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Around the League playoff edition

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KINGS17 said:
I will myself a mental note (*) to put a mental * on 2020 whenever it is mentioned.

Tampa Bay was still the best team though, and it was clearly evident in the territorial advantage the held on their opponents throughout the playoffs.

Dallas representing the West shows their are still some young teams in the Western Conference which either need some finishing touches or a basic part or two to get to being a championship caliber team. Thinking of teams like Colorado, Edmonton, and possibly Vancouver. I think the Vegas window remains open for at least one more season.
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TBL did really do a good job of fully utilizing a 'window' rather than a season. Not that it was purely intentional because they were competitive but they never did a real "all in" dive and are one of the few teams that were rewarded for it:



As you point out, they found a 'soft' spot in the eras. Post Pitts-Washington-Chicago-LA, and ran into some stiff but still figuring it out competition in the East, minus Boston of course. And I don't mean that part to discredit them at all, just that the exercise of keeping the window open to keep swinging paid off.
 
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It's just rough for a team known for shrinking under the pressure to finally win one in the lowest-pressure SCF ever. Shit...I had to be reminded that the game was even being played last night as I was still watching the Chiefs up by 2+ touchdowns instead and I regularly post on an internet hockey message board.

In the end, the questions I will always have about them don't matter in the record books. But, for me personally, the win carries a huge asterisk and I don't know if they pull it off if not for the neutral site atmosphere.
 
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The thing is, people keep forgetting that Tampa Bay was a Stanley Cup finalist in 2015, have been in the Eastern Conference Finals in 4 of the last 5 years, and now finally won the Cup with the cards they were dealt with (along with 24 other teams). They also had a number of key injuries to their lineup as well, but they were able to overcome that loss because of their ridiculous depth.

The Lightning were also among the youngest teams in the league, scored the most goals during the season, had a top 10 defense, and a top 5 powerplay. This is a pretty damn good hockey team that was built from within. Not a single overpaid free agent signing, they only overpaid to keep their own players. I find more admirable qualities in that team than some of the more irresponsible franchises.

That said, they now they have some seriously difficult decisions to make because they don't have much cap flexibility and have a number of key RFAs that need to be locked up. I guess they've venturing into similar problems the Kings ran into after their Cup wins, except maybe without the off-ice issues.
 
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I thought they broke the Kings in a game during the Lucic year. Think it was midway to the end of that year. They dominated the game. Kings had no answer. That was the first sign that the Kings were in decline for me. Tampa has been legit, just needed some grit.
 
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LAKings88 said:
I thought they broke the Kings in a game during the Lucic year. Think it was midway to the end of that year. They dominated the game. Kings had no answer. That was the first sign that the Kings were in decline for me. Tampa has been legit, just needed some grit.
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I remember that game. They were moving the puck all game like the Russians (or Detroit) in the old days. Kings were 2 steps behind all game.
 
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Ziggy Stardust said:
It beats having a cancelled season with no deciding champions. Having had no hockey or sports up until October would've been even more painstaking of a wait.
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Can't say I agree. I didn't watch a lick of these "playoffs" and all it did was push the start of the next season back to December or January, which is actually making me go without hockey for my favorite team for longer (assuming a season is played of course).
 
Going head to head against probably the best monday night football matchup in decades certainly did not help the ratings. This is clearly an outlier because the NHL will never go head to head against the NFL on a regular basis. Now I do think them both being sunbelt teams didn't help, but I think it was a string of poor timing that was out their hands.
 
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Bandit said:
Can't say I agree. I didn't watch a lick of these "playoffs" and all it did was push the start of the next season back to December or January, which is actually making me go without hockey for my favorite team for longer (assuming a season is played of course).
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It could be almost 10 months until we see another Kings game. That's close to twice the amount of time between seasons. They're going to need a sand blaster to remove all the rust. This goes for all the other non-playoff teams.
 
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BigKing said:
It will have one in the minds of many. All sports for this season. There just isn't any way around it.

Still wish the Kings won it, or the Tigers won the World Series...or the Panthers win the Super Bowl. Look at my rooting interests. Yikes.

Only non-asterisk title this season will be if I repeat as champ in my fantasy football league.
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And I thought I was bad as a Kings, Angels, Buccaneers fan.
 
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kingsboy11 said:
Going head to head against probably the best monday night football matchup in decades certainly did not help the ratings. This is clearly an outlier because the NHL will never go head to head against the NFL on a regular basis. Now I do think them both being sunbelt teams didn't help, but I think it was a string of poor timing that was out their hands.
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I personally kind of stopped watching after Round 2. Found myself catching more basketball which was pretty shocking.

To be fair though, I've been watching less and less of non-Kings hockey for a couple of years now. I know I'm somewhat in the minority, but I feel like the product is pretty bland save for a few teams.
 
Not arguing with anyone here as these are all opinions, but I watched nearly every game of the playoffs and loved every second of it. I had rewatched both of the Kings Cup runs before these playoffs started, and I was pretty impressed by the level of play/hatred/physicality in comparison given the lack of fans. I might be a bit of an outlier in that I don't watch any other sports period, but just my two cents.

I also have to say that I knew Brayden Point was good, but holy smokes did he impress me. He's not at MacKinnon's level, but he is a hell of a lot closer than I thought. It's just nuts what he can do with the puck in transition. Between the red line and the top of the offensive zone circles he's an absolute handful for opposing defenses.
 
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LAKings88 said:
I’m just hoping the downtime has been good for healing injuries. No Roenicks post lockout please.
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No one came back stronger than Selanne. The guy looked like he was done prior to the lockout. He healed up, worked out, and had a great couple of seasons after it was over.
 
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BringTheReign said:
Not arguing with anyone here as these are all opinions, but I watched nearly every game of the playoffs and loved every second of it. I had rewatched both of the Kings Cup runs before these playoffs started, and I was pretty impressed by the level of play/hatred/physicality in comparison given the lack of fans. I might be a bit of an outlier in that I don't watch any other sports period, but just my two cents.

I also have to say that I knew Brayden Point was good, but holy smokes did he impress me. He's not at MacKinnon's level, but he is a hell of a lot closer than I thought. It's just nuts what he can do with the puck in transition. Between the red line and the top of the offensive zone circles he's an absolute handful for opposing defenses.
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I actually lose interest every year after Round 2, now that I think about it. Physical play and cheap stuff seems to be most prevalent in Round 1. The higher the stakes, the more it seems players are afraid to take penalties and I feel like the refs call it tighter.

I really wanted Calgary to stay around longer since Tkachuk is so entertaining. Appreciated the Islanders play as well since they were pretty chippy. Tom Wilson bowing out so early was a bummer as well.
 
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BringTheReign said:
I think folks really tuned out when the Kings went up 3-0 in that series haha.
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G1: 2.9M -- Heat/Celtics G2 (went into OT)
G2: 2.9M -- Spurs/Thunder G4
G3: 1.7M (NBCSN) -- Spurs/Thunder G5
G4: 2.1M (NBCSN) -- Spurs/Thunder G6
G5: 3.3M -- Heat/Celtics G7
G6: 4.9M -- unopposed

We usually see a dip in viewership when the games shift to NBCSN.
 
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At least, the season after that, both teams get $9 million in cap space back from those buyouts back, barring no one does anything stupid, but it's hard to tell with GMs. That's a pretty darn good upside, plus they have #1 and #2 in the draft, and many more, so they can get prospects building. The Rangers also have another 1st round pick from the Canes as well.
 
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