2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs

From the Pulse in this morning's e-blast (The Athletic) ...



The Knights' swift ascension

Two champions in two nights makes a good week, no? There was some eerie symmetry between these NHL and NBA playoffs — we’ll get to that — but there was a massive difference in their title-clinching games.

For the Golden Knights, there was no difficulty last night. It was a romp.

• Las Vegas is Stanley Cup champion after a 9-3 rout over the upstart Panthers. The Knights win a ring in just their sixth season of existence, making them the fastest to ever win an NHL title. They enter an impressive group of quick-winning expansion franchises like the 2001 Diamondbacks (fourth year) and the 1971 Bucks (third).
  
  
• The Knights are also a shining example of how the NHL’s tweaked expansion draft rules worked. The franchise was able to build a great team immediately. They made the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season and are winners in season 6. The Seattle Kraken have played just two seasons and made a playoff appearance this year. This is good for hockey.

Jonathan Marchessault is your Conn Smythe winner after scoring 25 points in these playoffs. He was one of those expansion draft adds, and it’s fitting he won this honor against the team that left him unprotected. It’s been a long, bumpy ride here for Marchessault.

And about that symmetry: Two teams from South Florida — the Panthers and Heat — entered this postseason as lowly No. 8 seeds and blitzed into their title series … and both got bounced in five games. Maybe tweak that special potion for next year, when the Panthers have a real chance to contend again.

Jesse Granger has an inside look at what is often the best part of any championship: the party. Pierre LeBrun went all the way back to 2014 in his recounting of how the Golden Knights built a champion from the ground floor.

 

The NHL Finals were going on?

Who knew?

 

Not a fan of Vegas but as a Kings fan it was cool to see Alec Martinez hand the Cup to Jonathan Quick. Although Quick had as much to do with winning the Cup as you or I did.

 

That's an interesting list (thanks).
Noting the late Bill Nyrop at the bottom. For him to crack Montreal's D-corps with the likes of Savard, Lapointe and Robinson is impressive. Died way too young.
Joey Mullen was always a likeable chap. Would have been on the 1980 Miracle Team had his Hell's Kitchen family not needed money, thus signing with St. Louis.

 

ACHA Division 1, I assume.

Other than a handful of small schools out east playing in limited-scholarship leagues, and Augustana in Sioux Falls (which wanted to go D-I across the board but the Summit League said no), most growth for big state schools has been limited to the club level, as I don't believe ACHA programs are subject to Title IX.

 

No clue. I don't really follow hockey, I just ran up on that tweet and posted it. I watched the once successful hockey program at UAH in Huntsville die of a combination of having huge travel costs to reach other teams in the league and a lack of support from the Alabama BoT and local butts in seats and donations. Tough road for Southern college hockey teams.

 

It’s club hockey. There are a bunch of different divisions but still club hockey.

 

The hockey season has been extended until Wednesday as Coachella Valley topped Hershey 5-2 to square the Calder Cup final at 3-3. The home team is 6-0 in the series and Game 7 is in the desert, so, welp. But go Baby Caps.

 

I’m not staying up to watch Game 7? Am I staying up to watch Game 7? Really? Maybe. Perhaps…I need to feel something…real.

 

I can only imagine how someone gets from Hershey, PA to Palm Springs, CA. You figure the teams *might* have charters but after that?

 

There is an airport in Palm Springs, so that part is easy.

 

But if you were like a parent or a writer or something, what is that, drive to Philly, then fly to Denver or somewhere that's a big enough hub to fly into Palm Springs?