Paulie Walnuts
Well-known member
Canadian weather service says watch out for heads exploding all across the nation , particularly in Toronto and Montreal. 
Misc 2018 Playoff News Thread
- Thread starter jeffbear
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CarolinaPen
Active member
I am now fully on the Vegas bandwagon. It is a fun ride, especially as it ticks off most of the traditional hockey cities!! So far three excited teams got to face the Knights, and Vegas has managed to mow through them all with a 12-3 record. Pretty incredible. The best thing is they aren't winning with a clutch and grab, expansion style. They skate hard, fast, and are using skill to win games, along with incredible goaltending.
I am glad to see them move on....it is an interesting story. Hope everyone is ready for some Vegas cheesiness during the Stanley Cup pregame show!! Enjoy Canada!
I am glad to see them move on....it is an interesting story. Hope everyone is ready for some Vegas cheesiness during the Stanley Cup pregame show!! Enjoy Canada!
Paulie Walnuts
Well-known member
Last time a Canadian team won it all Bill Clinton was only a few months into chasing interns. :thumbup:
HurryCanes
Well-known member
Congrats to the knights. Good run by the jets and I think they will be a solid team the next few years.
CanadaCanes
Well-known member
As a Canadian, I am truly embarrassed by all the online whining and crying North of the Border that Vegas is an NHL/Gary Bettman pet project that somehow gets all the breaks unlike no other. Vegas essentially is a hodge podge mix of every other teams 11th best player and spare parts...they have a fantastic coach, work hard and have a goaltender that is standing on his head. The Winnipeg fans are a disgrace to whine and cry when they truly were beat by a team that simply was better. It is so hard to win 16 games and the Cup, full credit where credit is due to Vegas.
William Karlsson had 18 goals in 183 games before this season. He had 43 in 82 this year. Nate Schmidt had 35 assists in 200 career games, he had 31 this year. Erik Haula had 29 goals this year, the same number as his last 2 years combined. David Perron had 50 assists this year. That beat his career high by 15, set in 2008-09 and he hadn't even had 50 points since the 2013-14 season. Could it be that a bunch of guys had career years all at the same time? They're also doing it with defense. Their 2.87 goals per game is only 9th among all teams in the playoffs. But 1.80 goals against is 2nd, behind their first round victims, LA. We know Fleury can carry a team in the playoffs, and we also know what a hot goalie means in the playoffs. But for the rest, is it lightning in a bottle, like 1983 NC State and 1985 Villanova?
IMO, it's a little bit of all of that. The 2006 'Canes played the "chip on the shoulder" card for a number of the players and it made a difference. I also think Vegas is playing a different style that teams don't exactly know how to handle. And Fleury and their D are getting it done (alot like our 2006 d).
It might be lightning in a bottle, but it's pretty cool
TheBigKahuna
Well-known member
And Vegas has a lot of bad contracts, they took from other teams as favors. Sone of which aren't even playing.
They have a lot to do over the summer, or their GM does at least.
Someone done made these misfits and rejects mad!
They have a lot to do over the summer, or their GM does at least.
Someone done made these misfits and rejects mad!
The way McPhee approached this expansion process, it was always going to be a fluid roster for the first 2-3 years. He was willing to take bad contracts in exchange for other assets and to wheel and deal with private deals to select certain players and leave others in return for other considerations. He absolutely spun junk into gold this year with a roster than looked pretty decent but nothing more than that. Gallant found those guys' buttons early and is the kind of guy who can get great results so long as he's got full buy-in from his roster. That's what fell apart on him in Florida ... a fact that seems to escape everyone pointing and laughing at the way the Panthers cut him loose. He had lost that team completely by the time he had to call that cab at our arena, and almost no coach comes back from that without a change of address.
Bottom line ... they gave a smart, experienced GM a full deck of cards and let him take every single possible risk. He hired a good coach, assembled a versatile, mobile roster full of guys who had something to prove and then backed the whole thing up with one of the better big game goalies of his generation. Wham ... it's the stuff of legend, but it's a fragile construct that will have to be cobbled together again every year until he gets a more sustainable roster assembled.
TheBigKahuna
Well-known member
I think we will use "lightning in a bottle" for many years to come, when talking about the inaugural season of the Golden Knights. I'd be shocked if they are good again next season.
They have 5 UFAs; Neal, Perron, Reaves, Sbisa and Stoner. Karlsson, Nosek and Miller are RFAs with arbitration rights, Carrier and Theodore are RFAs without aribtration rights. Mikhail Grabovski, who hasn't played since the 2015-16 season comes off this year but they still have David Clarkson's salary for 2 years, until 2020.
Well, I think you can look at Florida's first years as a model. Vegas is taking a similar approach with more of the middle aged malcontents and less of the out and out dinosaurs. That experiment started slower (finals in their 3rd year after two seasons right around NHL .500) but they hung in there and competed pretty well for their first 7 years before it all came crashing down. Remember the rats!
It's gonna be a tightrope act, which befits Vegas as a town I guess. I just hope their fanbase doesn't fall in love with too many individual players because it looks set up to be more of a revolving door until they get the player development pipeline set up.
As a Canadian I take no blame or embarrassment for the crying. In fact, I haven't even heard much of it. I've read a few comments from some butthurt fans, but that's nothing new or unique to Canadians or any fan base in particular.
Being from Winnipeg, I know a lot of Jets fans, and almost every single one of them have commended their team for a great season and given props to the Knights for a well deserved win.
Of course every fan base is going to have total idiots... lord knows the Habs have their share. I don't left that reflect on me though.
Yeah ... I think CC is more referring to the whinging coming out of the Canadian hockey media than from the fans. Although I got heaping dose of it from some Leafs fans last week watching a Western Finals game in a bar in Orlando. I chalked that up to Leafs fans complaining because that's seemingly their natural state. God forbid anybody think that crowd is an accurate reflection of Canada in general.
cmaleski2
Well-known member
Take a look at the Vegas blueline and then try to explain to me how it is that Vegas was somehow set up to dominate the regular season and the playoffs. Or explain how a top line of Machespellcheck-Karlsson-Riley Smith was certain to become one of the top lines in the NHL. Or how David Perron, who has bounced around how many teams, would be a PP force again.
Anyone trying to argue that the NHL and other GMs created this unstoppable juggernaut of an expansion team is being absolutely ridiculous. This team just gelled with the right coach and the right attitudes and earned every bit of this. Its a great story, period.
Anyone trying to argue that the NHL and other GMs created this unstoppable juggernaut of an expansion team is being absolutely ridiculous. This team just gelled with the right coach and the right attitudes and earned every bit of this. Its a great story, period.
CarolinaPen
Active member
I agree that this was a lightning in a bottle experience that led to the current situation, but you can bet your last dollar that all GMs in the lead are going to push for some serious changes on the next expansion draft for Seattle. Too many teams, like the Canes, are having to answer the difficult questions of how does an expansion team have a better winning culture than our organization and why did you expose that guy in the expansion draft. Changes will be coming as Vegas is making too many people across the NHL look bad, and I think it is hilarious! Go Knights!
Paulie Walnuts
Well-known member
every league has decided they don't want expansion teams to be bad for a long time like the past . Of course UFAs help in that area.
There is no way that the Seattle group, paying 20% more than the Vegas group, will agree to anything less than what Vegas got. And the league would look small and petty if they did.
Yeah ... at least the Canes don't have to deal with that heat, at least not much. We exposed guys who made sense in the grand scheme and Vegas took a nothing player from us in the end. We didn't get burnt too badly by their fire starter summer.