In Praise of #88

Instead of hats raining down onto the ice after Brandon Sutter’s hat trick goal on Monday night, just one hat — belonging to backup goalie Braden Holtby — hit the ice at Rogers Arena. It was a cool moment in these bizarre times, but certainly it’s just not the same without fans at games.

Among the players, they’re limited in the amount of socializing they can do with each other. So what do you do?

Buy your teammate a delicious ice cream treat, obviously.

“I know that he was still pretty pumped about it, I was trying to order a McFlurry for him last night, just a little treat, but I couldn’t get his address in time before the delivery service closed unfortunately.”

✏️ : Schmidt tries to buy McFlurry for Canucks teammate Sutter after hat trick by Rob Williams [x]

Why Pebbles is a Thinking Hockey Lady’s Dreamboat

Because he is the epitome of the saying, “It is never too late to live your dreams.”

Presented by @JessamyGriffin and @angelzlt

#41 • C/W

Status: On roster

Height: 6'0

Weight: 198 lbs.

Shoots: L

Experience: 3 years

Birthdate: Mar 6, 1985

Birthplace: Le Blanc-Mesnil, FRA

Drafted: Signed by Philadelphia in 2014.

Acquired: Claimed from Philadelphia in 2017 expansion draft.

Scouting report

Assets

Tired: A late-blooming talent with good skating ability and puck skills, he’s also a versatile forward capable of killing penalties with aplomb. Is a hard worker.

Wired: ‘Ha, ha, scouts overlooked him for years, his own French coaches told him he’d never make the NHL, whoops don’t we look like fucken dumbasses now that’s he’s the PK leader in Vegas? I mean, how the fuck did Philly end up with a 29-year old rookie?? And make him an assistant captain??? And then let him go? Ok, well we can see maybe why, that last season, whoa, but still. Geez. Look at Vegas go. Wow, egg-on-face time. Ha ha ha. We’re all assholes.’

Inspired: Fine and fit French man of a very fanciable (yet vintage by NHL standards) age of 33. Speaks French, Swedish and English. Has three sisters and a brother. Raised by mother in single parent household. Studied one year of medical school. Has an Olympic artistic gymnast sister. Every day he is on the ice he is doubtless a mote in Don Cherry or any old white man’s eye by being biracial, European trained, and too good to ignore.

In fair las Vegas, where we lay our scene,

From ancient grudge break to new amity,

(*This is according to a bitter bitter fan who shouted at me on Twitter like a lunatic bitch that Vegas stole her team’s goalie. His name is Marc-Andre Fleury. We will be getting to him in a bit. Hang on.) For new teams, there is an Expansion Draft. This is different from normal sports drafting, where teams recruit new talent, otherwise known as the lowest of the low, The Rookie. An Expansion Draft is where the newest franchise holder can choose players that are already with a team. Seasoned players. Proven talent, i.e. STEALING because the NHL totally doesn’t have any rules to stop the Knights from grabbing your Gretzky, right? Except it’s not theft, really. (Except to fans who are still shedding tears over favorites that were sacrificed to fates worse than death in the desert.) There are regs which I won’t get into, except to say that each team could protect a certain number of players (star talent, mostly,) and other players had protections already in their contracts (no-trade or no-movement clauses). Vegas didn’t get to pick the cream of the crop, oh no. They got one player per team, probably mid to low tier talent. Except in the case of Marc-Andre Fleury. Flower. Goalie and hockey superstar, three time Stanley Cup champion. Ah, Flower. Let me explain about Flower, for that is his true name. Part 2 - The Flower in the Desert Imagine. It is 2003. You are a goalie - a singular creature apart from the team, the last bastion, the Guardian of the Net. Goalies have the toughest time getting into the NHL - there’s only three per team, as opposed to the other positions. And here you are, a tall gangling teen with a heavy accent, an enormous charming toothy grin and a face designed in a wind tunnel, fresh out of Quebec. And when the normal draft comes around, you… you are picked FIRST. This… hardly ever happens to goalies. In fact, you are only the third goalie to have been picked first ever! In NHL history! But Mario Lemieux (MARIO LEMIEUX!!!) thinks you’ve got the stuff. And you join the Pittsburgh Penguins and you do have what it takes. In 5 years, the Pens win a Stanley Cup. 

