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Hellebuyck stole them a game, good for him.

He will need to do that a couple of times.

   

https://www.sbnation.com/2018/4/28/1729 ... erall-pick

Start Time: Pick Nos. 4-15 revealed at 7:30 p.m. ET, Pick Nos. 1-3 announced during the second intermission of Vegas-San Jose Game 2 at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET.

Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Vancouver fans might be interested.

Calgary fans need to find a closet and hide in shame. They would qualify for the lottery but their management made an historically dumb move and traded their first pick this year to the Islanders. It's going to be a quality pick in a power draft regardless of what happens tonight.

If the Islanders win the # 1 pick tonight Calgary is going to be the hockey chump of the century.

   

That was going to happen anyway even if the Flames still had a #1 pick. Gave up Brett Hull for nothing. Gave up Doug Gilmour for nothing. Gave up Marc Savard for nothing. Gave up Dion Phaneuf for nothing. This is really just a poorly-operated organization that's been on the losing side far more than the winning one, and that goes all the way back to when they first started in Atlanta. The faces and names change in management, in coaching, and on the ice but the results always seem to stay the same. Some teams are just a Jonah, as the sailors say, and it unfortunately becomes a permanent tradition for them for their entire existence.

   

Well the real San Jose Sharks showed up for tonights game, and what a game it was. Sharks win 4 to 3 in double overtime. It was an extremely physical game. I am tired and sore just from watching it! It would have been nice to have a 2 game lead heading into San Jose. What a series so far!

   

The talking heads on the radio were bloviating about how San Jose didn't have a prayer against Vegas's superior speed. 4 straight wasn't even a prediction for them. It was like it had already happened.

But that was before the game. On Monday they'll forget they said it.

   

Good game. I love it when two teams play with heart and none of the dirty stuff.

I'd like to be an expansion team manager and just copy what Vegas did to see if lightning strikes twice. Select nothing but large second-liners and second-pair defense men that can skate well. Aim for those solid no-BS guys who can rattle in about twenty goals a year just to see what can happen. I'm still amazed by the entire Knights phenomenon in them being probably the best expansion team in the shortest amount of time in possibly the entire history of professional league sports in North America. Still cheering for Winnipeg but Vegas winning it all would sure be something unprecedented to see.

   

Just wait till Seattle gets their team. If they're smart, they'll be just as good as Vegas has been.

   

Not if they get the Flames in a relocation. They'll just get the Flames tradition of the yearly-whatever that they do.

   

I was thinking about that myself then I remembered the time Baltimore expanded into the CFL and won the grey cup.

It was the same kind of thing. The CFL gave them a lot of breaks in acquiring players. They wanted to give them a leg up to make an expansion system into America work.

It didn't though. Baltimore left shortly after winning the cup the way I remember it.

There's a theory concerning the possibility of lightning striking twice in an NHL draft. It says the management of the other teams will be ready for it next time. They won't make the same mistakes they made with Las Vegas. They'll be prepared.

   

True dat, especially with the genius of the late great Don Matthews as their coach and Jim Popp as their GM during their two short years in Baltimore. And the Baltimore Stallions relocating to Montreal as the third incarnation led to their future success in that city for the Anthony Calvillo era.

   

They were given a giant leg up by the league in the way the expansion draft was setup and there's a reason for that. Bettman wants to sell hockey teams to new ownership groups in new cities and what better way than to make sure the expansion teams are highly successful even going so far as to challenge for the Stanley Cup.

Then, when the new owners approach the league about expansion he can point to teams like Vegas and Florida and say "you can be challenging for the Cup either immediately or at least in a year or two". A fact which pretty much assures that the league can charge the new owners what they want.

One more thing. These new ownership groups will also be his ardent supporters and keep him in power because, the older more established richer teams are getting tired of making equalization payments to teams in cities that don't make money and then watching those same teams outbid them for the best players.

So a Vegas Stanley Cup would be the best result for Bettman and his vision of what hockey should be and for that alone, I will never cheer for an outrageously priced expansion team that's been set up to succeed immediately while other more deserving cities never get their teams back or will never have a financial chance to even compete for an expansion team.

