How about them Golden Knights!

They have impressed me. I didn't think they could keep it up.

I read in one of the papers, that if they make the playoffs, the books out there will make no money on the NHL this season.

If they win the Cup, books will close the doors!

 

Lol, not a Leafs fan... I stopped keeping up with the NHL a few years back... but now with Vegas having a team its piqued my interest again... well not overly much, but I do cheer for the Knights! Happy they're kicking ass!

 

So, I'm officially going to experience a Golden Knights home game! My wonderful GF has gifted me with tickets to see them take on the defending Stanley Cup losers, Nashville Predators, on January 2!
She also got me this awesome Fleury jersey which I will be proudly sporting to the game!
Love, I tell you... it's a beautiful thing!

 

Half way through the season and the Vegas Golden Knights are the top team in the Western Conference (with games in hand), and second in the entire NHL! That's Golden baby!

We went to the game on January 2nd... it was an awesome experience! We got to see them win their 8th in a row, shutting out Nashville, much to the demise of the plenty of Nashville fans in the building. The game on the ice was great and they also put on a great show before and after the game and during the intermissions as well. I imagine it was a tough task to do with no prior history of the team, but them making history this year definitely gives them much to work with.

We had awesome seats... Section 1, row L, seat 5 & 6. We seen both of their goals right in front of us... the empty netter was at the other end.

Here is the view from our seats...



Victory is ours!

 

travelling from Toronto to see them play the St. Louis Blues on March 30. Really looking forward to it!!!

 

How are the crowds? Are they generally pro-Knights crowds? Or is it almost neutral (to sometimes favoring the road team)?

 

They also have far and away the very best social media. I honestly believe that in this day and age, that has genuinely drummed up interest that many casual fans might not otherwise have. With the under 30 set that's a big deal.

 

An expansion team leading their division. Does this mean that the talent in the NHL has been watered down and the league is just a glorified minor league? I was a fan of the NHL when there were only six teams. Now there are something like 31 teams in cities you never would have expected to see a ice hockey team.
So, I am just wondering if the talent has been watered down. Has the league expanded too much? Is there parity?

 

I think there's been some minor dilution, but since expansion the league has been drawing from a global talent pool. The original six featured the best players in North America; the current NHL has the best players in the world.

The Knights' success is remarkable, but you can't discount that they were the beneficiary of more favorable rules than previous drafts. Players the caliber Fleury, Neal, and Perron, etc., weren't generally available in earlier expansions.

 

Their minor league affiliate had been on fire as late as well

 

McPhee has done a great job building this team with a bunch of "cast offs" and lucked out with some of the veterans that were available. Fleury, Neal, Perron, Marchessault, etc... Picking up Subban off of waivers and having him respond with good numbers. Let's not forget they've used 5 goalies so far this year. This Karlsson kid has been lights out so far as well. Gallant is a good coach and seems to be getting everything from the players so far.

The one thing that really strikes me as interesting is they have the leagues best home record of 18-2-1 right now. I wonder how much the city is having an impact on visiting teams.

 

I found there to be more Vegas fans than Nashville at the game on Jan 2, but there were a lot of Nashville fans. I can imagine some games are fairly neutral.

 

I have to agree!

 

If I were a player coming into Vegas for a game I'd have a hard time focusing on the game...and probably have some sort of hangover haha

 

It's pretty good for talent. There was a bit of an issue in the late 90s with some teams not having enough talent, but that was rectified in the 2005 lockout that installed a salary cap. Now the big markets don't have a payroll triple of all other teams. In fact, the current salary cap (13 years later) is still lower than two or three teams had before the salary cap.

As for watered down talent.... no. Training is so much more of a focus now. Back in the 80s Gretzky scored 200 points per year because he took advantage of players who had no business playing against players of his ilk. Now, even 4th liners can skate as well as the top talent, the 4th liners just don't have as much skill or hockey IQ to put up the same numbers that superstars do. I can't skate well enough to play in the NHL today, but maybe I could have played in the 80s.