Twelve years after you were drafted, things are looking very good for the playoff run. But there’s a new backup goaltender, younger, who is All About Eve wanting your place as the Pen’s main starter goalie, and suddenly you’re injured, and - it happens. He takes over the net in the playoff run. The Penguins win. You lift the Cup a second time, though you feel as if you did not do enough to help them win it.

Thirteen years with the team, and now the new guy is in your spot on the ice most of the season. You suck it up, you mentor him and you watch the games in your pads, waiting. Waiting. He gets injured, and once again you take up your helm to guard the goal. It’s the playoffs, and you are brilliant. Until… again, the slightest falter, a bad game and your replacement is all healed up now. From the bench you watch the Pens beat the Preds. You join your team on the ice as they scream in joy and lift the Cup a third time.

It is bittersweet. The writing’s on the wall. You are never going to be the Pens’ main goalie again. The Flower has been supplanted. And now… it’s the Expansion Draft. Vegas need a few star talents. But Pittsburgh has been home for so, so long. You tell yourself you are lucky - not every player gets to stay with a team so long. But you’re only 32. Replaced by a 22 yr old. You don’t want to warm the bench and let your skills grow stale - you can still be a team’s main goalie. There’s life in you yet! And though you have a no-movement protection clause in your contract, you make the hard choice. You let the Penguins waive it. They are happy to do so, very happy. But they are not entirely unkind. In exchange for leaving you exposed for the expansion draft, the Pens sweeten the pot to ensure the Flower will be plucked and be a starting goalie again. They throw in some future draft picks and money to guarantee Vegas takes you on. You know what’s they are thinking, though. Management doesn’t want your reproachful face on the bench. They want the hot new talent in net, not you. More importantly, they don’t want to pay your huge hockey-star’s salary anymore. They want fresh (cheaper) talent, and giving you up will ensure they can get it. The bait works. Once again, you are a first pick. A goalie, the base of the team. Vegas is thrilled to have you. You are a legend in the League. And maybe your heart hurts and the smile is a bit forced. But the chant from these new fans-to-be when they begin the chant during the Draft of, ‘Fleury! Fleury! FLEURY!’ helps a bit. And with the sheen of tears in your eyes, you give your exit interviews in Pittsburgh. You pack your gear in the changing room for the last time. You say goodbye to the organization that has kept you for 13 seasons, the arena that housed your dreams and triumphs. You take the Stanley Cup to your hometown in Quebec, probably for the last time. You start looking for a new house in Las Vegas and ponder the painful process of pulling up roots, leaving friends behind.

You face facts. It’s going to suck - an expansion team doesn’t have the experience or depth of talent to win a lot, and you’ll be facing far too many shots and losing too many games. But you are leaving on your own terms, for the betterment of your career and your soul. So. The Penguins don’t want you? Okay.

Better to be a starter in Hell than a back-up in Heaven. Flowers in the desert are tough. And they can thrive. (Fare thee well, Pittsburgh, but not too well, because you’ll be facing your old friends and teammates as opponents soon enough. You gave no quarter to old teammates before, and you expect no mercy in return.)

Part 3 - The Long and Winding Road (takes me to the NHL)

French-born Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was told when he was 19 to give up any hope of playing in the NHL. After all, a mere nine French players have managed to cross the pond to a career here. And the General Manager didn’t think he had what it took. What does one does do in the face of such blank discouragement? Well. One packs up their fucking gear bags at the age of 21, makes a fart noise and a rude gesture at France and leaves for the Swedish pro leagues where one can actually learn and be challenged. And there, one develops their skills. For seven years, like a hockey-version montage from Rocky or similar. Until one day,  an NHL scout sees something that idiot GM didn’t see. (The fortitude of a bi-racial player in a mostly white game? The same grit and determination that took Pierre’s gymnast sister to the Beijing Olympics, perhaps?)

And so, at the age of twenty-nine, when many would have given up, Pierre-Edouard’s dream came true. He was signed, and took up the mantle of orange and black. He was going to play alongside the stars of the NHL. 

He might have known what he was getting into, joining the Philadelphia Flyers organization. Or not.

Anyway, Pierre-Edouard is a good man. He plays for the French national team when they need him. There’s no question of it - against the honor of playing for France, the words of his former French GM are nothing. 

