2017-18 NHL Thread

[Michael Hopcroft]

Looks like Vegas drew the Kings in the first round. Since we really don't know yet what sort of postseason team the Knights will be, that should be a 2-7 series worth watching.

[Michael Hopcroft]

vegas is through to the Conference Finals.

 

Let that sink in for a moment. An expansion team representing a city that thinks ice is something you put in a shot glass is in the Conference Finals. The could be playing Nashville or Winnipeg there. If it's the later, I'm not sure who I'd back.

 

It's an incredible story that keeps getting bigger with each goal scored. I picked them to finish dead last in the Pacific, and not to even get a whiff of the postseason for another four years. Now they're eight wins away from winning the Stanley Cup.

 

It's Bizarros world, and we just live in it.

[Pariah]

The last time a Canadian team won Lord Stanley's cup was 1993--the Montreal Canadiens.

 

Twenty-five years without a Stanley Cup winner in Canada.

 

This is unconscionable.

 

For the next couple of weeks, you can count me a fan of the Winnipeg Jets.

 

[Cancer]

*  Cancer throws a squid onto the ice *

[Badger]

13 hours ago, Pariah said:

The last time a Canadian team won Lord Stanley's cup was 1993--the Montreal Canadiens.

 

Twenty-five years without a Stanley Cup winner in Canada.

 

This is unconscionable.

 

For the next couple of weeks, you can count me a fan of the Winnipeg Jets.

 

 

Ironic, since Canada is the only one who cares.

 

Ok, I had to go there. 

[Pariah]

Pariah =>  <= Badger

[Michael Hopcroft]

Tomorrow is worth dreading if you are a Canadian hockey fan or want a Canadian team to win the cup. Being knocked out of the Conference Finals on your ice by an expansion team is about the greatest humiliation the Jets and their long-suffering fans could endure.

 

The Knights have enough cushion that they can probably win the series, but I'd much rather they did it in Vegas. Less of a black spot ion Canada's national psyche.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I am so glad I don't get Canadian talk radio. People must be so aggravated now, and I don't blame them in the least.

 

An expansion team is in the Stanley Cup Final.Tampa or Washington would give them a fight, but the Knights are 2-0 in their games against each team.

 

Thirty NHL GMs must be shaking their heads, wondering how they could have done such a poor job of selecting players to go into the expansion draft. A lot of the Knights are players their original teams had behind logjams at their roles -- guys who were released because their teams didn't have room for them on their rosters. They might well have done better on their original teams than some of the players that were kept. The Penguins, for example, must really regret letting Mark-Andre Fluerey into the Expansion Draft, because in games where he hasn't started due to injury the Knights generally speaking have not been winning (Malcom Subban has the potential to be a really good NHL goalie, but he isn't close to that level yet, and early in the season when Fleury and he were both hurt, the last-resort goalie Maurice Legace had a GAA of nearly four and once gave up six goals to the Jets without being pulled!).) The Blue Jackets must also really regret giving up on William Karlsson -- all he did was score 43 regular-season goals while playing in all 82 games, then going on to score thirteen points in the playoffs, including six goals. The list of Knights players would were too low on the depth chart on their original teams is staggering.

 

This means future NHL expansion teams (such as the team being talked about in Seattle) have a very high bar to reach if they want to be viewed as successful on the ice.

[Pariah]

Part of it was that the expansion draft had the most liberal rules to date. That is to say, existing teams were more limited than ever in the number of players they could protect. As I recall, teams could protect no more than one goaltender and eight skaters. That means that a bunch of solid second-line guys were available, guys who could've been starters on less talented teams. It also means that guys like Marc-André Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender and three-time Olympic medalist, couldn't be always be protected by their teams. After the expansion draft, the Knights had a roster full of players better than on some existing teams.

 

They were also coached marvelously, of course. But it never hurts to have talent.

 

To good news for Seattle or Quebec City or wherever the next NHL expansion team is going is that the league seems to be set on keeping these same rules for the next expansion draft.

[Michael Hopcroft]

And to think I kept hearing talk of the NHL actually contracting because franchises had been placed in areas where success is barely possible. As it was several teams have pulled up stakes over the last couple of decades -- Winnipeg lost its team to Arizona (that has not gone well) only to get one back when the second Atlanta team capitulated and returned to Canada (which had happened before -- the Calgary Flames started out in Atlanta).

[Pariah]

I can't help but think that Jon Gruden is probably thinking right now, "When we get to Las Vegas, we'll be in the Super Bowl for sure!"

[Michael Hopcroft]

5 hours ago, Pariah said:

I can't help but think that Jon Gruden is probably thinking right now, "When we get to Las Vegas, we'll be in the Super Bowl for sure!"

The only way Jon Gruden will get into the Super Bowl in Vegas is with a media credential when they host the game in 2027.

[Badger]

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 5:24 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

And to think I kept hearing talk of the NHL actually contracting because franchises had been placed in areas where success is barely possible. As it was several teams have pulled up stakes over the last couple of decades -- Winnipeg lost its team to Arizona (that has not gone well) only to get one back when the second Atlanta team capitulated and returned to Canada (which had happened before -- the Calgary Flames started out in Atlanta).

 

Putting hockey teams in the South (Phx and Atl) is not a wise marketing thing that always left me scratching my head.  You're trying to pander to a public that probably hasn't had any realy exposure to hockey.  Not to say it cant work, but you are fighting an uphill battle from the start.  

 

Arent really many hockey rinks in the southern US, that a kid can play on.  I know for myself, playing hockey as a kid was absolutely not an option as a result.

[Michael Hopcroft]

And the Knights will be facing the Washington Capitals in the Final. either of two things can happen -- Ovechkin and Company blow the doors off the Knights early, or the Knights make a series of it. Although counting out Vegas is at best unwise, I can't help but think there is a significant talent gap.

 

Game 1 is on Memorial Day in Vegas.