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Sunday Scramble: Rantanen’s bizarre mean streak, Maloney’s mystifying mindset, and the Avs’ dominance

3 1
25.11.2025
When did Mikko Rantanen become such a goon? Ugly week for the well-paid Finn, who incurred the wrath of Islanders coach Patrick Roy after he crashed into Alex Romanov with under a minute left in DAL-NYI earlier this week.

Roy’s passion was so infectious. I was fortunate enough to be watching live, and you have to love a coach who relentlessly protects his players like that, chastising Rantanen with threats looming.

Regardless, the Stars lose. Fast forward to Saturday night, Hockey Night in Canada against Calgary, and Rantanen boards Matt Coronato in a vulnerable position and is ejected for the second time in a few days.

Never a good sign when Chris Pronger, guest panellist on HNIC, thinks it’s a bad hit. Rantanen will surely be suspended for this hit. It is ugly.

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Mikko Rantanen receives a five-minute major and a game misconduct for this hit on Matt Coronato. Coronato went down the tunnel following the hit.

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4:50 AM · Nov 23, 2025

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No one in the NHL has more penalty minutes than Rantanen. How crazy is that? His deletion from the game hurt the Stars because he leads the league in power-play points, and the Stars failed to convert a 5-on-3 near the end of regulation, losing to the Flames in the process.

When has a player of Rantanen’s calibre ever led the league in PIMs through a substantial sample size of over 20 games?

Bizarre. Rantanen should be punished for at least two games. Maybe more.

The Flames and their tanking

So the Flames collect two points in the win to improve their record to 6-13-3, knifing their way to just one point back of the 31st overall Nashville Predators.

There was no camera shot of the Calgary front office, because it must’ve been fist-pounds all around after the beating they took in the media.

Calgary president Don Maloney........

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