(And at the last World Cup, Bellmare was set to receive the Player of the Game prize for his goal and assist in France’s win over Finland. In an act of pure selflessness and respect, he waived acceptance of the award, saying it deserved to go to the French team’s goalie, Florian Hardy, who had 42 saves. Pure class.)

Pierre-Edouard is so well-respected for what he brings to the Flyers that he in fact is made an assistant captain. Take that, old GM. Pbbbttt.

Now, that Romeo and Juliet thing…

Part 4 - The Battle of Pennsylvania

“Two teams, both alike in popularity…”

Once upon a time (in 1967), two teams were born in the cradle of the Eastern Division. In happier stories, they would’ve been brothers in arms, both being from the state of Pennsylvania. However, this a sports story, and if they are brothers, it is of the Cain and Abel variety. Blood on the ice and murder in their hearts sort of thing. Pennsylvania is pretty much divided down the middle supporting their respective teams. The virulence is such that fans single out hated players to scream at, and fight each other in the stands. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said of the Flyers after a tense match-up, “I don’t like them, because I don’t like any guy on their team, so.”

Fans thrive on the rivalry - it is considered the most intense in the League, so good luck getting tickets for those games. Being in the same division, they often face each other in the playoffs, so you can imagine the fun there. In 2012, Crosby fractured Flyers captain Claude Giroux’s wrists by slashing at them during face-offs, so obviously it gets to the players as well. The Flyers drummed the Pens out of the playoffs that year, but fell short of winning the Cup. Giroux had surgery on both wrists. Crosby refused to acknowledge or apologize for his actions, because hey. It was the playoffs. 

This is how you grow a rivalry - you feed and water it carefully with violence and disrespect. You give in to the illogical insanity of it all.

These teams fucking hate each other.

Into the bloody war of the Keystone state came Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguin. Much later, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare arrived, new Philadelphia Flyer.

“Two players, both alike in age…”

It is October 22nd, 2014. It is Pierre-Edouard’s first year in the NHL, though he is too old to be considered a rookie. He is a fourth-liner with heart. He is in PPG Arena, in front of the most hostile crowd he will ever face in the NHL. He is driving towards the Penguin’s net, head up. The pass comes hard. With a flick, he deflects it past the goalie and into the net.

It is his first goal in the NHL.

The goalie is Marc-Andre Fleury.

Part 5 - Two Frenchmen are Knighted

And thus the story comes full circle from where I started.

Who really knows what it was like for Pierre-Edouard, being left exposed in the draft for Vegas? He’s not a star player like Fleury, so there aren’t many interviews with him, aside from the rote, “pleased and happy to be moving to a new team, thank you Philadelphia for your support!” We do know how Flower felt - heart-broken, nervous about joining his first new team in years. We watched his anguish in live interviews, heard the husky tone of his voice.

And now, what do we know?

What we see is that the Knights are pulling together, building a team to make their futures shine as bright as the lights on the Strip. They’ve had some wins in the pre-season. Some losses. Growing pains are expected.

But… I think the Vegas Golden Knights will be fine.

We can imagine that Flower is very happy to have another teammate to speak French with. I’d guess there’s probably a lot of chirping regarding Quebecois French, but good-natured. Perhaps there are already jokes in the locker room about French Knights, insults about hamsters and elderberries and silly English K-nig-its.

I know Flower is being taken care of.

Teams rally around their goaltenders. If you want a fight, fuck with your opponent’s goalie. The gloves will come off for you so fast they may as well be greased. Watch a team before a game begins. The players will often stick-tap their goalie’s pads. Post-game, the goalie will get either commiseration or congratulations - helmet rubs, taps, and hugs. Hockey players are tactile creatures, and the goalie is their luck.

What is like for any of these Golden Knights, pulled together from all parts of the hockey empire - some of them, like Flower and Bellemare, from bitter rival teams?

It’s hockey. It’s fellowship. And caring.

These are not enemy players, not anymore. They are team.  Born from the hatred of Flyers/Penguins comes the gif far above. In that game, the Knights lost 5-3 to the San Jose Sharks. Fleury needed a bit of comfort after a goal was scored on him. Bellemare was there.

One superstar Quebecois goalie, considered a salary liability and an aging has-been by his old team. One unlikely French forward of the same age who knows that it’s never too late to make a fresh start and achieve great things. 

