3-0

SJ down to vegas 3-0 in ~6 minutes into the game......maybe the Kings weren't that bad....haha

7-0 now with 3 minutes left. I just told Mrs. Puck the Charks have given up almost the same number of goals in one game than LA gave up in the entire series.

Don't think SJ will let this happen in Game 2, get the beating out of the way.

The Knights did the same thing with the Charks that they did with the Kings. They take away space in the middle and they seem to get to every loose puck, and they are all in pressing once they get control. Even McScabb is looking decent.

When you can pretty much roll a second line out at any given moment that will happen. I give them credit for executing but that isn't too hard when you have one hell of a decent roster - the knob gobbling (there's an oldie but goodie) is sickening. Would be interesting if all NHL teams were essentially allowed to rebuild in one season.

The more and more I think about it the more and more I think this whole Knights thing is a farce - while it took 3-5 years for every other expansion team to become at least competitive, earn their stripes with draft picks, shitty trades and crappy UFA signings, etc. these guys had the red carpet rolled out for them.

Goes back to my theory that Bettman has failed so many times in non-traditional markets he had to do something so another one doesn't throw egg in his face. He will be remembered for Vegas, not the Coyotes/Thrashers/Floridas of the league.

I think it was Marchessau who said they will have to do what they did with LA because they are "just like them but with a bit more speed", pretty much something we all said about SJ. They got shelled last night and while watching the game I saw so much of LA - the bobbled passes because of pressure, the constant buzzing, the turnovers on the boards, flat out whiffs

Quick held the fort for LA but Jones, even though he was hung out to dry, had a very poor game. He didn't do his team any favors and it was obvious after the third goal, I would have gave him the hook right then and there so I'm not sure what DeBoer was thinking. He needed to come up with at least one big save to try and boost some confidence but failed.

Turnabout is fair play though, barely a week ago SJ laid a 8-1 whooping on Anaheim. Looks like all three CA teams need to tweak their rosters a bit because they all play the same brand of hockey.

I still expect SJ to put up a fight, curious to see what the NHLDPS does with Kane.

pete6835 said:

Even McScabb is looking decent.

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McScabb....classic. I'm still partial to McStiff, and the Brothers McStiff when both he and McBain were in LA. The only exciting part of McNabb's game was when he would crush people along the left board at the blue line trying to get into the zone. Other than that he was never able to turn the corner here.

It's really too bad he didn't pan out here in LA but after his first full season it was just downhill from there. He was awful. Glad to see him succeeding there but that says something when he is one of your T2 defenders.

PuckinUgly57 said:

When you can pretty much roll a second line out at any given moment that will happen. I give them credit for executing but that isn't too hard when you have one hell of a decent roster - the knob gobbling (there's an oldie but goodie) is sickening. Would be interesting if all NHL teams were essentially allowed to rebuild in one season.

The more and more I think about it the more and more I think this whole Knights thing is a farce - while it took 3-5 years for every other expansion team to become at least competitive, earn their stripes with draft picks, shitty trades and crappy UFA signings, etc. these guys had the red carpet rolled out for them.

Goes back to my theory that Bettman has failed so many times in non-traditional markets he had to do something so another one doesn't throw egg in his face. He will be remembered for Vegas, not the Coyotes/Thrashers/Floridas of the league.
.

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Agreed. One talking head made a comment prior to Kings series that Vegas basically has 4 second lines. Maybe 3 second lines and one 3rd line.

Maybe the future GM of Seattle will bend over McPhee the way he did various GMs last year. No disrespect to McPhee, he did an excellent job, but clearly the deck was stacked in their favor. I watched most of the Expansion draft last summer. It was painfully awkward to see the camera shots of GMs, Coaches, Star Players, as their team had players plucked away.

Pens gone. Now there are 3 teams that never won the cup. Gotta root for the Bolts now, no new cup winners.

Thank God, I was getting tired of their shit too. Mrs. Puck's cousin is a huge Pens fan because of her dad (from Pitt) and she was over the top the last 2 years. I hope Kings fans weren't like that when they had their run a few years ago but you never know, you have some down to earth folks like us but then you have long timers who still act like idiots as well.

My money is on Nashville or Winnipeg. Would love to see one of those guys take it home. Sick of the Vegas stuff too, I was there this weekend and saw Roseanne Barr (she's actually pretty funny and surprisingly didn't base her show on Trump or politics which was nice, mostly family oriented comedy, life, etc.) and even homeless guys were wearing Knights T-shirts and jerseys.*

Inaugural seasons are always intense, and may last a year or two, the real test comes when that novelty wears off and when the expansion team sucks. It'll be a different story in Sin City in a year or two.

