NHL 2022-23 Season

[gilraen]

Instead of just building an arena and maybe a handful of restaurants and bars around it, they just had to get greedy with a whole "entertaiment complex" (which longtime residents just hear as "traffic" and "too expensive"). Bettman's insistence on having an Arizona team is also baffling since the Coyotes could never get a solid fan base going even when they played at Gila Arena. Hell, most Avs-Coyotes games there would have more Avs' jerseys in the stands than Coyotes'.

[Isgrimnur]

I hear Atlanta could use a team.

[Jaymann]

So could Anaheim.

[gilraen]

So could Anaheim.

[The Meal]

Bettman's insistence on having an Arizona team is also baffling

Remember Bettman is a mouthpiece for the Board of Governors. He’s an employee, paid good money, to deflect fans ire from the league owners.

AZ is a big tv market with a lot of Canadian snowbirds. It’s had some bad arena deals (and locations).

I think it’s done like dinner for the NHl, but if the Suns owner disagrees, non-relocation is back on the table. If the Sens are worth a billion dollars, there may be reason to keep ‘em around. (Also 47 draft picks in the next three years — eight second rounders in the next two.)

My picks for the conference finals:
I hate all options. This is really a “pick ‘em” set of teams.

FLA (mostly because of my preseason pick, my logical side likes CAR here). I’ll go way against the grain and say this is a 4- or 5-game series (either way). If FLA wings, it’ll be flukey goaltending on one side, Brind’amour getting kidnapped, an even bigger rash of injuries to the Hurricanes, etc. If Carolina wings, it’ll just be a big red wagon.
VGK over Dallas (though my heart is in Texas for this one). I’m sure this means that Robertson rediscovers his game and Roope gets his Conn Smythe but I think Vegas has the superior D. I have so little confidence in this pick though. Seven games for sure.

[Isgrimnur]

I want CAR-VGK. It's unfortunate that DAL would have to lose to get it.

[Isgrimnur]

turns on the game late

VGK 2
DAL 0

well, that might not be a game to spend time watching

Vegas scores, Oettinger gets pulled

Clock: 1st 12:50

[Isgrimnur]

This probably didn't help things.

Spoiler:

Dallas Stars forward Jamie Benn was ejected from Game 3 of the Western Conference final on Tuesday after cross-checking Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone.
...
Benn was also assessed a five-minute major on the play, which the Golden Knights promptly scored on.

[The Meal]

The Cup Final is set. One of Las Vegas or the Florida Panthers will win their first ever franchise championship.

I did pretty well with my predictions (guesses, really) for this round, but there's no world where I don't roll with the Panthers as the winners of the Cup.

[The Meal]

The Golden Knights steamrolled the Panthers, and after their sixth year in existence, per owner Bill Foley's mandate, they won the Stanley Cup. As a franchise they were offered favorable expansion draft rules (2018), but their original General Manager and chief architect, George McPhee ("GMGM"), took savvy advantage of those rules and built a team capable of big things right out of the gate.

But now thirty other teams get to breathe in the air and get some airtime for how they'll try to match Vegas's championship status. Bring on the off-season! The draft is on 6/28, and free agency opens on 7/1. This is anticipated to be a heavy draft class (with star-in-the-making Conner Bedard going to the Blackhawks at the top) and a poor free agency group. Signs are ripe for a decent trade flurry over the final weeks of June. And there's still some front office work necessary in getting head- and assistant- coach vacancies filled.

[Isgrimnur]

Mark Madden: Tom Barrasso is a worthy Hall of Famer, but there's a reason it took him 17 years to get in

Barrasso is a worthy Hall of Famer.

So why did it take him 17 years to make it?

It’s because he’s an execrable human being who treated everyone horribly. It’s difficult to find anybody who has anything good to say about him.

[Isgrimnur]

[The Meal]

Today is day two of the 2023-24 season!

[Isgrimnur]

Someone should start a thread.