Should get a lot more than just game 2. That was an insanely bad and stupid hit.

I'm nauseated enough that they're in as it is.

I understand where you guys are coming from, I really do. But I'm still glad we won on Wednesday, and I'm super pumped to be going to the game tonight. Let's make it 2-0!

Jets are going to the second round! I was 10 the last time this happened. The next round against Nashville is going to be phenomenal!

Happy for Winnipeg, it's been a long time for you all. Would be to see a Canadian team vie for a Cup, but one round at a time, I guess.

Devils won't beat Tampa Bay, but I'm just glad to have the post-season drought over with.

Well game five in Nashville went south in a f'n hurry :/

Seth Jones deserved to be a finalist for the Norris Trophy.

I can't say I've seen him play much this year to agree or disagree, but he does seem like he's pretty good.

Also pretty good? That series between Columbus and Washington. I've only seen bits and pieces but it definitely appears to be the best series this round.

Been a long ass time since I've been interested in the NHL but these have been some fun playoffs to watch.

Dunno... Subban being there is a joke based on reputation and playing for a good team (arguably the third or fourth best defenseman on the Preds this year based on stats) but there's a bunch of people I'd take over Jones.

Burns, Karlsson and Hamilton (who got low key screwed, 17 goals and insane advanced stats) are all in front of Jones in the queue, IMO.

If we're talking snubs, Vasilevsky over John Gibson for a Vezina nod is way more egregious. When you look at what Gibson did to drag an aging, injured Ducks team to a playoff spot that one shouldn't have been close.

Quiet thread given:
- a guy licked an opposing player
- an expansion team has advanced to the conference finals
- the Caps have Sid and the Pens on the ropes. Can they finally knock them out?

Both of my kids were out on Saturday night and my wife was not feeling well so she agreed that I should treat myself so I went to the Caps-Pens game on Saturday night. I sat next to a guy in a Penguins jersey, 9 rows behind the Caps bench. The game was spectacular. The place was crazy the entire time. Me and Penguins guy had friendly team banter throughout the game. It was kind of a bucket list item for me.

Now to see if the Caps can actually pull it off this time.

I haven't really watched the NHL in about 20 years but I'm loving these playoffs so far. The stories of Winnipeg and Las Vegas drew me in but the Caps/Pens series has been great on the ice with the added storyline bonus just adding the drama.

It is a bit of a shock to the system to not have Stl, Chi, Edm, Det, NY, NY, Cal, in the playoffs though, and all these southern teams still feel weird to me, but at least for now I'm enjoying things.

This is how we know you aren't exaggerating. :D

I love watching Winnipeg play. I've never seen a team take it to Nashville in Nashville like they have been able to do.

Disgusting.

Hopefully their employers will read this and fire them, their relatives will disown them, and their neighbors will shun them.

I'm unfamiliar with this situation. Can someone please explain further?

Good riddance, Pittsburgh. Caps haven't won enough for me to care about them. And Tampa doesn't need another Cup. Though LOL at a Vegas-Washington or Caps-Winnipeg SCF.

LOL. If anyone cared about hockey that much to get worked up about him down there, the team might still be playing in Atlanta.

Haha, have they been that bad?

Thank god the penguins lost. Every hockey game chokes the city for uber and it's nearly impossible to do pickups at the arena.

Well I guess Vegas will finish above San Jose and LA after all and easily top my 85 point goal.

Was at game 5 Friday and the place was electric. Can't believe I have to look at game 3 or 4 tickets in late May.

As a Pens fan, I want to say congrats to the Caps fans and their hard fought earned victory. You guys were clearly the better team for stretches that mattered the most. Good luck moving forward.

Go Vegas

Congratulations to Winnipeg!!! To beat Nashville in a Game 7 in Nashville is quite a feat! Should be another great series against Vegas!

Fucking bad Pekka couldn't beat a bunch of pee wees. Good Pekka gooood, bad Pekka is like having Stevie Fn Wonder between the pipes.

Hopefully Nashville will take the approach that Pittsburgh promised after their loss.

For now, it's #LetsGoKnights

Jets are in the WCF. I can't even believe this is real. So much love for this team.

Thank you Golden Knights.

Unbelievable season. Kills me as a Blues fan, seeing an expansion team win the WC, but damn have they earned it!!!

RIP my wallet having to buy tickets and RIP my job as I'm getting bombarded by vendors...

But it's so nice...

Someone got paid off for this to be able to happen. Total joke that an expansion team can even sniff the post season, let alone this.