OC was nuts when the Ducks came into down, reality hit within 2-3 years and by 2000 they were tagged the worst fans in the NHL by TSN (or THN, can't recall) and hit attendance record lows by league standards. Disney was trying to sell them desperately because they bled money after the fanfare wore off and even tried to sell them and the Angels as a package riding the 2002 Angels' World Series win they were so desperate to get rid of them. Didn't happen, Moreno bought the Angels and I believe in 2005 Samueli bought the Ducks for pennies.

I talked to a few people at the bars and they just don't understand that they were gifted a team - one asked me why it took 45 years for LA to win a Cup. Umm...because they didn't get the rules Vegas did and had to build form scratch, made poor choices with draft picks, had an owner who went to prison, a new owner who imposed an internal cap, and essentially it was a 45 year journey of ups and downs you haven't experienced yet? Dipshit - have another cocktail ya derelict.

*amazingly I didn't burn down a hotel room or have hookers randomly jump into my cab like in my youth. Of course I was with Mrs. Puck so I behaved but I digress.

=)~~

Yeah I don't have anything against their team, but their "fans" can eat it.

You were either:
A. Rooting for the Kings/Sharks or other last year, or
B. Not a fan of hockey at all (i.e. this is literally your first year watching hockey).

The loudest ones are the ones that show their insecurities though, because it's pretty obvious that the sentiments are "We're a real city too, see we have a professional sports team too!"

As for Ducks fans, it's beyond bad. I work down in OC now and I have to request to put Ducks or any other hockey on TV at bars. I think I said it before, but 2 years ago, the Ducks were doing really well and they wouldn't even put the game on one TV at this Irvine (12 miles south of Anaheim) bar over the NFL Draft. They had the draft on 14 other TVs and were fighting me about putting hockey on one. There isn't even an NFL team down here. Even at my work, no one cares at all.

To be fair, I've seen it with other "fans" down here too. When the Sharks went to the finals some dude said he was from San Jose and knew nothing about hockey. He just wanted to say "Go Sharks" basically. I asked 2 questions and he got quiet because he knew that I knew that he knew nothing about hockey (How about that sentence...?).

My buddy is an actual Sharks fan from the bay area, but now lives in New York the past 3 years, and he said he was seeing Vegas jerseys in the city too. He was like "What is their backstory?" because he was even getting annoyed at how raucous they were at this random bar in NY.

PuckinUgly57 said:

My money is on Nashville or Winnipeg. Would love to see one of those guys take it home. Sick of the Vegas stuff too, I was there this weekend and saw Roseanne Barr (she's actually pretty funny and surprisingly didn't base her show on Trump or politics which was nice, mostly family oriented comedy, life, etc.) and even homeless guys were wearing Knights T-shirts and jerseys.*

=)~~

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I am honestly okay with all of the teams that remain (I would include Vegas, but their "fans" need to take a L). Felt good for Ovechkin and Washington. They said the city of Washington was 0-19 in the last 20 years where they played a game with a chance to go to conference final. Not even a final final. That's just rough. Talking Nationals, Redskins, Caps, Wizards.

Tampa Bay is a fun team to watch, and they've been a good all year.

Winnipeg and Nashville are solid teams and I am puling for them too.

I just want to see some good hockey before we get stuck with baseball for the summer.

Kind of hope Nashville loses. Don’t like Mike Fisher coming out of retirement because the team was doing well without him and he wants to ride their coattails to a cup

Stunner_At_Staples_Kings said:

Yeah I don't have anything against their team, but their "fans" can eat it.

You were either:
A. Rooting for the Kings/Sharks or other last year, or
B. Not a fan of hockey at all (i.e. this is literally your first year watching hockey).

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I used to date a girl in Vegas about 12-13 years ago for about 2 years if you guys remember and we alternated weekends - I would go there this weekend, she would come here the next - so I got very familiar with the culture, people and all that in Vegas so I couldn't agree more - almost no one in that state even knew what hockey was and would look at me funny when we would go to a bar and I would ask for the Kings game.

I took this picture this weekend, it's the Statue of Liberty at NYNY. Says it all, this was when we went to Sirrico's inside NYNY, my must have pizza place when in Vegas no matter what. I damn near gagged.

