Agreed. Especially as it would cause Bettman’s head to explode.* *metaphorically, of course (no actual wishes for violence in a hockey discussion intended)
I'm reminded of the Sonics back in the mid nineties. It was the year Michael Jordan took a sabbatical. The Sonics led almost wire to wire, had the best record in the league, and were heavy favorites to win the championship. We got knocked out in the first round by the sixth seed.
Flames fire coach Darryl Sutter. Panthers restrict ticket sales hoping their home games won't get overrun by Maple Leafs fans.
Well, I made a mistake. They lost to the eighth seed Denver Nuggets in the first round. That's how it was back then. 1 played 8, 2 played 7, 3 played 5, 4 played 6. They NBA didn't expand the playoff rounds til later.
Six No. 1 seeds have lost to the No. 8 seed in the NBA playoffs. Most recently, it was the Bucks losing to the Heat last week.
Isn't there a strong canadian contingent already in Florida though? I mean when the Canadians play the Panthers, the Habs fans do show up. This game 1 between the Leafs/Cats is already fascinating. Go Cats.
Kraken score four goals in the first including three in 52 seconds (score 4-2 after one period), Stars score two in the third to tie it up, Kraken win in OT.
The Kraken front office gave the staff of a local elementary school located across the street from their practice facilities front row tickets to game three along with $10,000 this morning.
The organization is pretty community focused. One of the local radio hosts was sharing that if someone is interested in playing hockey and moving in to the junior leagues and such they will play for the first set of equipment for the youngster. In addition to donating hockey equipment to local schools for PE.
I'm very conflicted by this situation as a life-long Habs fan. One--the Leafs winning anything like a championship is verboten. Two--The Habs have Florida's first round pick in this year's draft, so having the Panthers advance moves the pick from 17 to no better than 29. Not optimal. Three--An all-Canadian final with Edmonton v Toronto (with Edmonton winning, of course) is one of my biggest wishes for this year's playoffs (not least for the coronary it would give Bettman). Ah well. At least Boston won't be winning a Cup, so there's that.
Blackhawks win the first pick and the right to select phenom Connor Bedard. I am displeased; after the sickening scandal that organisation was involved in, they deserved nothing nice for a good long time.
I brought up the same thought on Twitter and the cesspool is bending over backward to justify it, including that he (Beach) could've left at any time, that he was this hulking hockey player and Aldrich was this tiny wimp and that Beach must've been bicurious. Why do I keep going back?
The Ryan Reynolds group (not that he was the big money but he was the big name) failed in their bid to purchase the Ottawa Senators. The deadline for interested groups to submit final nonbinding offers is May 15.
The Oilers were a letdown yet again - and unlike past years, I don't think they can point to flawed roster construction. Aside from goaltending, I think they had the players to compete and provide support for McDavid and Draisaitl - they just didn't perform.