Perry's quest for elusive 2nd Cup title continues with Kings at age 40

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a scrapbook for NHL.com each week. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," shares his humor and insight every Wednesday. This week presents two eminent scorers, Corey Perry of the Los Angeles Kings and Hockey Hall of Famer Andy Bathgate, and their crusades to play for a second Stanley Cup-winning team.

When the Edmonton Oilers were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Final for the second consecutive year, it marked the sixth time Corey Perry failed in his bid to once again have his name inscribed on the coveted trophy.

Perry was a 22-year-old right wing when the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-2 in Game 5 of the 2007 Final for their lone Stanley Cup triumph. Little could he know that it would be the start of something big for him, career-wise, but also an unsuccessful 18-year quest for a feat-repeat with Stanley.

"Sometimes when you win the Cup so young, you take it for granted," Perry told Sportsnet. "You never know if you're going to get this chance again. When you're 22 and you get your name on the Cup, you have no idea."

Since then, Perry has experienced the following career landmarks:

* First player in NHL history to be on three consecutive Stanley Cup finalists with three different teams: the Dallas Stars, Montreal Canadians and Tampa Bay Lightning.

* First in NHL annals to reach the Final with five different teams.

* First to lose four Finals with four different teams.

By contrast, Hockey Hall of Fame forward Andy Bathgate never reached the Final during his 12 seasons with the New York Rangers. He won the 1959 Hart Trophy after he had an NHL career-best 40 goals and 88 points, but the Rangers missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Bathgate's Cup luck changed after he was sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs by the Rangers in a seven-player trade Feb. 22, 1964.

"I knew that the second Rangers management told me I was on my way to Toronto that I had a great chance to play on a Cup winner," Bathgate told Chris McDonell in "The Game I'll Never Forget: 100 Hockey Stars' Stories."

"I felt that my day would come."

Reenergized, Bathgate beat Detroit Red Wings goalie Terry Sawchuk to score Toronto's Stanley Cup-winning goal in Game 7 of the Final on April 25, 1964.

"I feel jolted," Bathgate said during the clubhouse celebration. "It's an accomplishment I can't quite realize. It happened so fast, in two months up from the struggle in the valley to the top of the world."

He tried again the next season with Toronto, but this time his career went downhill.

"Bathgate never got along with (Maple Leafs coach and general manager) Punch Imlach," wrote Eric Zweig, author of "The Toronto Maple Leafs: The Complete Oral History."

Once their feud went public, Bathgate's days with the Maple Leafs were numbered. In his autobiography "Hockey Is a Battle," Imlach wrote: "Bathgate told a reporter that I was doing things all wrong, that I pushed players past their limit physically and mentally. But he won his only championship with me."

"After Andy publicly criticized Imlach, Punch decided to trade him to Detroit," wrote Kevin Shea in "The Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club: Official Centennial Publication."

Bathgate was traded to the Stanley Cup-contending Red Wings with forwards Billy Harris and Gary Jarrett for defensemen Marcel Pronovost and Aut Erickson, and forwards Larry Jeffrey, Ed Joyal and Lowell MacDonald on May 20, 1965.

"At least I had a chance to be on my second Cup team," Bathgate said. "The Wings were loaded with scorers like Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio and Norm Ullman, not to mention a pretty good, all-round roster."

Bathgate's best opportunity emerged during the 1966 Final between Detroit and Montreal. The Red Wings won the first two games at the Forum to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series.

"It seemed as if we had the series in hand," he recalled, "but we let the Canadiens off the hook. They won the next four and the Cup."

After two seasons in Detroit, Bathgate was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1967 NHL Expansion Draft. He split two separate, uninspiring seasons (1967-68 and 1970-71) with the Penguins before ending his NHL career.

As for Perry, he came close, but no cigar, with Dallas, Montreal and Tampa Bay. He scored the game-winning goal in Game 5 of the 2024 Final with the Oilers, who rallied from down 3-0 in the best-of-7 series against the Florida Panthers before losing 2-1 in Game 7.

"We didn't do what we wanted to do," Perry said, "but we're proud of what we did."

Still in mint condition at age 40, Perry scored 10 goals and had four assists in 22 games of the 2025 playoffs.

"Corey never gets fazed," said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who had Perry from 2021-23. "He has that 'been there, done that' attitude. He's a fierce competitor and his teammates follow him."

Perry's crusade will resume this season with the Los Angeles Kings after he signed a one-year, $2 million contract July 1. Is he too old to dream of being a two-time Stanley Cup champion?

No way. Legendary Soviet coach Anatoli Tarasov, a Hall of Famer inducted as a Builder with the Class of 1974, sagely opined in the January 1958 issue of Hockey Pictorial magazine: "Sport and love have no age. It makes no difference how old the player, as long as he has the talent and the will to play well."

Sounds like a guy named Corey Perry.