Stunner_At_Staples_Kings said:

The loudest ones are the ones that show their insecurities though, because it's pretty obvious that the sentiments are "We're a real city too, see we have a professional sports team too!"

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I don't even think it's that - Vegas is synonymous with winning (gambling) so to me it's psychologically in their DNA to bet on a winner. As soon as Vegas shits the bed I think you'll see otherwise.

That city is somewhat of a transient one, people come and go because of work, life, whatever so there aren't too many born and raised there folks that I have met - small handful. Because of the transient nature they come from elsewhere and bring their affiliations with them which is why you see random sports jerseys and paraphernalia all over the place but that's also why there is no loyalty to one specific team or sport. It's all over the map and in hockey's case not on the map at all until the Knights.

I met a buddy who has lived there for 4 years (from Aliso Viejo, moved for work - see my point?) for breakfast Sunday morning and he told me he put down some money on season seats for the Raiders.

I was puzzled and then he told me that they are moving to Vegas in 2020, I didn't even know about this and then I told him how the Knights have protocol in place to not allow season seat holders to sell tickets they aren't going to use to keep opposing fans out of the building (Golden Knights fans maintain ‘vow’ not to resell playoff tickets) so expect that as well with the Raiders most likely. I think that's BS, it's my money and if I can't make a game I'd rather not lose out on it and recoup some of my costs (Knight tickets are expensive too).

I'm sure it'll be just like it is now with the Raiders if they are even remotely successful. It's a bandwagon culture unless it's UNLV.

Stunner_At_Staples_Kings said:

As for Ducks fans, it's beyond bad. I work down in OC now and I have to request to put Ducks or any other hockey on TV at bars. I think I said it before, but 2 years ago, the Ducks were doing really well and they wouldn't even put the game on one TV at this Irvine (12 miles south of Anaheim) bar over the NFL Draft. They had the draft on 14 other TVs and were fighting me about putting hockey on one. There isn't even an NFL team down here. Even at my work, no one cares at all.

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Sounds about right, which bar was it? I usually don't have a problem but then again I'm in NOC and COC a lot, not SOC where it's a bit of a different feel.

Living in OC I see the Ducks flags go up on cars around playoff time but they were gone within a week this time. And this season I didn't see as many, an indicator that the interest has waned once again because they did well for so long but couldn't even get to the SCFs with that roster.

Granted, I have experienced that wane with LA too the last few years, it was crazy between 2011-2015/2016 but the Kings have a very steady fanbase that supports the team through thick and thin the last 30 years or so.

Much different for Anaheim and SJ although I think SJ fans are more invested than Anaheim fans because they have somewhat of a history with hockey from the old Seals and other teams from the past. Anaheim had nothing before the Ducks.

Stunner_At_Staples_Kings said:

To be fair, I've seen it with other "fans" down here too. When the Sharks went to the finals some dude said he was from San Jose and knew nothing about hockey. He just wanted to say "Go Sharks" basically. I asked 2 questions and he got quiet because he knew that I knew that he knew nothing about hockey (How about that sentence...?).

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It can be anywhere, and it is, the numbers are just different. My bro in law lives in Boulder Creek (15 minutes north of Santa Cruz, an hour from San Jose) but zero interest in hockey or the Sharks. But Easter weekend we were up there and he was sporting a Link Gaetz SJ jersey.

Really dude? Do you have any idea who he even was or from what era? I gave him shit all weekend long and said next time I'm up here I'm buying an old school Giants jersey just to mock him and baseball.

davnlaguna said:

Kind of hope Nashville loses. Don’t like Mike Fisher coming out of retirement because the team was doing well without him and he wants to ride their coattails to a cup

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I don't have a problem with him and Nashville, he is an icon there because of his wife (Carrie Underwood) and is really invested in the city.

I'm not a fan of players "retiring" and coming back but he has paid his dues with that team and city so I guess he gets a bit of a pass because he's paid his dues with them the last 8-9 years. The last retirement guys I was annoyed with with Teabag and Niedermeyer about 10 years ago when they wouldn't shit or get off the pot about whether they would be coming back or not not once but at least 2 times if I recall correctly.

I think it's great to see 4 teams left who will be winning the Cup for the first time but the only one that irks me is Vegas because of this set up and next Washington because well, I just can't stand them.

=)~~

Ideally I'd like to see one of Nashville or Winnipeg simply because it would be great to see that story happen just like it did in LA - years and years of suffering to finally reach that mountaintop.