[PST] Stanley Cup Final: Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning---Bolts win the Cup 4-1

[Erick Estrada]

Any fan base that riots are idiots so I'm totally fine with his comments. Habs fans are amongst the most entitled in the league beside Oilers fans so I have no idea why anyone would feel sorry or stick up for them. I'm very happy they got to go home with tears in their eyes. Screw them.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Chicago has defeated them in the finals

Oh yeah, I forgot about that lol

[Da_Chief]

They played the system and won. Call it cheating, cap circumvention or whatever. The fact is most championship teams do it.

The Hawks did it with Kane. The Wings would just acquire future hall of famers in a no cap era. In the NBA, guys screw over their original teams and go form an alliance. In baseball, Dodgers have a massive payroll, Astros literally cheated, the Yankees would be putting out all-star teams as their everyday lineup. Even the most respected dynasty in sports imo, the Patriots have been busted of deflate gate, spy gate etc.

If you're not cheating you're not trying, right?

Just glad this season is done, go back to normal schedules.

[Mull]

I was hoping to see a Canadian team win, sorry to see the Habs loose when I checked this morning.
Although Price appeared to stand on his head, purely based on SV %. To think some Hab fans were doubting him at earlier in the year.

Can't blame the goalie if you don't score and get out shot 30-20

[Nyah]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Montreal fans, in any sport, are the best. There were just enjoying every moment.

Montreal has some of the worst fans in the league. GQ did a hilarious write up about 10 years ago about Habs fans:

Forget the riots that erupted last May after the Canadiens made it to the Eastern Conference final; they were nothing compared with the hordes of looters who set fire to five police cars during the 2008 playoffs simply because Montreal advanced past the first round.

Meanwhile, inside the Bell Centre, the only things people boo more frequently than the U.S. national anthem are their own players. In 2003, team veteran Patrice "Breeze-by" Brisebois was heckled almost every time he touched the puck; the jeering was so intense it likely induced a stress-related irregular heartbeat. How did then GM Bob Gainey feel about his bloodthirsty fan base? "I think they're a bunch of gutless bastards, to be honest," he said.

[GirlySports]

That's good Fandom to me. Article is cherrypicking events over 5 years

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by stemit14

Seriously, teams could start to use this Tampa team as a model every year. You could essentially build a team designed to get you to the playoffs and have a whole other set of players in reserve to make you a playoff monster that’s $10 million+ over the cap. Just put them on LTIR. You pick when you want them to be healthy...

You cannot "just put them on LTIR." People do understand that Kucherov actually underwent actual surgery, right?


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[Erick Estrada]

Yeah Habs fans suck so I love the Kucherov comments. Let's not forget about them whining about Darryl Sutter hockey when the Flames dominated them in the regular season when it was the only way their team could win games in the playoffs.

[Macman]

I'm also glad it's finally over and that the NHL was able to have a season and finish the playoffs. Now we can get ready and back to a "normal" hockey season again, expansion draft, draft and free agency.

I've moved on from TB and 2004, that was a long time ago! I think with myself and a lot of other fans, TB is just to far away. How do you even follow a team like that if you're living in Calgary for example which makes it hard to really care about the finals.

I would have been more excited had Montreal won but am also not peeved they didn't.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah Habs fans suck so I love the Kucherov comments. Let's not forget about them whining about Darryl Sutter hockey when the Flames dominated them in the regular season when it was the only way their team could win games in the playoffs.

Agsin, that's Fandom to me. Not delusional Oilers fans and media. Montreal media is cutthroat.

[greyshep]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Agsin, that's Fandom to me. Not delusional Oilers fans and media. Montreal media is cutthroat.

I will never have respect for a fan base that riots as regularly as Montreal fans do. That isnt fandom, that is idiocy. How can you admire that?

