I spend an inordinate amount of time on my mobile devices, watching my tablet and phone much more than TV. I haven’t “cut the cord” yet, but easily could.
I long ago embraced the new math in baseball and appreciate it - and like StatCast-TrackMan technology even more.
Few opinions chafe me more than the notion sports were better “back in the day.” Not true. Oh, and LeBron is better than Jordan. Bigger, faster, stronger, just as much heart. Live with it.
I don’t want that old pair of worn-out jeans with holes. Give me a new pair of pants with a freshly pressed crease.
But the one new item I have difficulty embracing is the Las Vegas Golden Knights.
I know, the Golden Knights are delightful, a glitzy version of “Mystery, Alaska” come to life. I can see it now…Russell Crowe as Nate Schmidt…
Gerard Gallant was solid as an NHL player - one of the most underrated in Red Wings’ lore. “Spuddy” (one of the great nicknames of all time because he is from Prince Edward Island, the potato capital of Canada) has turned in perhaps the greatest coaching performance of all time.
But truthfully, as I watch the Golden Knights go back and forth in a decidedly entertaining Stanley Cup final series with the Washington Capitals, I find myself hoping Vegas doesn’t capture The Cup.
Poetic justice suggests the Caps win it, right?
It’s just too much, too soon for Vegas. Hockey is by far the most popular sport in Canada, yet no Canadian franchise has hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup since Montreal in 1993.
I understand - there are plenty of people transplanted from hockey hotbeds living in or visiting Vegas, but not THAT MANY.
Mostly, the Golden Knights and hockey are a sideshow for gambling and until the Raiders move in.
I can’t help but feeling the Caps deserve it much, much more.
It reminds me of when the Colorado Avalanche, with that awful logo, which looks like water mixed with oil, won the Stanley Cup title the first year they moved to Denver from Quebec.
You can’t tell me Denver remotely appreciated it like Detroit did the following season after a more than four-decade wait, or they would have in Quebec City.
They’ve never won The Cup in St. Louis, Buffalo, Vancouver, San Jose or Washington.
Those are long-standing NHL franchises, big-time hockey towns with extremely loyal fan bases.
On top of it, the Caps’ feature one of the greatest players of all time, Alexander Ovechkin, who has been vastly underrated by many hockey pundits, sometimes to the point of vilification, because “he’s never won anything.”
Frankly, Ovie’s plight reminds me of Steve Yzerman’s until he won it at the same age - 32.
With all due respect to the above-mentioned Schmidt, he’s essentially a castoff from the Caps.
I understand just how extraordinary William Karlsson’s season has been considering how mediocre he was with Columbus. He’s just 25. We’ll see if he is a one-season wonder or has staying power, just like we will with the Golden Knights as a whole.
But I can’t help but think there’s no way Karlsson’s better than Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and even T.J. Oshie.
Hey, I give it up to Marc-Andre Fleury. He belongs in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But otherwise the Knights aren’t that formidable individually.
Yes, I understand that’s the beauty of all it - team work. I get it. I appreciate the guts of the Golden Knights, to the point where I almost feel dirty when I find myself hoping they fold like a house of cards.
I also realize it is unlikely to happen.
That’s the good part. The early parts of this series have been unusually intense. I hope it goes to seven games.
With the Caps taking Game 7, of course, because it would be the culmination of decades of blood, sweat and tears, not mere months of playing with house money.