2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs thread

I just remember the final five minutes of Cavs-Warriors in Game 7 and how some of the greatest players in basketball history couldn’t make a shot for eight minutes from sheer exhaustion.

 

Dispute the credit card charge if you have to.

 

So many double-shifts for McDavid and Co., they were out of gas.

 

This is a very hot take, so I'm going to red font from here on out, but...

As a northerner, warm-weather "non-traditional markets" win the Cup chaps my ass a bit. Up here, hockey is our opiate for shitty winter weather. No one's ever had to miss a Panthers game because they couldn't get out of their driveway. The only negative at a Vegas Golden Knights game is in the bank accounts of the degenerates who took Calgary and the under.

The Panthers organization was a joke for decades. After they got swept out of the Finals by the Avs in 1996, they didn't win a playoff series until 2021. Their arena is located in the middle of a golf community 30 miles outside one of the worst sports cities in the country. Their most prominent player, Tkachuk, is an asshole. They better have their parade before Messi gets back in town (Argentina plays in Miami on Saturday).

Miami's ABC affiliate bailed out of the postgame early to go to local news.

https://awfulannouncing.com/local-n...thers-stanley-cup-celebration-local-news.html

Ceasing my hot takery for a fun fact: Every NHL franchise *currently* situated below 36.11 degrees latitude has won a Stanley Cup since the last time a Canadian team won one (From west to east, LA in 2012 and 2014, Anaheim in 2007, Vegas in 2023, Dallas 1999, Tampa Bay 2004, 2020, 2021 and Florida 2024). Edit: Still true, I just goofed on Nashville's latitude, it's 36.15 degrees North.

 

It was just weird how it happened all at once and not gradually over a few minutes. One minute they had the Panthers on their heels and the next they were, to a man, completely cooked.

 

Panthers are good. They smother teams.

 

Long, long overdue for Mo.

Glad it finally occurred. That he got a team that wore red sweaters at home for the first time to a Final was a wonder. This time, he had more at his disposal.

"F_CK YEAH!", indeed. Enjoy it, Mo.

 

They looked absolutely spent. McDavid played so many minutes in the third period and the legs just went completely to jello in the last two minutes. The human body has limits, even for elite athletes.

 

You and my wife would get along great.

Every season that my/our team is not in contention and we watch the deep rounds of the playoffs, she'll see Vegas or Dallas or Tampa Bay/Florida in it, and it sends her into a rage. "Fuck them and their hockey team playing in June in 85-degree weather. They shouldn't even be allowed in the league."

 

Yeah, he literally fell down while skating around the 1 or 2 minute mark. The refs were swallowing the whistles, as you'd expect in a game seven, so while his ice time was similar to previous games, there were just less stoppages last night.

 

Sun Belt/warm weather hockey sucks and always will.