[troutman]

MTL has many good knowledgeable fans like Habernac. They also attract the most casual fans who know #### about the NHL and crap all over social media when the Habs are succeeding, and then disappear again for a few years when times are tough.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by greyshep

I will never have respect for a fan base that riots as regularly as Montreal fans do. That isnt fandom, that is idiocy. How can you admire that?

Rioters are not fans, it's the city.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by troutman

MTL has many good knowledgeable fans like Habernac. They also attract the most casual fans who know #### about the NHL and crap all over social media when the Habs are succeeding, and then disappear again for a few years when times are tough.

You are talking about Leafs and Oilers who the media prop up. This isn't 1970, I don't think Montreal is a team people casually follow today.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Agsin, that's Fandom to me. Not delusional Oilers fans and media. Montreal media is cutthroat.

Agsin, Habs fans suck and yes they are every bit as delusional as Oilers fans.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by stemit14

It’s the convenient timing of his return that has everyone upset. Yes, he had surgery and had a recovery time but if his return was one week earlier, Tampa would have not been cap compliant. He was practicing with the team for over a month before returning. If he had been activated off of LTIR any earlier than he did, the team would have been over the cap.

It seems to be the consensus that the lightning have circumvented the cap using this process. Everything they’ve done has been within the rules because the team had it in their back pocket to say when he is ready to be activated. “Back to full health” is a subjective term based on them deciding when he is fully and completely back to game shape. He could have been fully healed from the surgery for a long time, but the term “game shape” was likely how they kept him on LTIR for exactly as long as they wanted… and not a minute earlier.


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A whole lot of teams have held recovering players back until either a PO push or the POs themselves, this is not unusual. He was at most a couple weeks early (and he was way way ahead of the normal recovery schedule).

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Agsin, Habs fans suck and yes they are every bit as delusional as Oilers fans.

Then Flames fans are delusional too. Flames could have made the final and gotten revenge on Tampa if they had gotten in. I've heard that all week.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

I can have a soft spot for how Habs are feeling right now despite those 24 cups… it’s been more years since they’ve won the total cups they have now so really those cups are more of a historic thing at this point

Good. They had the rights to every player coming out of Quebec for decades while the other 5 teams had to share everyone else.

They also didn’t let their players fight in WWII.

Plus they riot. Not as bad as Vancouver mind you… but still…

Mtl sucks.

[stemit14]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

You cannot "just put them on LTIR." People do understand that Kucherov actually underwent actual surgery, right?


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Originally Posted by stemit14

It’s the convenient timing of his return that has everyone upset. Yes, he had surgery and had a recovery time but if his return was one week earlier, Tampa would have not been cap compliant. He was practicing with the team for over a month before returning. If he had been activated off of LTIR any earlier than he did, the team would have been over the cap.

It seems to be the consensus that the lightning have circumvented the cap using this process. Everything they’ve done has been within the rules because the team had it in their back pocket to say when he is ready to be activated. “Back to full health” is a subjective term based on them deciding when he is fully and completely back to game shape. He could have been fully healed from the surgery for a long time, but the term “game shape” was likely how they kept him on LTIR for exactly as long as they wanted… and not a minute earlier.


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Of course we realize that he had surgery. It’s the way too convenient timing of his activation off of LTIR that everyone is calling cap circumvention . The team that Tampa put on the ice for the playoffs was way over the cap.


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[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

You cannot "just put them on LTIR." People do understand that Kucherov actually underwent actual surgery, right?


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Such an overblown issue. Kucherov had serious surgery, for which normal recovery time would have seen him return well into the POs. People freaked out because he skated (by himself) a couple months before the POs and was doing non-contact practice a month before.

Yes, TBL signed extensions for players with Kucherov on LTIR. Because, for all they knew, he was not going to be available all season. Any other thought process would see them play short handed all year.

And no, lots of teams couldn’t withstand the loss of a Kucherov and still make the POs. Tampa didn’t sign a bunch of good players they didn’t have before. What they did was give some of their current players raises.