It really just outlines how totally shit at their job most GM's are. They will fix it next time around and Seattle will get screwed, but NHL GM's in general are just the most laissez-faire, reactionary group in all of pro sports. Even a guy like Jim Rutherford who has put together back to back Stanley Cup champions just gave a big shrug and gave up his all-star level goalie for nothing. Dale Tallon is highly regarded (or was) and decided giving Vegas a first line forward wasn't enough so he decided to send another one for free. Stick tap to my Ducks GM who got himself into such a mess with NMC's that he traded away a top defensive prospect, and then moved the guy he traded away Theodore to protect for very little halfway through the season anyway.

That shouldn't belittle the job that Gallant and McPhee did, to take this opportunity to start from nothing and get ahead of the way the league was going (speed and skill over size and grit), but in general they couldn't have got there without some very generous front offices around the league.

This.

There were people lining up around the block trying to give Vegas something in order to protect some X,Y, or Z player that may or may not have ended up mattering to them.

It also calls into question, fairly IMO, the ability of a lot of GMs / HCs around the league considering that Vegas basically just did an empty cupboard misfit toys franchise ... and got to the finals in year one.

Yeah because the 3 day training camp they had made it obvious that they could win the Pacific division. Both players who scored today weren't on the opening day lines. GMs worried more about dumping contracts on Vegas for a team that was picked dead ass last after the expansion draft. Also this notion of the best 9 to 11 kept is sort of bullshit as any player with less than 2 years experience was protected also so teams kept more than 9 players out of the draft. So this roster is a bunch of 12th best players at best from 2016.

The gift of Fleury was a guy who's save percentage was 90.9% last season while giving up 3+ goals a game. The Penguins were glad to give up a 2nd to get rid of his contract. They kept a younger goalie and gave up an aging one who had his worst career year in 10+ seasons. He ends up with his best career year at the age of 33 with no all-stars on the D-line in front of him (which most noted Vegas fucked up by taking 12 D in the draft). Many haven't noticed that he only started 46 games this year.

Anaheim wanted to get rid of Stoner's contract so bad that they added Theodore who had 1 year left on his deal. They were loaded at defense and but protecting Manson backfired. Also a note that Shea didn't make the roster until Halloween I think.

Tallon... Gallard firing was the first bad move as the Panthers were injured and still above .500 when they fired him. That was his first bad move. Then he panicked because of Smith's contract and felt like he was pulling a great dump of a contract. They could have kept both guys but kept and extra defensemen. They got rid of a midget off a lucky 30 goal year and out from Smith who looked like He got his contract and was living off it.

Perron had an expensive contract with 1 year left and also had a career high in 50 assists which was 15 more than any other season. He was never a passer until this year.

3rd line player Eric Haula ended up on our top power play and lead the team in goal and points there. They threw in free agent Alex Tuch (started in AHL this year) who we had to go out and sign so we got lucky here.

And then William Karlsson. 18 career goals in 4 seasons so everyone knew he'd be a 43 goal scorer... (another the Ducks gave up on). They ate 3 years of Clarkson's 16 million left in cap hits to get him. Not sure if I blame Columbus here. He scares me like his name is Brady Anderson in 1996 but we shall see.

Engelland was seen as a realtor pick being from here. He played the 2nd most minutes on the team at 36 years old while having a career year in every stats category and a career low in penalty minutes. You saw that coming too?

Grabovski got 6 million off the Islanders books being on this roster when we could have taken Raata. Stars fans were bragging about dumping Eakin who ended up being a solid piece on the 4th line that has carried us in the playoffs. We got rid of Colorado's starting goalie only to have to pick up Subban with a career GAA of 4.5 I think.

5 players off the draft were traded for picks after the draft and we lost 3 players to free agency. So 22 of the picks remained out of the original 30. The 3rd/4th and 5th string goalies started 17 games while Subban started 19 and they still won the Pacific.

(I may seem bitter here but I've had to defend them all year). The one that gets me is that VGK fans haven't suffered enough yet (according to the hockey world) but last I checked Vegas hasn't had a pro team in the last 112 years so I think we've suffered enough for a US city that has been over a million people for long enough. He Hate Me. That's our professional sports history until this year.

Being a Blues fan.. it's also nice to see a team like Vegas actually want to go out and play hockey.. whatever it takes, so to speak. Our effort was pathetic most of the 2nd half of the season and definitely at the end when we needed 1 measly point.


I hope Vegas keeps it going right up to hoisting the Stanley Cup.

