Kinda nice they get to do it in front of 18,000+ fans instead of an empty arena this year.

Yes, congrats to the Bolts. Many jealous fans in Canada, especially in Vancouver and Toronto!

Yep, and congrats to the great hockey state, Florida. They certainly know their hockey down there. Maybe something for the Canadian teams to study?

Great run by my Habs. No shame in losing to the defending Champs. This Tampa team may have been the best of the salary cap era.

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Stoneage
Maybe something for the Canadian teams to study?

Start with easier taxation!

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Topi
Great run by my Habs. No shame in losing to the defending Champs. This Tampa team may have been the best of the salary cap era.

LOL...no Salary Cap in the playoffs...the Bolts were $17 million over the "cap" in the post-season. They were the best at finding the loophole in the system and gaming it, that's for sure.

Toronto tried something similar and failed miserably.

I know there's no cap in the playoffs. That was the point.

Reading that after Chicago used that same LTIR loophole (back in 2015?), Tampa proposed a vote against it, but lost the vote.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2021-07-08 16:30 by Topi.

Yeah, I was kinda split, the Habs have a long storied history and it's been a while for them, and I was kinda wanting them to make it interesting and win last night to pull within a game of tying the series.

On the other hand it was cool to see Tampa Bay win in front of its fans after being denied last year (empty arena), and one of our home town heroes in St. Louis, Patrick Maroon, won his 3rd cup in a row (with 2 different teams, St. Louis and Tampa Bay).

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JimmyTheSaint

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Topi
Great run by my Habs. No shame in losing to the defending Champs. This Tampa team may have been the best of the salary cap era.

LOL...no Salary Cap in the playoffs...the Bolts were $17 million over the "cap" in the post-season. They were the best at finding the loophole in the system and gaming it, that's for sure.

Toronto tried something similar and failed miserably.

LOL that's the Maple Loafs for ya.

Hockey has a strange life in the U.S. Rabid fans that fill up buildings, while there isn't that much national TV exposure in the states. Nothing approaching what the other major league sports have. I had to go to Google to see what Tampa Bay's nickname. Lightning. Okay. And it's still odd to think of having ice hockey in Florida, in July!

Canadian fans really are the bedrock of professional hockey. It's like (American) football in Texas, or basketball in Indiana.

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24FPS
Hockey has a strange life in the U.S. Rabid fans that fill up buildings, while there isn't that much national TV exposure in the states. Nothing approaching what the other major league sports have

Hopefully that'll be changing next season:

ESPN/Disney/ABC - NHL 7 Year TV Rights



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-07-09 03:11 by kovach.

Lotsa folks I know love goin' to a game in person, but won't watch any on TV... most think the puck is too hard to follow.

I'll take it any way I can get it!

Now come the hockey withdrawals...

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TKinOH
Lotsa folks I know love goin' to a game in person, but won't watch any on TV... most think the puck is too hard to follow.

I'll take it any way I can get it!

Now come the hockey withdrawals...

That's changed a bit with large screen HD TVs now being the norm I think.

Me and a buddy we're talking about that the other day, "Remember when we used to just watch the TV waiting for the goal light to come on?".