The NHL is crying

[trsent]

Being one of the few (but proud) die hard Coyotes fans I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am right now!!!!!!!

I was at Game 2 a couple of Saturday nights ago - Glad to see there are proud fans because I sat 7th row behind the visitor bench and the Yotes fans around me appeared to be playoff hockey fans. It was really sad. They had no clue what was going on.

In the meantime, congratulations to your franchise! They outplayed my franchise and deserve the first ever playoff victory. Good luck against Nashville.

[TNTtoys]

Hey Matt,

I don't see the NY Rangers in your short list...

Nick

[kudu]

Kudu, I agree the bandwagon fans in Boston will pretend to care and Philly fans always do. LA isn't relevant are they? Don't Gretzky and Robitaille play for them? They did the last time anyone in the town known for being fake rooted for the home town team in that market.

I am hoping for Phoenix, Nashville or St Louis out of the West to beat Florida. The Yotes have a group of real die hard fans and winning the Cup allows for my favorite event in sports : Watching the second class redheaded stepchild whoop some booty. Nashville is about to endure another decade of being the East Coast Coyotes unless they win as every top tier player will sign elsewhere. And The Blues? Those loyal fans have been screwed for at least a decade and deserve to be rewarded.

As far as the East? The Flyers would be the best team left and I could play goal for them. Ottawa would be a gimmick to help return the Cup to Canada, they shouldn't have even qualified for the playoffs. Washington was there to insure the Bruins don't pretend to have fans as their elimination leaves the 35 year old bandwagon empty again and the Panthers validate Bettman's mistake of Southern Expansion.

Im guessing LA is somewhat relevant considering they handled VanCity pretty good. Queens are a good team, but Im thinking Predators are the team to beat.

[kings418]

Sounds like sour grapes from a bitter Canucks fan. Give the team that just man handled you team a little credit.

Vince

[gingi79]

Sounds like sour grapes from a bitter Canucks fan. Give the team that just man handled you team a little credit.

Vince

Vince, you misread my post. The King DESERVED to win. They outplayed and wanted it more than the the Canucks. LA deserved to move on. I have no sour grapes as unlike last years Finals, 100% this was a case where the better playing team won. Not once did I see refs assisting the outcome, no cheap shots, just good hard playing hockey and the correct outcome.

That doesn't mean the NHL is happy. Real LA fans aren't exactly known for being loyal. They don't attract fans spread throughout the country as the visiting team, the Canadian market sees them as "Hockey-Stupid" uninterested bandwagonners. LA only cares when there is something monumental (like knocking out a President's Trophy winner and being mentioned in the Hockey world for the first time without Gretzky)

Nick, I didn't mention the Rangers because I am still bitter from 1994. I was hoping if I ignored them, they'd get dumped by Ottawa. And at the time I believe the series was 3-2 and the point of the post was to point out how close the outcome of such normally unmentioned teams may move on to the second round (Same reason for not mentioning the Devils)