I, for one, look forward to watching them play.

Good Flower, you doubt yourself too much,

Your teammate has your back in this,

For games, lost or won, our goalie we clutch,

When I talked above about Flower, Bellemare and the Vegas Golden Knights, those lost and rejected boys in the desert, pulling together as a team to support and love each other, I never expected… this.

Set an NHL record for wins – 51 – by an expansion franchise.

Previous record of wins by an NHL expansion team was 33 – shared by Anaheim and Florida in 1993-94. Golden Knights earned their 34th win in their 50th contest in the 82-game schedule.

Only lost three games in a row once during regular season during a stretch from Feb. 26 to March 2.

most points by an expansion team in their inaugural season

First team to make the playoffs in their inaugural season in the league since the Edmonton Oilers and Hartford Whalers in the 1979–80 season

First modern-era expansion team from any of the four major sports and the first NHL team since the 1926–27 New York Rangers to win their division in their inaugural season

Achieved this when not only was their first goalie, Fleury, injured, but their second - Malcolm Subban went down. Then their third, Maxime Lagace, their fourth, Oscar Dansk and finally they had to call up a nineteen year old from their affiliate the Kamloops Blazers to play in one game - Dylan Ferguson. And yet, they kept winning.

And just today won their second playoff game against the LA Kings in the franchise’s longest game played, double OT.

I am so proud of these boys.

And from their first playoff win, lest we forget why we are all gathered today - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare still loves his goalie.

A Sonnet for Marc-Andre Fleury

Eyes red, to sere desert came I alone

From team cast off, I doffed the black and gold

My friends did wish me well but it was known

Their aims were high and I too dear and old

Rootless, wandering, my heart was full of fear

For in this place no blossoms bright did I espy

And thus I wondered if my end was here

To wither fast beneath a harsh blue sky

But met I more exiles, unbroken and proud

Who, joyful, took me in and bade me act

“Together we grow,” in friendship we vowed

New brothers and knights in shared sacred pact

     Outcasts no more, in grey and gold we strive

Letang: The other team quivers before him!

Fleury:

the only pacific team with a buy, so why not a marc-andre fleury design?

left: iphone 11 dimensions, right: iphone 8 dimensions

As a response to national riots over state-sponsored murder of black people, following their dead silence on Akim Aliu’s brave account of the racism he experienced in hockey, and after K’Andre Miller (their future teammate) was spammed with racial slurs on an nhl sponsored livestream, two white men are creating a podcast where they can be bigoted to their echo chamber of racists. They’re this upset that players sometimes experience minor backlash on social media for the first time in their lives when they say fucked up & discriminatory shit. Tony Deangelo and Brendan Lemieux genuinely believe hockey is “politically correct” and that players face real consequences for their actions. Really groundbreaking content from a man who used slurs against his own teammate!

We have a quest.

The quest is this, dear hockey fans. Whatever platform this garbage podcast comes up on, we rate them. Badly. As low as we can. With reasons. The reasons should be SLIGHTLY plausible, but they don’t have to be. Remember, Yelp reviews are often nonsensical garbage.

This quest may be an uphill battle, it may end in failure because the number of assholes that are Rangers fans and conservative and racist and homophobic (or just fucking stupid enough that they love this team NO MATTER WHAT!!!) may be larger then we and rate them ALL FIVE STARS U GUYS R DA BEST!!! RANGERS 5EVER!!, but we must do this.

His views are not acceptable, and in this point of time he thinks he is gonna use his platform to spout off? Not on my watch. He says it’s supposed to push boundaries, but replied to Greg Wyshynski of ESPN that’s it’s not going to be political. Like bitch, you lie. Sports and politics have always fucked, and maybe a few eps will be ‘strictly sports’ but you can bet your sweet fanny it won’t stay that way. He wants to be the new Spittin’ Chiclets? Partner up with Barstool, buddy up with fucking Portnoy? What. What is even the fucking point of him and this pod except to be an asshole edgelord, and gather gullible or like-minded people to him.

Remember, Tony and Brendan are both ardent Trump MAGAts, and November is coming.

We can’t let him use his platform like this.

vegas golden frauds knights 2017-2018 PART 1/?

+ bonus