{"id":739814,"date":"2026-06-16T09:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739814\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T09:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T09:00:08","slug":"stankovens-feistiness-vital-toward-hurricanes-winning-stanley-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/739814\/","title":{"rendered":"Stankoven\u2019s \u2018feistiness\u2019 vital toward Hurricanes winning Stanley Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slavin recalled a regular-season game this year where Stankoven got into the face of Tom Wilson<\/a>\u00a0of the Washington Capitals, one of the fiercest players in the game. He laughed as he recalled the encounter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn’t afraid at all,\u201d Slavin said. \u201cHe just has this feistiness to his game. The compete level to his game is what drives him to that area and what keeps him going back to that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always been this way.<\/p>\n

Stankoven was undersized when he played for Kamloops of the Western Hockey League, but general manager and coach Shaun Clouston saw past the size of Stankoven\u2019s body to focus on the size of his heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always had something to prove, so I think that has been ingrained in him from a really young age,\u2019 Clouston said the day before Game 6. \u201cHe\u2019s always been driven and very competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Stankoven was a great player in Kamloops, recording 201 points (79 goals, 122 assists) in his final two regular seasons, it was the postseason where he shone brightest. Across those final two seasons, he played 31 WHL playoff games and had 61 points (27 goals, 34 assists). In the 2023 Memorial Cup, he had nine points (two goals, seven assists) in four games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe playoffs, that\u2019s the toughest time of the year, so if you are not competitive, it can be really difficult,\u201d Clouston says. \u201cObviously, he has a knack, he has scored at every level. Right now, he is scoring in the best league in the world at the most challenging time of the season. It\u2019s remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clouston said part of that comes from Stankoven\u2019s willingness to quiet the outside noise and even his own doubts about some of the size mismatches he can face, like Wilson, who is 6-4, 225 pounds and one of the game\u2019s greatest intimidators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like there is an emotional button and he pushes it and pushes past,\u201d Clouston said. \u201cI think the fear registers, but his love of scoring pushes him past that. We saw that early on. You don\u2019t score 29 goals as a 16-year-old without going to the net, and when you go to the net there are going to be defensemen there challenging you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slavin recalled a regular-season game this year where Stankoven got into the face of Tom Wilson\u00a0of the Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-739814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}