’s something we can learn from,” Lanning said, echoing Helfrich from 2014. “I think if you’re not learning as coaches and players, then you’re not doing your job.”

Until then, the coaches — unlike the players in those infamous moments — will refuse to drop it.

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How proposed CEO could dole out punishments in college sports

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How proposed CEO could dole out punishments in college sports

With a long-awaited ruling in the settlement of the House case expected this week, college sports are on the precipice of a major overhaul.

While Judge Claudia Ann Wilken still needs to issue a final approval on the long-awaited settlement, a decision is expected to arrive in the near future.

Changes will come quickly to the way college sports work if the settlement is formalized. Most prominent among them will be a change in how enforcement works, as the NCAA will no longer be in charge of traditional enforcement, and a CEO will soon be put in place with powers that never existed prior.

The CEO of college sports’ new enforcement organization — the College Sports Commission — will have the final say in doling out punishments and deciding when rules have been violated, according to sources, a level of singular power that never existed during the NCAA’s era of struggling to enforce its rules.

The CEO’s hire is expected to come quickly after the House settlement is finalized and has been spearheaded by the Power 4 commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. Their pick to lead the new agency will quickly become one of the most powerful and influential people in college sports. The hiring of a new CEO of the College Sports Commission already is deep in the process, per ESPN sources. The conducting of the search process before the job can officially be created is indicative of how quickly the entire billion-dollar industry will have to transform before games are played again in August. Nothing can happen formally until the judge’s decision, but the process is well underway.

The CEO of the commission will be one of the faces of this new era of college athletics. Sources have told ESPN to expect the person to come from outside college athletics and not to be a household name to college sports fans. The CEO is expected to make seven figures and, once the settlement is in place and they are hired, will have significant authority.

“All the institutions are going to have new membership agreements that we’re all agreeing to these new rules,” said an industry source familiar with the process. “The CEO is going to have responsibility to make sure everything is enforced and the governance model is sound. It’s a critically important role for the future of college sports and college football.”

The CEO is expected to report to a board, which is expected to include the power conference commissioners. The CEO will also be in charge of essentially running the systems that have been put in place — LBi Software and accounting firm Deloitte have been lined up to handle salary cap management and to manage the clearinghouse for name, image and likeness.

With the NCAA no longer involved with traditional enforcement, it will mark a distinct industry shift. (The NCAA will still deal with issues such as academics and eligibility.)

According to sources, a vision of what this leader could look like, and the extent of the position’s powers, is illustrated in drafts of so-called association documents that all schools are expected to sign to formalize the new enforcement entity. Basically, the schools need to agree that they’ll follow the rules.

While sources caution the documents that have been circulated are still in draft stage, sources say the draft includes language that the CEO will make “final factual findings and determinations” on violations of rules. The CEO will also “impose such fines, penalties or other sanctions as appropriate,” in accordance with the rules.

The schools have to accept these rulings “as final,” with the exception being if a school or athlete wants to challenge the discipline. They’d be required, per sources, “to engage in the arbitration process,” which is expected to be the sole recourse.

Per sources, when cases do end up in arbitration, under the procedures that govern arbitration, subpoena power is a potential option via the discovery process — an authority that was not available during NCAA investigations.

As college sports have zigzagged to where they are thanks to the direction of myriad lawsuits and rulings, the association agreement could also include a clause where the schools “agree to waive any right to a jury trial with respect to all disputes arising out of or relating to this agreement.” That notion would still need to be accepted by all the schools, and it’s not expected to prevent lawsuits from entities outside of the schools.

It’s worth noting that the lawsuits that have brought major changes to NCAA rules in recent years have started with attorneys general or with athletes. Congress is expected to still be needed to help create a legal framework for the new system to function without being tripped up by the current patchwork of state laws.

Enforcement has long been a thorn for the NCAA, which is now offloading one of its most controversial and least effective departments. All schools agree with enforcement as an ideal, but the issues come once the enforcement is enacted on them or their athletes.

Few coaches this generation have seen NCAA enforcement as an effective threat to follow the rules.

“It all starts with enforcement, and I’ve said this for a long time, ‘Until we have an enforcement arm put into place, we’re always going to be working sideways,'” Ohio State coach Ryan Day told ESPN on the “College GameDay” podcast recently. “I feel like before we set a rule, before we do anything, we have to put a structure in place where we can enforce rules on and off the field.”

The new organization looks to have expedited timelines and a highly compensated CEO to be the face of the decisions. (The NCAA used a committee on infractions.)

The drumbeat leading to the settlement is indicative of the past generations of behavior, as schools have been rushing to spend outside of the expected cap, with frontloading so significant that the highest-paid basketball roster is expected to have compensation totaling close to $20 million and football rosters are expected to be in the $40 million range.