   

I think the success of the Vegas Knights is kind of unique. A bunch of things came together at the right time like a perfect storm. Teams were allowed to protect a certain number of players from the draft. The fact that players were NOT protected made them feel like they were not wanted by their old team. Vegas management said it publicly "your old team did not want you, WE WANT YOU!!!" Every player was playing with a chip on their shoulder. They had something to prove when they played their old team. Their teammates had their back because they were in the same boat. The team was brand new. There was no hierarchy or pecking order established. Every one was on equal footing. There was no "new guy" that had to fit in. They were all new guys. They were brought to a city that had no major league sports franchises. No matter who they were on their old team, they were a rock star in Vegas. Everyone was kissing their ass. There was no party or gathering that they were not welcome at. Their money was worthless in the city. Everyone wanted to be seen with them. The Oct shooting brought everyone together for a cause. People waited in lines for hours to donate blood. People donated their time and money to help out. I have to admit that I was surprised by the response. I have been in Vegas for 14 years now. It never felt like a "real" city. We are all transplants from other places. Our loyalties lie elsewhere, in other cities. The city is full of sports bars that cater to other teams from around the country. We pulled together for the first time for a tragedy, we stayed together for the first thing that we could actually call our own. It felt good.

The fans for the most part are ignorant of the sport. They are learning as they go. They are no where near as critical as fans in other cities. I lived in New England for 20 years. Boston is full of Monday morning quarterbacks. Tom Brady may very well be the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. A couple of years ago the Patriots lost a few games early in the season. All the talking heads in the media were asking if Tom was to old to play the game. Two losses and they were willing to dump the G.O.A.T. How pathetic is that? The Red Sox won two pennants in a row last year and they still fired the manager. Nothing is ever good enough for these people. They think that they are entitled to win championships in every sport every year. If the Knights lose to San Jose, they will still get a ticker tape parade!!! They will still be the greatest thing since sliced bread. The people of Vegas appreciate the effort. We are not supposed to even have a winning season, let alone be in the playoffs. The players have a better lifestyle in Vegas than most other cities. Nevada has no income tax. Our property taxes are extremely low. A house that would go for two million dollars in LA, San Jose, or Vancouver goes for $300,000 in Vegas. They get to keep more of their money. Instead of freezing their asses off in the winter, they can be jet skiing on the lake in Feb. You can get sunburned in Feb. The players might not have wanted to have been sent to Vegas, but they have a home here. They are worshiped here. Everyone and I do mean everyone is on board with what they are doing. It was the perfect storm. Everything came together at the right time.

   

That's going a bit too far into anti-Bettman-ism. Bettman didn't force five out of seven Canadian teams to have crappy seasons this year. That was all on the teams themselves, for reasons ranging from being too cheap to upgrade to better players to rebuilding to just plain having poor coaching & management. If it was true that the system was stacked in favour of the US teams then Columbus would have been a competitor a long time ago. Same with Minnesota. Same with Phoenix. And those towns that lose their teams kind of don't deserve to have them stay anyway. I say this as a Flames fan that this arrogant city with it's foolish city council and with far too much of that enraged "no public money for a new arena" pedestrian attitude sort of deserves to have the team depart to where they can make more money. It wasn't just the currency differential between Canada and the US that caused the Nordiques and original Jets to leave either. It was the locals refusing to keep the attendance up when the clubs went on long-term losing patterns for multiple years on end. Without the newer sort of arenas that would have allowed them to shore up their losses from what they were losing in ticket sales the Jets and Nords had no choice but to leave considering they were never going to make any real money in those decrepit old barns they were using.

   

I seen a tweet from a Vegas fan about how playoff hockey had taken 10 years off of his life even though the team had only been in existence 1 year. Its true!!! Congrats to the Vegas Golden Knights on their win tonight! Special shout out to Fleury for being an impenetrable wall in the first period, and keeping us in the game and giving us time to get our shit together. Thank you sir!!!

   

Quite the game tonight between Winnipeg and Nashville. Good to see Winnipeg come back from behind to win it.

   

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