GDT: 2022-23 Other Games around the league

[TheBeard]

Is it bitter? Absolutely. Do I care? Not at all. f*** Vegas and f*** the league for giving them the red carpet at every opportunity. Most expansion teams in the past got absolutely screwed every chance they could, including the Sharks, and now a team gets to come in and reap the rewards of a league that is actively in favor of their success.

There's plenty of trying to justify Vegas winning as a good thing, and it's all cope. The most unlikeable franchise in the league is about to win in the second Cup Final they've made in 6 years as a franchise and have basically made watching hockey about as fun as ramming my head into a brick wall.

The Blues winning in 2019 was awful and garbage, but you felt at least some good for some of their fans. Same with the Kings, until their fans became incredibly cocky after winning. This is just the worst.

Agreed 100%. Try living here during all this. The arrogance of the city and their unwillingness to acknowledge the benefits they got, citing "shrewd management taking advantage of bad GMs".

 

[OrrNumber4]

What Vegas has accomplished is so much more impressive to me. They never had the luxury of building around 1st and 2nd overall picks like the Bolts and Avs. They expertly leveraged the expansion draft process to extract maximum assets then turned those assets into Stone, Pacioretty and Eichel. They've never signed a truly bad (i.e. untradeable) contract which afforded them the space to sign their top defense pair of Pietrangelo and Martinez.

Anyone can draft the consensus top prospect 1st overall, and obviously Tampa and Colorado deserve a ton of credit for building around their core effectively, but Vegas has essentially managed to trade their way to a Stanley Cup champion in 6 years using no elite prospects or high draft picks as ammo. We've never seen this in the salary cap era.

Solid points. You've changed my mind on this.

 

[Sharkz4Fun]

I mean to me it doesn't seem all that bad at all.

And Vegas is certainly not a lucky team that plays boring hockey. They play an offensive style, they skate, they attack, they forecheck, they activate their defensemen. It's not like those teams that score and then play park the bus in front of the net....I hate that kind of hockey.

The Blues winning in 2019 was heart-rending but this feels like mehh whatever.

Blues winning given the entire circumstance was a million times worse, but this is adding more shit on a shit sundae.

The only team we should be rooting against now is the Canucks. They're both neck and neck in terms of heartbreak but man, I was bored recently and looked at their history and those fans have been through some shit. I think the team that wins first between the two will cripple the other fanbase.

 

[OrrNumber4]

I disliked the Blues players and management a lot. I still think that that hand pass created a situation where the league was heavily biased against the Sharks winning.

With Vegas, it's really their fans that are unbearable. Eichel cuts a very sympathetic figure, and outside of Marchessault and Barbashev who on that team is really unlikeable?

 

[mogambomoroo]

I disliked the Blues players and management a lot. I still think that that hand pass created a situation where the league was heavily biased against the Sharks winning.

With Vegas, it's really their fans that are unbearable. Eichel cuts a very sympathetic figure, and outside of Marchessault and Barbashev who on that team is really unlikeable?

That's true.
But we gotta admit, we would love to have Marchessault and Barbashev in our team (or players in similar fashion).

 

[SJSharksfan39]

I'm done hating on Vegas, because I actually lost my mind watching the game 1 when Vegas won, it's not healthy to have that much passion to hate that team.

As much as I hate admitting, Vegas at least has a TEAM with capital T.
When they play, everyone is a Golden Knight and the team itself makes players better. I mean how many players became a solid NHL:ers when they came to Vegas. Stephenson first comes to mind, he was a 4th line player in WSH and now legit top 6 center/swiss army knife

I hate the cap circumvention, but I know that if one day Sharks wins because cap circumvention, I will not blink an eye.

I started feeling the same way. Hating a team that much is bad for mental health, and they have a hell of a team. I hate how they've been great since Day 1 but that's the way the NHL works now. Seattle showed that point this year.

 

[Alaskanice]

That's true.
But we gotta admit, we would love to have Marchessault and Barbashev in our team (or players in similar fashion).

I would have to take some serious thought about loving Marchessault in teal. He wines way too much.

 

[Juxtaposer]

I disliked the Blues players and management a lot. I still think that that hand pass created a situation where the league was heavily biased against the Sharks winning.

With Vegas, it's really their fans that are unbearable. Eichel cuts a very sympathetic figure, and outside of Marchessault and Barbashev who on that team is really unlikeable?

Alex “lumberjack” Pietrangelo has become pretty unlikeable to me, I hate Vegas fans, and Marchessault and Barbashev are two of my most hated players, but I’m kinda rooting for Eichel.

