Your First Place Vegas Golden Knights

[E.L.]

First in league standings with 66 points after 46 games. Unreal.

Marchessault is PPG. Karlsson, Perron and Smith are not far behind. Fleury has a 946 Save Pct in 16 games.

[Pokecheque]

So do ya re-sign everyone? Or deal at least a couple guys for futures? I imagine they'll sign Neal, not sure about Perron.

[Chris18]

Holy shit nuggets. I figured I've got lots of free time, it's my birthday and the Isles will be at the Knights Thursday. $105 are the cheapest tickets on the legal scalper sites! $105??? Fucking fuck that's expensive.

[E.L.]

Holy shit nuggets. I figured I've got lots of free time, it's my birthday and the Isles will be at the Knights Thursday. $105 are the cheapest tickets on the legal scalper sites! $105??? Fucking fuck that's expensive.

I think so many NHL fans in other cities thought they could swoop in for a last-minute Vegas weekend and buy tickets off the strip. Nope, hottest ticket in town and a hit among locals.

[harmfuljays]

Holy shit nuggets. I figured I've got lots of free time, it's my birthday and the Isles will be at the Knights Thursday. $105 are the cheapest tickets on the legal scalper sites! $105??? Fucking fuck that's expensive.

I think so many NHL fans in other cities thought they could swoop in for a last-minute Vegas weekend and buy tickets off the strip. Nope, hottest ticket in town and a hit among locals.

Ticket prices are f'n outrageous!

[Chris18]

Holy shit nuggets. I figured I've got lots of free time, it's my birthday and the Isles will be at the Knights Thursday. $105 are the cheapest tickets on the legal scalper sites! $105??? Fucking fuck that's expensive.

I think so many NHL fans in other cities thought they could swoop in for a last-minute Vegas weekend and buy tickets off the strip. Nope, hottest ticket in town and a hit among locals.

Ticket prices are f'n outrageous!

Yep! I guess the league was totally right in putting a team there. There may be lots of out of town fans at their games, but if they've got a full arena, a good home record and are doing well, Bettman and co look smart. For once.
And I am sure their home record has to do with away teams partying like hell, which may or may not continue. Isles have today and tomorrow off while in Vegas, then play late Thursday night. It will be interesting to see if Barzal & Beauvillier, who aren't old enough to get into a bar, play differently from the older guys.

[Stinky]

I hope Gallant wins the Adams.

The habs have sucked since they let him go.

He was the brains behind their operation.

[Pokecheque]

Gallant worked for the Habs?

[Chris18]

Gallant worked for the Habs?

12-13 and 13-14 seasons.
He coached in Clumbus, Montreal, NYI, QMJHL (2 championships in 3 years, losing in the finals his first year), Florida and now Vegas.

[Pokecheque]

Cannot believe a team that has Deryk Engelland and Luca Sbisa taking regular shifts is dominating like this.

[Logical Progression]

Engelland is an absolute mystery but hasn't Sbisa the pizza delivery man been injured a large part of the season?

[E.L.]

Vegas clinches the Smythe!

Vegas is in, but so too are the Sharks, Kings and Ducks. This is going to be excellent hockey.

[Hounsy]

So maybe depth, players that compete(speed and tenacity), and a goaltender is what should be the magic ingredients of a rebuild.

[Pokecheque]

I think lack of speed torpedoes a team quicker than anything outside of bad goaltending. You look at all the teams that either collapsed down the stretch (Chicago, Dallas) or just plain stumbled out of the gate and stayed there (Buffalo) you see a common theme--teams that are too slow, too old, or both. Conversely, you look at teams that surprised (Vegas, Colorado, New Jersey) and they all have extremely good team speed. I should point out that last year's Avalanche, they of the wonderful 22 wins in 82 games and 48 frickin' points, were probably the slowest team in the NHL (only Buffalo came close IMO). You simply cannot afford to be slow. The only outlier in the modern NHL to really buck that trend is Los Angeles, and while they weren't flush with great skaters, they were just plain able to move the puck quicker than anyone else. Once they lost that edge they also fell flat.

The expansion Wylde also went a similar route. Guys like Wes Walz weren't true top line talents, but they could skate, and I think that's why they too had a better-than-expected start.

"Heavy Hockey" is dead. And thank goodness.

[E.L.]

"Heavy Hockey" is dead. And thank goodness.

Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli beg to differ...

[Stinky]

"Heavy Hockey" is dead. And thank goodness.

Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli beg to differ...

Fuck those guys.

McCaron for LOOOOOCH!

#asshats

[Logical Progression]

"Heavy Hockey" is dead. And thank goodness.

Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli beg to differ...

And then there's Winnipeg....

[E.L.]

"Heavy Hockey" is dead. And thank goodness.

Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli beg to differ...

And then there's Winnipeg....

You can be heavy as long as you have Laine, Schiefele, Wheeler and Ehlers.

[Pokecheque]

Keep in mind that as big and tough (and skilled) as Winnipeg is, one of their most effective players year-in-, year-out is hulking behemoth Mathieu Perreault. Absolutely insane to me that he's on his third team. What were they thinking!?

A shame Toby Enstrom's small frame just can't stand up to the rigors of the NHL anymore. Dude is truly mini-Lidstrom.

[Pokecheque]

So unless Vegas swings a big trade their opening night roster will look something like this:

Smith - Karlsson - Marchessault
Tatar - Stastny - Tuch
Haula - Eakin - Lindberg
Carrier - Bellemare - Nosek
Reaves

Schmidt - Theodore
Miller - Merrill
Engelland - McNabb
Holden (didn't even know he had signed there)

Fleury
Subban

Of course there's a chance kids like Glass, Suzuki, or Brannstrom could make the team. I'm sure I've got a couple things wrong here in any event.

On paper that's not a terrible lineup, also not great, but I'm not about to prognosticate their chances.