rogers park bryan wrote:
How is an expansion team this good?
What was the process? Classic draft of unprotected players?
No, not classic. The NHL engineered the expansion draft to be the most generous in history, especially in contrast to the Columbus/Minnesota expansion drafts that gave both teams the absolute dregs of the league. It's no surprise that the warm-weather-obsessed NHL would make sure Las Vegas got much more favorable terms than Minnesota did. On top of that, the Panthers inexplicably exposed Reilly Smith
and Jonathan Marchessault, not great players but certainly very good ones (that the mega-genius Lightning quietly gave up on Marchessault before the Panthers did never gets much play, incidentally) and not only that, the wackadoodle post/pre-Tallon regime fired Gerard Gallant for not being enough of a numbers nerd, and now here he is coaching the hell out of a bunch of middle-sixers. But none of that explains why some Swede I've never heard of in my entire life named "William Karlsson" has like 20 goals at New Year's.
There's also the unavoidable truth that the team is not just unbeatable at home but dominant in many of those games, because -- surprise! -- spoiled rich white guys gonna spoiled rich white guy, and even though you can find strippers and blow anywhere, Las Vegas still holds such a mystique in the minds of white shitheads that they all feel required to get trashed before gameday and play like shit. I saw the Jets do it when they had their scheduled Vegas excursion like the Hawks would have on the circus trip, then they played the Knights and pissed all over themselves like twenty Nick Brophys. The Maple Leafs are a Cup contender, rolled into Vegas, and got their shit pushed in 6-0. It really makes me embarrassed to be an NHL fan, that an expansion team like this is owning the whole league at home because a bunch of douchebags can't keep their noses clean for one night.
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Molly Lambert wrote:
The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.