Will schools fall in line once rules are put into place? Will the threat of enforcement be enough to settle down the landscape? It’s difficult for coaches to imagine player salaries going backward for 2026.

The ultimate deterrent will be stiff and consistent penalties to deter rule-breaking behavior, which have been elusive historically because of lack of NCAA enforcement prowess and the lengthy process of enforcement.

Purdue AD Mike Bobinski told ESPN in March that the punishments need to “leave a mark,” and he mentioned the New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate sanctions as an example of the type of punishment that changed behavior. (Then-Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for the entire 2012 season as part of the penalties.)

“We’ve screwed this thing up now to the point where we have to be willing to draw a line in the sand, and that will create some pain,” Bobinski said. “There’s no two ways about it, and we’ll find out who’s just going to insist on stepping over the line. But if they do, you got to deal with it forcefully and quickly.”

He added that the Big Ten has put a lot of thought and conversation into this, as he said the mindset has to be changed to where coaches and programs can’t consider breaking the rules “worth it.”

Bobinski added: “People are working hard on this thing. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy or it’s going to be accepted right out of the box, but I’d like to think we’ve got a chance at least to do it well.”

ESPN reporter Dan Murphy contributed.

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Who wins the Eastern Conference finals? Early look at keys to Hurricanes-Panthers

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Who wins the Eastern Conference finals? Early look at keys to Hurricanes-Panthers

Following the Florida Panthers‘ Game 7 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, the NHL’s final four is official: The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers will take on the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals, while the Dallas Stars face the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals.

This Eastern matchup is a rematch of the 2023 conference finals, won by the Panthers in a sweep. Can Carolina win this time, or will Florida head back to the Stanley Cup Final for a third straight year?

To help get you up to speed before the series begins Tuesday, we’re here with key intel from ESPN Research, wagering info from ESPN BET and more.


Paths to the conference finals:

Hurricanes: Defeated Devils in five, Capitals in five
Panthers: Defeated Lightning in five, Maple Leafs in seven

Leading playoff scorers:

Hurricanes: Seth Jarvis (four goals, six assists), Sebastian Aho (three goals, seven assists)
Panthers: Brad Marchand (three goals, nine assists), Eetu Luostarinen (three goals, nine assists)

Schedule:

Game 1: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 20, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 2: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 22, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 3: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 24, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 4: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 26, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 5: Panthers at Hurricanes | May 28, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 6: Hurricanes at Panthers | May 30, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Game 7: Panthers at Hurricanes | June 1, 8 p.m. (TNT)

Series odds:

Panthers: -125
Hurricanes: +105

Stanley Cup odds:

Panthers: +250
Hurricanes: +300


Matchup notes from ESPN Research

Hurricanes

The Hurricanes reached the conference finals for the sixth time in franchise history and third time in the past six years. Carolina’s three conference finals appearances since 2019 are tied with the Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights for the second most in the NHL. The Dallas Stars have gone four times in the past six years.

Logan Stankoven is expected to make his Eastern Conference finals debut, after he appeared in the Western Conference finals with the Stars last year in his first NHL season. He will join Ville Leino (2009 and 2010) as the only players to play in both the Eastern and Western Conference finals in their first two seasons in the NHL (since 1994).

The Hurricanes have lost 12 straight games in the conference finals round. Their last win was Game 7 in 2006 vs. the Buffalo Sabres, when now-coach Rod Brind’Amour scored the eventual winning goal on a power play with 8:38 left in the third period after a puck-over-glass penalty. That 12-game losing streak includes being swept by the Panthers in 2023.

Carolina won its 10th playoff series under Brind’Amour since 2019; only the Lightning (11) have more series wins during that span.

Andrei Svechnikov‘s series-clinching goal 18:01 into the third period is the second-latest series-clinching goal in regulation in franchise history. Eric Staal scored 19:28 into the third period in Game 7 of the 2009 first round at the New Jersey Devils.

With their series win over Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in the second round, the Hurricanes became the first team to eliminate the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer since the 1997 Philadelphia Flyers, who ousted Wayne Gretzky and the New York Rangers in the conference finals. Brind’Amour, then with the Flyers, had the series-clinching goal.

Panthers

The Panthers advanced to their third straight conference finals with a 6-1 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 7 in Toronto. Florida joins the Dallas Stars in 2023-25, Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020-22, Chicago Blackhawks in 2013-15, Los Angeles Kings in 2012-14 and Detroit Red Wings from 2007-09 as the only teams in the salary cap era (since 2005-06) to make it to three straight conference finals.

Florida trailed 2-0 in the series before coming back to win 4-3, marking the first time in franchise history they’ve overcome a 2-0 series deficit in a best-of-seven playoff series (they had previously been 0-5). The Panthers are the seventh reigning Stanley Cup champions in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to win a best-of-seven playoff round after facing a 2-0 series deficit.

