2022 Stanley Cup playoffs thread

Sure, Colorado is a dominant team but St. Louis had 109 points themselves. That one just struck me as a “too-hot” take lol.

 

Tampa seems to have figured out the perfect regular season form to where they're comfortably in the playoffs but have plenty of gas left for the postseason. They don't care where they're seeded or if they have home ice. They just win. It's impressive.

Florida just has a massive coaching disadvantage. Brunette will be fine in the future, but he's no match for Cooper.

 

Avs in 6.

 

Late to the party here, but New York has witnessed close to 100 years of professional hockey as an Original Six franchise while Raleigh didn't even have an ECHL team until 31 years ago, when Durham Bulls owner Miles Wolff applied for an expansion franchise and constructed a rink in a converted horse show arena on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.

So it's an entire orchard of apples to a single slice of orange comparison.

In 1991, only northern transplants in the Triangle had actually seen a live hockey game, and the News and Observer put their tennis guy on the beat because they thought that was the closest equivalency. Nobody in the stands knew what "offsides" meant, let alone "power play" or "icing" or any other rules of hockey the rest of us take for granted.

It was considered an odd novelty at first, but by the middle of the first season, fans were outside scalping tickets because 5,100-seat Dorton Arena was sold out every game. Guys like Jimmy Powers, Lyle Wildgoose, Rick Barkovich and Smokey Reddick were instant heroes, and youth hockey interest went through the roof.

The fact that the 24th-ranked TV market in the country -- known way more for ACC basketball, BASSMasters and NASCAR -- has shown the ability to support an NHL team still amazes me.

And yeah, I got paid $25 a game as PA voice of the IceCaps, which I negotiated up to $30 for Year 2. Plus Jimmie Dupree of the Herald-Sun gave me a byline for sending 12 inches of copy to the desk after the game.

 

By contrast, the Tampa area, justifiably criticized for its tepid support of the Rays, supports the Lightning as well as it does the Bucs

 

Trotz has interviewed in Winnipeg and Philly
Florida might be next

 

And yet Atlanta has had two NHL teams without gaining any traction. Their only sellouts seemed to be due to transplanted Red Wings, Bruins, Blackhawks and Rangers fans.

But the IHL Knights were a massive success.

Go figure.

 

Both Atlanta teams were terrible
In a front running town like Atlanta you’d better be good

 

Well, it didn't help that the second Atlanta ownership group ran the team like this:

 

I'd insert a Dany Heatley joke, but that'd be piling on.