from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,
It was more than a decade ago that the NHL sacrificed an entire season and forwent the awarding of the Stanley Cup in the name of implementing a hard salary cap to ensure cost certainty and competitive balance.
And when the ugly lockout was finally over, one of the happiest sounding voices emanated from Nashville.
“We’re very excited and optimistic,” Predators general manager David Poile said back in 2005. “We’re much closer to having a fair playing field, and for us to be real competitive right out of the gate.”
It only took a dozen years, but the Predators’ presence in their first Stanley Cup final might be the ultimate demonstration of the grand design behind Gary Bettman’s hard slog of a lockout. A case can be made that the NHL has reached peak parity. Tiny Nashville, the last team to qualify for the playoffs, is the last team standing in the Western Conference. Bitty Nashville, the 16th seed in the league’s 16-team playoff tournament, is the first bottom seed to qualify for the final since the NHL expanded from six to 12 teams in 1967-68 (this according to research by Randy Robles of the Elias Sports Bureau).
And exactly nobody saw it coming. Hockey players have long boasted that the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in pro sports.
from John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News,
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.