The biggest issue with the game is the coaching. Coaching strategies take away some of the creativity. Guys who can do such crazy things with their talent are forced into suppressing their creativity for the sake of playing safe and not give the other team any opportunities. It's certainly not a boring game for many, but it could have many more amazing moments.

Phil Esposito said that players would show up to training camp completely out of shape. They had jobs in the summer and didn't work out, and if they didn't need to have a summer job, they took life easy. By the 2nd week of the regular season they were back into game shape. Now, the players have to show up to camp in top shape. They skate and workout all summer long.

If a team suffers many losing seasons, it is because their management stinks. Look at the Edmonton Oilers. 4 #1 overall picks in 5 years. Only one has amounted to anything with their organization, one is a bust. One was traded away to another organization and is starting to meet expectations.

 

If I was the coaching staff of a team coming into Vegas to play the GK, we'd be staying like an hour off the Strip with a strict curfew!

Actually, for the most part hockey players are well behaved and I can't see them out partying the night before a game. When the Raiders start to play in Vegas, that will be a different story I'm sure!

 

When the Toronto Maple Leafs came to town a couple of weeks ago, their GM said that they were staying at least 20 minutes from the strip in a non-casino hotel. Now, he is a very "business is business and you act very business when you do business and hockey is your business so be business and you're in the top of your business so be extra business" type of guy. But the concern was that Vegas has such a good home record because all the teams are staying up too late when they're in Vegas and are too tired to compete the next day and the VGK are used to it since they live here all the time, so they don't have to party when they're in town.... if you ask me, that is a crock of a theory... but VGK home record is ridiculously impressive so...

 

That might be true and I can see Lamoriello, Shanahan and Babcock making sure the team, especially the younger members were kept on a tight leash. Didn't make much of a difference as the Leafs got handled pretty well by the Knights that game.

I was planning on going to Vegas when the Habs play their first game there in February but the cost of tickets, rooms, flights, etc... didn't make it economically feasible right now which might be a blessing as I'd hate to go all the way there and watch my team lose!

 

Players today are much bigger and way, way faster than they were during the Original Six years. The influx of European players has vastly improved the talent level.

The Gretzky era was really fun to watch because hardly anyone played defense. Very few players threw themselves in front of slap shots like they do now. Keith Magnuson comes to mind, but he was considered crazy, now they are expected to block shots. If anything has watered the game down, it's the namby-pamby rules on Hooking and Slashing.

Goons were legislated out of the game. Although I really enjoy a good hockey fight, the gratuitous violence had to go and I'm a Flyers fan saying that.

Today's game is all about speed and positioning. I would like to see the league cut down on the size of goalie pads or make the goal a little bigger. I've never seen so many shots ring off the post as I have this year. I would like to see more scoring, but not a return to pond hockey of the '80's.

What we are seeing in Vegas is what the Florida Panthers could have been if Gerard Gallant had stayed. He turned the Panthers around in one season from rank losers to winners using young, fast, players (okay and Jaromir Jagr) and his system of speed and quick strikes and defense where players actually skated versus clutching and grabbing. He brought some of those players with him to Vegas to spread his gospel. Also there is an emphasis on Special Teams.

Let's also add that with the exception of the Kings, the Pacific Division is pretty weak.

The Golden Knights drafted players they could unload at the trade deadline for high draft picks, but the players bought into Gallant's system and a little winning snowballed into a confident juggernaut. Now they could be buyers instead of sellers come March.

I can easily see the Golden Knights making the third round or beyond. Golden Knights vs. Predators for the conference championship. Wouldn't that be something?

 

I was a little more than pissed when Gallant left Montreal for Florida. I was happy for him to get the opportunity but upset because I knew we were losing a good coach who I know had a lot to do with their performance at the time even though he was just one of the assistants. He got the shaft in Florida so I'm really happy to see him find success in Vegas.

I think we've become too accustomed to see expansion teams being cellar-dwellers for the first several years of their existence. To see what the Knights are doing is pretty awesome. I also get the feeling that their success has caught even them by surprise and it should make for a very interesting trade deadline.