NHL Championship - Florida Panthers vs Edmonton Oilers

[CF DolFan]

I'm really surprised no one from South Florida is talking about this. The Panthers are on the brink of winning their first NHL Stanley Cup ever. Kind of funny to me that for the least 5 years there have been Florida teams in the finals. Hopefully the Panthers join the Lightning with a win.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I am old enough to remember the days when the only cities with hockey all had indigenous ice.

[Dave Gray]

It's a big deal here and everyone is talking about it.

I discuss it a lot, but it's all been locally on the phone.

My take is that the Panthers are the better, stronger, tougher, more aggressive team.
We ran into bad luck in game 4....just got beat early and then it got away from you ...  hard to win that game to sweep a team.

In game 5, I felt we were the better team, but gave up that crappy short-handed goal and then kept committing penalties which leeched time and put us at a disadvantage over and over.

I still think the odds are in our favor, but it's getting a little scary.

[CF DolFan]

I think the odds are too. Even though Edmonton is a very good team its hard to believe this Panther team will lose 4 games in a row or that Connor McDavid is going to continue scoring like the last two games.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Assuming the teams are evenly matched, Panthers have a 75% chance of winning the series.

[Sunstroke]

I am old enough to remember the days when the only cities with hockey all had indigenous ice.

You had to be pretty young when the LA Kings joined the league in '67....

[Brian Fein]

I was sitting around waiting to see how long it would take for anyone to acknowledge the Stanley Cup Finals.

Those that know me know i am a Panthers season ticket holder for 18 seasons.  I have been to every home game, watched every road game.  Im a passionate fan of this Panthers team.

They have zero chance of winning the cup.  The series is already over.

Bobrovsky has run out of gas, he can't stop a beach ball at this point.  Everyone and everything is on their knees blowing Connor McDoofus, and they can't WAIT to hand him the cup, the Conn Smythe trophy, the keys to the commissioner's office, and rename the league the National Connor Hockey League.

I'm over it.

[Sunstroke]

I've watched approximately 30 seconds of hockey over the past decade or so, and that was probably just because my TV remote's batteries ran out.

I do like the Panthers though (...and most other cats).

[CF DolFan]

I was sitting around waiting to see how long it would take for anyone to acknowledge the Stanley Cup Finals.

Those that know me know i am a Panthers season ticket holder for 18 seasons.  I have been to every home game, watched every road game.  Im a passionate fan of this Panthers team.

They have zero chance of winning the cup.  The series is already over.

Bobrovsky has run out of gas, he can't stop a beach ball at this point.  Everyone and everything is on their knees blowing Connor McDoofus, and they can't WAIT to hand him the cup, the Conn Smythe trophy, the keys to the commissioner's office, and rename the league the National Connor Hockey League.

I'm over it.

C'mon .. where is the faith? You sound like a long time suffering Dolphins fan. hahaha

[Brian Fein]

C'mon .. where is the faith? You sound like a long time suffering Dolphins fan. hahaha

i have lost faith.  I can be realistic.  I'm a fan I'm going to go there and cheer and support the team, but i expect to be walking out of a silent arena while the team in white sweaters skates around with a trophy in front of a mostly-empty seats.

[CF DolFan]

I was just messing with you. You're a season ticket holder and majorly invested. In my opinion no one has the right to tell you how to feel.

With that said you stuck with supporting Fiedler to the very end so it surprises me to see you mentally give up now.

[Denver2]

Well if it holds congrats to the Panthers. I recently learned Wayne founded the team?

[Spider-Dan]

Brian, I know you were already complaining about the media's treatment of McDavid... do you think he deserved to win MVP of the playoffs?
If not, who do you think deserved it?

[CF DolFan]

Brian, I know you were already complaining about the media's treatment of McDavid... do you think he deserved to win MVP of the playoffs?
If not, who do you think deserved it?

McDavid set a playoff record with 34 assists and his 42 points ranked fourth best trailing only two playoff runs by Wayne Gretzky and one by Mario Lemieux. Statistically speaking it's easy to select him. I just think it's weird the MVP comes from a losing team as obviously it wasn't good enough to win it all.

[Brian Fein]

Firstly, I have never been so happy to be wrong.  I did not think the team would be able to recover and get back to PANTHER hockey, but they did and they deserve the win.  I'll never doubt you again...

Secondly, sure you can make a strong case for Connor as Conn Smythe, but I truly feel that he had his name on that trophy before the series even began.  Facts are facts, Connor did NOTHING in this series outside of game 4 and 5.  So, sure Conn Smythe is MVP of the playoffs, not of the Finals.  So you want to give it to him for breaking the record, for his performance in previous rounds, I'm fine with it.  But let's not pretend he was a major factor in this series.  In 5 of the 7 games, he did literally nothing.

As for who my pick would be: Sergei Bobrovsky is the reason why the Panthers won the Stanley Cup.  Sure, there are 20-something other names that earned that hardware, but they don't win without Bob.  And isn't that the measure of an MVP?  I thought Bob was absolutely deserving of the MVP award, but he doesn't have the sexy name like Connor McDavid.