True, Gaborik and Nilsson have been huge parts of this run

They have been the ONLY reason Tampa made it out of the first round!!! 19 Mil over cap means basically no Kutcherov or Vasilevsky, you are not doing crap with McElhinney as the starter!

And the only reason montreal made it to the final is tavares, scheifele, and stephenson. Stop complaining and enjoy the party you snuck into.

Tampa basically legally cheated their way to a cup. They should have made Kucherov play when he was actually healthy instead of pretending he was still recovering but the NHL is a clown show and Tampa exploited that. Be mad at the league not Tampa that is absolutely embarrassing and they didn’t even try to hide their intensions lol

That and the awful division. Habs would have finished 10th in the east this year.

This is probably the most embarrassing cup final for the league. A team well over the cap vs. the 18th best team in the league.

I agree. Tampa more than likely would have had to trade TJ and Killorn.. they might have still made it to the cup but it would have been far less embarrassing doing it the right way and not pretending Kucherov needed 6-8 more weeks to recover than most people that had that surgery. They should make a rule of that you need to play 10 games to be eligible for the playoffs.

I can’t think of a team being so obvious of their intentions and the league just not giving a fk. They are like “ we are going to manipulate the cap / cheat” nhl “ yeah whatever”

Or just keep the salary cap into the playoffs but make an exception for rookies coming into the league when playoffs are going on

They need to do something bc Tampa didn’t even try to hide this. People knew what they were doing since day one. My favorite are the idiots saying “ they were missing their best player all season “ lol hardly matters when you spend to the cap with great players then have a 10m $ player that doesn’t count towards the cap on top of the other guys.

Man I got some fries can you lend me some salt, seem to have plenty

There's no reason to hide it. It's allowed. I'm fine with it because there's slim to no chance it happens again to this extent. It was a perfect storm of covid shortened season, deepest team in the league, and perfectly timed injury. No team will come close to this much over the cap ever again.

I don’t think the Habs shoulda made it past Toronto, but to bring up 3 guys and think that invalidates their whole run doesn’t solve anything either, this is a stupid narrative to try and push. The Tavares injury was fortunate for the Habs, but sometimes accidents happen in a fast-paced, physical sport, and Toronto still shoulda won pretty handily considering Campbell outplayed Price and they still had the rocket winner + 1st team all star RW, but the Habs did a remarkable job of shutting down Matthews and Marner, and deserved to come back in that series by shutting down and outplaying the team in front of them. Blaming the Jets loss on Scheifele is pretty silly considering they got swept and Connor/Wheeler/PLD/Stastny/Ehlers combined for exactly one goal, Winnipeg never had a shot, and with that sorta production from their top 6, even Scheifele wouldn’t have carried that team from 0 wins to 4 wins. If a 3rd line calibre player is gonna make or break a team like Vegas then they should honestly just fold. Montreal outplayed them, skunked Stone, and limited their forwards to just 5 goals, only two of which came from guys in the top 6. That’s an incredible feat, no team is gonna win a series with 2 goals in 6 games from their top 6 forwards, so Montreal deserved to win that one too.

I don't know about snuck into. I do not have a dog in this fight, but it seems that, while Montreal caught some breaks, they have also played really well, and earned this shot. Yes, they were 18th. But they made it into the playoffs, and anything can happen. Again, I am not arguing. But I am just saying that, from an outsider's perspective, they earned it.

All of this is ignoring the fact that Montreal should have never been in the playoffs. They finished 18th.

No reason to hide the fact they planned to keep him out the entire year reguardless of how healthy he is to make sure they stay under the cap is allowed? He stayed out an additional 6-8 weeks. Lol I think that’s not allowed but again idgaf bc the NHL is a clown league. Best sport worst league

Let us know next time you have hip surgery, and please post updates as you recover

I understand what you're saying but I think I just have a different definition of "earned"

Well given the rules of the league, they should have. They had to finish 4th in their division and they accomplished that. The argument that they wouldn’t have made it any other year holds no water because those weren’t the rules this season. Maybe Colorado shouldn’t get the president’s trophy because they were in a division with 5 terrible teams? They didn’t beat any of the other 23 teams after all, so how can they be crowned the regular season champs? Montreal did all they had to do given the rules they played under, same as Tampa with the cap, they fell within the rules of the sport and are gonna win another cup as a result (also half the league was over the cap, and the Hawks did the same thing in 2015 by putting Kane on LTIR until the playoffs and stocking up on guys at the TDL so…). Complain about the rules if you want (general you, applies to anyone discounting either the Habs or the Lightning) but there’s no reason to complain about the teams. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Playing it better than everyone else means they earned their spot.

lol had one. 6 weeks you can do your normal routine activities. Not the way you expected that to go huh? Blanket statement was exactly the type of response I would do also if my team did that. “ blah blah let me know when it happens to you blah blah” lol yeah the guy was clearly struggling you can tell by how much rust he had these playoffs 😉

I think you mistake my frustrations, I am mad at the league not at Tampa. Tampa did everything within their rights to guarantee their best shot at repeating as cup champions. There is nothing wrong with that, it is the broken system that needs to be addressed. The league knew the system was broke when Chicago sat Kane for a year but did nothing about it. Now they look ridiculous for not fixing it

Yeah My mother in law at 65 had a hip replaced in March and it only took her 3 months of recovery time. Guess a 65 y.o. woman recovers faster than a 28 y.o. pro athlete.

It's actually simpler than that, just adjust the LTIR rule to stipulate that a player being placed on LTIR must see an independant NHL retained doctor at regular intervals during recovery and that doctor can over rule any time lines set forth by team doctors.

Then we agree to disagree. The Canadiens should not have to make an excuse for Tavares getting hurt, and they shut down three well compensated forwards to come back from down 3-1. Even without Scheifele, the Jets have a dangerous offense, and the Canadiens shut them down, too. They played one of the best teams (in the regular season) that many pundits and fans predicted would both be in the finals or win the Cup, and shut them down, too. To me, this team was built for the playoffs, they got in, they rolled 4 lines and they got outstanding goaltending. To me, that's the definition of earning it. But, everyone has a right to their opinions, so we agree to disagree.