 

[Pavelski2112]

Alex “lumberjack” Pietrangelo has become pretty unlikeable to me, I hate Vegas fans, and Marchessault and Barbashev are two of my most hated players, but I’m kinda rooting for Eichel.

Eichel winning would be the only bright spot, and not because I particularly care for him or anything, but because it would be hilarious

 

[OrrNumber4]

Also, I think it's worth repeating that immediately after the expansion draft, nobody thought that Vegas had gotten away with some kind of larceny. Only when they hit the ice did everyone see the hidden gems they had found. They really did their diligence and it paid off.

 

[DG93]

Also, I think it's worth repeating that immediately after the expansion draft, nobody thought that Vegas had gotten away with some kind of larceny. Only when they hit the ice did everyone see the hidden gems they had found. They really did their diligence and it paid off.

A few players such as William Karlsson were surprises, but I think it was general consensus that they got some very good pieces in Marchessault, Smith, Theodore, Schmidt, and Fleury.

 

[Alaskanice]

A few players such as William Karlsson were surprises, but I think it was general consensus that they got some very good pieces in Marchessault, Smith, Theodore, Schmidt, and Fleury.

They were gifted a competitive team from the start.

 

[Pavelski2112]

There is a little revision going on about Vegas's opening roster, but it was still far, far more generous than any past expansion draft.

 

[TheBeard]

There is a little revision going on about Vegas's opening roster, but it was still far, far more generous than any past expansion draft.

It wasn’t elite but there was a ton of youth and they sacrificed even better pieces for draft picks allowing them to end up with three picks in the first 15 that draft. Simply absurd.

 

[Alaskanice]

The Panthers are back in it. OT winner.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Florida's not dead yet. Glad it won't be a sweep.

 

[sharski]

Blues winning given the entire circumstance was a million times worse, but this is adding more shit on a shit sundae.

The only team we should be rooting against now is the Canucks. They're both neck and neck in terms of heartbreak but man, I was bored recently and looked at their history and those fans have been through some shit. I think the team that wins first between the two will cripple the other fanbase.

I don't get why that should make us root against the Canucks though I don't really see the difference between the most of 2nd most tortured fanbase in the league

If they win a cup I hope they wear it in health

Also, the Canucks are my 2nd team, only 2 players in Vancouver that ever triggered me

 

[tahoesharksfan]

If they can get the next one I can see Florida turning this whole thing around....please!

 

[OrrNumber4]

Oof, bad read from Hill on the OT winner.

There is a little revision going on about Vegas's opening roster, but it was still far, far more generous than any past expansion draft.

Of course, of course (but that's like being the tallest kid in the first grade). Still, a lot of their success didn't just come from generous expansion rules, but from them taking players nobody else wanted.

A few players such as William Karlsson were surprises, but I think it was general consensus that they got some very good pieces in Marchessault, Smith, Theodore, Schmidt, and Fleury.

IIRC Marchessault was seen as a solid pickup. Smith was considered a player on a bad contract, Fleury was just a cap dump, and Schmidt was a bottom-pairing guy. HFBoards liked the Theodore pickup, but he was not an established player at that point. You're forgetting players like Miller, Haula, Perron; all big surprises.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

The dream of Vegas losing is alive for another day, pray it wont be the last

 

[karltonian]

Jfc this is the sharks-pens finals script.

 

[Shark Finn]

Jfc this is the sharks-pens finals script.

I got the same feeling watching the Game 3 highlights.

 

[tahoesharksfan]

Still, a lot of their success didn't just come from generous expansion rules, but from them taking players nobody else wanted.

You’re confusing “nobody else wanted” with “nobody else could protect due to the generous terms of their entry draft”….

 

[OrrNumber4]

You’re confusing “nobody else wanted” with “nobody else could protect due to the generous terms of their entry draft”….

I should clarify. I don't mean wanted in the "I'd take him off the waiver wire" (though that applied to Smith or Fleury) but it wasn't like Vegas got a bunch of very desirable players. It was seen as a team with a bunch of middle-six forwards and #4-6 defensemen.

 

[Jargon]

I should clarify. I don't mean wanted in the "I'd take him off the waiver wire" (though that applied to Smith or Fleury) but it wasn't like Vegas got a bunch of very desirable players. It was seen as a team with a bunch of middle-six forwards and #4-6 defensemen.

Your 2023 San Jose Sharks?!?