I'm not sure where you got that I was attacking Vegas, I thought I specifically went out of my way to suggest that Gallant and McPhee deserve a shit ton of credit. And your point about everyone thinking they were terrible after the draft is absolutely true, myself included. I thought they'd win 20 games with that defense heavy roster they'd built and thought it was hilarious that they couldn't move any of them and it looked like their gamble would backfire.

The point is that Vegas did build a far better roster than every other expansion teams (remember the hilarity of those mid 90's Senators and Lightning teams) and it's mostly down to NHL GM's since 2005 being the most conservative and timid people in the world of sports. The expansion draft rules were more favorable to Vegas than in the past but still, with a bit of forward planning and creative trading, there really shouldn't have been the quality of player that they got. As we talked about lol Panthers, but with the consistent state of 5 NHL teams every year needing goaltending you don't think the Penguins could have got a second and a prospect for Fleury? You don't think somebody would have given something half decent up for Neal?

Back in the summer of 1988 when my family and I moved from Dallas back to Detroit, we lived in Gerard Gallant's house for the summer. Gallant and his family spent the summer in Canada and we couldn't move into our new house until later in the summer.

It was a nice enough house. They had a nice, large white sectional sofa. I fell asleep on it once and drooled a bit and left a stain. I always worried about that stain.

So, that's my connection to the Vegas squad.

I think your info on the Pens and your scenario is a bit wrong/ off so ill add some context that might help with the confusion on why Flower was there for Vegas to even take.

The Pens took calls on Fleury, however, in going for cup number 2 in a row, they decided on keeping him rather than trading him at the deadline. It was a good call because he started/played in some key games with Matt Murrary being injured at the beginning of the playoffs last year.

Everybody knew that the Pens couldn't afford a 5 million dollar back up goal tender, especially one that just had his worst year ever in the league with a younger just as seemingly capable guy already on the roster in Murrary. Fleury was only there for Vegas to take because 1. The Pens went for the cup, and 2. they needed to be able to pay other guys, and couldn't do that with Fleury's salary.

Could they have gotten more from someone at the deadline last season? Of course they could have, but the Pens might have not added a 2nd cup if they did.

So your assessment of Rutherford is the exact opposite of what it more than likely should be. He made a shrewd call and played for the title instead of the future and was rewarded with a 2nd cup in a row AND was still able to dump the 5 mil to pay guys this year. It didn't work out for title 3, but it was a good attempt in my mind. The forward planning and trading that you suggest should have happened didn't because Rutherford said no thank you to those offers. Other GM's weren't inept here at least as far as Rutherford, Fleury and the Pens were concerned.

Hence I put in the last part as after typing I felt I aimed it at you when it's just a daily conversation with my job that got typed out here (had to do it 3 times today too). I forgot to add the obvious of it's easier to expand with 1 team than 2 so we had no one to fight with the CAD being in the toilet and Seattle with their SODO project hanging by their mayors stupidity.

There is no way anything would have been done for Neal except for rental purposes. He's made it known he wants 5 years and he's not worth that.

Pretty sure Fleury had the no trade option and the VGK coaching staff went to him pre-draft and told him all the things they saw wrong in his game last year and they would fix. When they took him on, most figured it was a locker room presence but he's obviously meant so much more helping the younger players while he was out two months with a concussion. (another reason the Pens got rid of him probably as he's had 3 or 4 good concussions).

Holy shit... This does not count every pool party around town but...

Yesterday's @GoldenKnights @NHLJets Game 5 on NBC also generated a 36 share in Las Vegas, meaning that more than 1 in every 3 TV sets in use in the city during the game were watching it

Is hotel PPV porn included in that tally?

Golden showers not counted.

This is officially my favorite hockey-related story ever. Thanks for sharing it. :)

That's the other 2/3. :)

You only watch that for 2 minutes before changing to the hockey,

You've got me beat. All I got is that one of his brothers was my kid's P.E. teacher in middle school.

My son and I had the great pleasure of watching game 2 of the Golden Knights-Jets matchup live at Caesar's sportsbook (VGK won 3-1). We have become fans of VGK and it was great to share in joy of victory locally.

It appeared to us that hockey in Las Vegas is another top-ranked show on the Strip and a highly entertaining one at that, so people (locals and tourists) come out. I think it will be true of the Raiders as well.

Crazy game 7 going on right now.

Go Caps!

Either the Caps win or Vegas pulls the incredible season long upset. I'll be happy either way.

Just recovering from that WCF myself, but congrats to both the Caps and Knights. I'd love to see Ovi finally get the cup that Sid has blocked him from so many times. Should be a good series either way.