The Panthers now have a 4-1 record in Game 7s, including 3-0 on the road, becoming the third franchise to win each of its first three road Game 7s (along with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota Wild).

Brad Marchand had three points for the Panthers (one goal, two assists), giving him 10 career points in Game 7s, moving ahead of Alex Ovechkin (eight) for the most Game 7 points among active players, and tied him with Paul Stastny and Jari Kurri for 10th place on the all-time list. Marchand’s three-point total gives him 37 career playoff points vs. the Maple Leafs, passing Alex Delvecchio (35) for the second most by any player against Toronto in their playoff history, behind Gordie Howe (53). Marchand improved to 5-0 against the Maple Leafs in Game 7s for his career, becoming the first player in NHL history to defeat one franchise in five winner-takes-all games.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice also stayed perfect in Game 7s as a head coach, improving to 6-0. He is one of two head coaches in NHL history to win each of his first six career Game 7s, along with current Dallas bench boss Peter DeBoer (9-0).

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Marchand continues Game 7 mastery over Leafs

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Marchand continues Game 7 mastery over Leafs

No player in Stanley Cup playoff history has tormented an opponent the way Florida Panthers winger Brad Marchand has tormented the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Panthers eliminated the Maple Leafs 6-1 in Game 7 on Sunday night in Toronto, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals against the Carolina Hurricanes. Marchand became the first player in NHL history to defeat the same opponent in at least five winner-take-all games. He moved to a perfect 5-0 in Game 7s against the Maple Leafs — winning with the Boston Bruins in 2013, 2018, 2019 and 2024, before winning with the Panthers on Sunday.

Marchand had a goal and two assists in the victory.

“I grew up a Leafs fan. I enjoy playing against the Leafs. I enjoy interacting with fans. Like, it’s fun. It’s not something I’ll forever get to do,” he said after Game 7, which was Toronto’s seventh straight loss in a Game 7.

Marchand said that he hadn’t historically played well against Toronto in Game 7s. “It wasn’t me that beat them, it was our team,” he said. But Marchand was anything but a bystander in Florida’s Game 7 win. Marchand set up two goals — including the primary assist on Eetu Luostarinen‘s critical third-period goal just 47 seconds after Max Domi scored for the Maple Leafs — and tallied an empty-net dagger for his third goal of the playoffs.

With his three-point effort, Marchand is now second all time in career playoff scoring against the Maple Leafs with 37 points, trailing only Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe (53).

“I think the thing about Toronto is that their fans are very in your face. They’re aggressive. They let you hear it all the time. So it’s just fun to interact [with them]. I interact with a lot of fans and I enjoy that part of it,” said Marchand, who also passed Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin (8) for the most career Game 7 points (10) among active players.

Boston traded Marchand, its captain, to Florida at March’s NHL trade deadline, ending a 16-year run with the Bruins that included a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final.

“It was his personality that I didn’t know,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “He’s moved into that Matthew Tkachuk ‘hate them’ [role]. That’s a horrible word, but it’s close. And then they get here and they’re the exact opposite person that you thought they were. He’s just a wonderful human being.”

The Panthers dominated the Leafs from the opening draw, carrying play in Game 7 after Toronto extended the series with a Game 6 road victory Friday night. After two periods, the Panthers held a 70-33 advantage in shot attempts. That included a 39-14 gap in the second period, when Florida scored its first three goals.

Marchand factored into two important ones. Just 4:03 after Seth Jones opened the scoring, Marchand’s shot was deflected by Luostarinen off of goalie Joseph Woll‘s pads, and center Anton Lundell was there to clean it up for his fourth goal of the playoffs to make it 2-0. In the third period, Marchand’s pass was tipped home by Luostarinen.

“There are moments that you need to enjoy. Careers fly by. I’ve been at it a long time. I’m very fortunate. But it’s almost over. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone by. I wish I was able to enjoy more moments,” Marchand said.

With the loss, the Maple Leafs suffered yet another postseason failure. Toronto hasn’t advanced past the second round since 2002. They infamously haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, the longest drought in the NHL for any franchise — including those that have never won a Cup in their existence.

After the game, Marchand was complimentary of this Toronto team. He said of all the Game 7s he has played against the Leafs, he was most nervous about this one because “they competed way harder than they ever have.” He felt criticism of this group, which might have played its last game together, was unwarranted.

“If you look at the heat this team catches, it’s actually really unfortunate. They’ve been working at building something really big here for a while,” he said. “They were a different brand of hockey this year, and they’re getting crucified. I don’t think it’s justified.”

That said, Marchand did have a little fun at Toronto’s expense on the TNT postgame show. When asked what the difference was in the Panthers locker room from Game 6 to Game 7, Marchand said “we just had that be-Leaf” — a winking reference to one of the rallying cries of Toronto fans.

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