The NHL has really killed the golden goose. The Winter Classic just isn’t that appealing with the plethora of outdoor games. And, this year, the college football slate is pretty decent as opposed to the past few years. Next year promises to be even worse as the matchup features teams that have already had Winter Classic appearances and outdoor games.
It’s hard to compete with the bowl games. I had forgotten about this until it was over. The novelty of playing outdoors has worn off. Plus the NHL has apparently decided that only US teams would be hosting such games. A Jan 1 outdoor match in Winnipeg or Edmonton might have some appeal as the teams play in arctic conditions. Your typical US city, not so much.
Actually yesterdays Winter Classic was one of the better ones, except for the shadows making it difficult early to see the puck and the travesty of the Buffalo Sabres being the home team for a game played in New York City. It might be better if there was only one a year but since hockey is a sport where fans tend to watch the local team, NBC wants teams in large USA cities with large fan bases: NY Rangers (Devils and Islanders have far fewer fans), Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia (same owners for Flyers and NBC), Pittsburgh (Crosby and Malkin have built a national fan base). The other outdoor games (Stadium Series) exist to give other cities an occasional chance to promote an event.
It may be hard to compete with bowl games but apparently New Years Day has the second highest number of people watching the tube.
Still a lot of hockey left this season, but if the season ended today the Penguins and Blackhawks miss the playoffs. And the Golden Knights have the top seed in the west. Wow.
Gosh, Bo - you are one very lucky hockey fan.
VGK can brag:
- no expansion team in NHL history had started 3-0
- fastest to 25 wins in first season (36 GMS)
- most wins in a calendar month in first season (11 - Dec.)
- longest win streak in first season (8 games - still active)
As it looks now, the Knights are almost guaranteed to finish with the best inaugural regular season to become the most successful expansion team in the history of the four major North American professional sports. No inaugural pro team has ever finished a season with a record over .500 - VGN would really have to Humpty Dumpty it to finish below that by the end of the season.
I don’t see how Gerry can’t be coach of the year now.
It’s been amazing to be here and experience it firsthand, I can tell you that. I sometimes think I’d like to revisit comments made prior to the team being officially awarded about how Las Vegas wouldn’t support a hockey team, etc. but there’s too many to list and besides, this is too much fun to want to be angry about it in any way.
Absolutely the best part tho has been that 3 times now I’ve been able to work into conversation for days afterward “no, I didn’t; I was at the game”. 
One thing I’ve done and said and I’ve seen others do is thank the supporters, the early boosters, the people that worked in offices for 3 years to make this happen. This was a lot of work and most of us were very aware of it all if not participating directly. This town was never going to let that effort go unnoticed and wasted; entertainment in general and Las Vegas in particular all about making something out of nothing.
Of course, we won’t all truly be happy until my campaign to officially change the name to the Las Vegas Knights is successfully concluded, but in the meantime, I am (along with all of the other hockey fans in the valley) greatly enjoying this inaugural season of my hometown’s new team.
Frankly, I hope y’all are too. It’s history in the making, yo.
It’s amazing that when the NHL doubled from 6 to 12 teams and all the new teams were in the west division, not one of them finished above .500. They each played 74 games 48 of which were against the other expansion teams, and still the best record was Philadelphia’s 31-32-11.
It’s really beginning to bother me a lot that an outright win and a shootout win are worth essentially the same thing (I realize that ROW is used as the first tiebreaker) in the standings.
I’d much prefer 3 points for a regulation win and a 2-1 split for overtime or shootout wins. I’d even take 3-0 awards for overtime non-shootout wins.
Is there any league discussion about possibly changing things that anyone is aware of?
No. The NHL head office likes the current system because most teams remain close enough to a playoff spot to keep interest in the team. Minor considerations like competitive balance fell by the wayside ages ago.
Last night is the perfect example of why I don’t like Kadri.
Huh.
Not sure which was wierder - that, or Maroon preening Burns’s beard a couple weeks ago.
Knights took a loss the other night; I told the team I’m okay with them losing 1 in every 10 games. And sure enough, they beat Chicago in Chicago tonight 5-4. Good job, Knights!
For the record: we are not tired of all this winning.
Interesting in the Metro to just watch the standings change as the games end. After yesterday’s early games, the Pens were in last place. With their late win they now hold a wildcard slot.
The VGK are the big story this year but comparisons to other expansions is a little disingenuous. Being the only team in the expansion draft, years removed from the previous expansion gave them much better resources. Keep an eye on your GM. He does great in the draft and is not so great at the trade deadline: Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat! :smack:
While the league definitely hasn’t been the expansion-a-go-go of the 90’s, just one look up and down the VGK roster and it’s not just me taking note of their success. Sure, in this age of parity, many other rosters are comparable, but Marchissault? (who’s either playing way above his game or finally starting to come into his own), Perron? Karlson? Smith?, who are all having great seasons, despite their not-incredibly-illustrious careers as yet, hence the perfectly valid surprise of VGK’s performance this season.
Neal and Fluery (and Gallant and McPhee) are the only substantially established names here, as well as being major contributors, themselves.
Am I hearing talk of Jagr going back to Pittsburgh again?
Darn - was hoping there was some truth to the Letang-to-Vancouver rumour, but apparently Pens reporter Josh Yohe said that’s not happening.
Did not mean to disparge any of the VGK achievements.
I did mean to disparage their PR team comparing this teams record to the comparable games won of each opponent at their entry into the league. From 67-74 the league went from six to eighteen teams. Those last few expansion drafts were from a very diluted League.
The NHL network has really pissed me off with their exclusivity. It’s on a special sports tier at my cable system. My building assesses a fee for cable/internet/TiVo along with all the other utilities except for electricity, so it’s not a bad deal since everyone in this large building has to pay it.
However, I also pay for NHL Gamecenter live. Yesterday, there was only one game in the NHL, the Blue Jackets vs Leafs, both out of market teams for me. However, the NHL blacked out the game on Game Center live. I was quite pissed since I was home sick and didn’t want to watch all the pregame hype leading up to the Georgia/Alabama college football game. If I’m paying for Game Center live, they shouldn’t black out NHL Network games.
Sure, while I’ll grant that with the NHL, I hope you can stomach this disingenuous :dubious: PR team’s :rolleyes: observation that LVK’s first season was also better than (by my count) the 68 other expansion teams in the NFL, MLB, and NBA.
Keep the pot-shots to a dull roar.
I haven’t heard anything about it, but it would be pretty cool to see Jagr retire as a Penguin. But after Jagr-Watch a few years ago, I can’t see Mario wanting to deal with that again. So if it happens, they’ll probably try to keep things under wraps.
(And no, Tangers better not be leaving!)
It would be a neat Odyssey-type thing to see the one-time-Mullet-Master finally “return home”, especially considering Gulutzan not being particularly enamoured, currently, of “fucking veteran guys” (@ around 0:30) It would be a kinda grandfathery move, but hey I’d be up to see that, for whatever quite limited minutes he would play.