It’s the first Game 69 of the regular season.
Nice.
The Kraken are, like every team that is going into the draft lottery with hopes of Shane Wright at best and Juraj Slafkovsky as their secret consolation prize, not tempting fans with anything other than the experience of a hockey game and the hope that at some point during the playoffs, a magic ball will be pulled out of a humorously large tumbler that holds their team’s logo on it that signals that they’ll be the ones that receive it. And everyone must do their part of trying to betray the idea that they’re rooting for a victory when, in reality…they’re kind of hoping a loss gets them wedged closer to Montreal.
Coach Dave Hakstol, for his part, appears to be trying the same thing, just more directly.
You could show me any version of those D-Pairs you’d like, I am genuinely stunned by the idea of Jared McCann somehow becoming a 4th liner, even if he’s had some rough luck here and there.
Anyway, the Stars! A team caught between two worlds. They have young exciting talent…that they don’t play in favor of aging vets. They have some fast, high-octane talent…that they make play super boring and super uninspired hockey. They might have genuine All-Stars brewing in their depth!…that are routinely in the clutches of the Hockey Coach equivalent of a bland porridge in Rick Bowness. They are a team of contrasts trying their best to prove that Bowness’ way works, and are only holding onto their 2nd wild card spot by a single point, hounded by Seattle’s slightly older brother in Vegas. Now, I would rather stick my hand in a running V8 engine than give the Knights any more of my time than they’ve already stolen thanks to the many, many hours at this point of pouring over game footage of these two teams playing, but I like the idea of Dallas and Vegas fighting it out until the very last game of the year, so I think it would be fun if the Kraken got themselves some kind of victory coming out of this game. Even an overtime win just barely scrapes the Stars away from their knife fight companions, and that’s something I think the Kraken could do.
Question of the Thread!: If you could set a new standard of cowboy hat, what would it be?
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