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Have we ever seen NHL fans across the league unite and join forces to hate a team as much as fans hate the Vegas Golden Knights right now? No one, and I mean absolutely nobody can stand them. And if you don't hate them, for the people out there that maybe aren't all the way there yet when it comes to hating the Golden Knights, I can give you a little bit of ammunition. First of all, let's start with uh the most pressing topic right now. This is not a loyal organization. The big story as of late is after they fire their longest tenure head coach, the guy who won them their cup, Bruce Cassidy, they refuse to let him speak to other teams. Obviously, they deny his uh interview with the
Oilers. And that lack of loyalty goes far past the coach. Obviously, you go back to the OG face of this franchise, Mark Andre Flurry. They ship him off for absolutely nothing after he turns into a VNA winning season. He doesn't even know about it. He saw that on Twitter. Um Jonathan March, another good example where they just didn't want to negotiate with him. another guy who came in there early. So, no loyalty. Secondly, I don't think that this is a very ethical organization either. You look at what John Torrell is under fire for right now. They win the game. He refuses to talk to the media because he's upset about that petty suspension to McNab.
Um, you also go back to the IR loophole that they managed to pull off for seasons on end when Mark Stone just stopped playing hockey until the playoffs. That one I can get a little bit more lenient with considering it technically was allowed by the NHL, but still they're always trying to pull a quick one. It feels like third on the list. Why everyone's hating them right now, at least for the three of us, they have Mitch Martner and he's playing excellent. He's probably the Cons right now, leading playoff scoring and points after he abandoned our Leafs. That one again, it doesn't really target too many hockey fans, but it certainly targets the other big and probably most hated market, um, which is crazy. And then last but not least, another
reason if those three aren't good enough, it's probably just coming out of pure envy. This organization and team has never had to suffer. I mean, they made the finals in their first season. They've made the playoffs in seven of the eight years. They've won a Stanley Cup. And in the one year they missed the playoffs, they still went 4331 and 8. So there's too many reasons that are just piling up on the Vegas Golden Knights right now as to why everyone can't stand them. We'll start with you Josh. Is there an organization in hockey or even sports right now that's seems to be as classless uh as Vegas has been throughout their existence? So I think going into this year I would
have used the word ruthless more than classless. Ruthless in terms of they will do anything to win. You mentioned how they treated Mark Andre Flurry and Jonathan Marsh. So but those moves were all made to win and hey they won. So as a fan if I were a fan of that team I could get behind that. But this year, I think things have gone a little bit too far between, you know, signing Carter Hart, between Tortoella's postgame shenanigans and not talking to the media. I'm glad the NHL came down hard on them with a second round pick punishment and $100,000 fine. And you know, some people think like, oh, he just didn't want to talk. Okay, well, this is in the CBA. Like, this is part of the job. Like people,
oh, you know, he didn't want to talk. That's not their job. Like, yes, actually it is. It's literally in the legal document. So, and then with Bruce Cassidy not letting him get a job, the guy who won you a cup. Like, I just don't understand this one cuz like if he gets hired somewhere else, you don't have to pay him anymore. So, you're just paying him to not coach somewhere when you could this guy who did so much for your organization. And you, you know, we all sat here and agreed with the Tortoella hiring with eight games left in the season, even if it's maybe it's not necessarily fair to Bruce Cassidy, but that's kind of how these things go. So, I think they're definitely up there for
maybe the most hated franchise. You know, I'm not too adept at like soccer and you know, I know there's some huge rivalries there. I know people hate the LA Dodgers, but that's more of just like they're just rich and buy every player, but like the stuff Vegas is doing. Yeah, it's uh it's it's not great. I think yeah, the debate that I was seeing around online, which is crazy that the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team has entered themselves into these conversations. You know what it kind of reminds me of? sort to cut you off. I think it's like the Patriots and the Evil Empire, Bill Bichc, you know, Spygate, deflgate doing all these kind of shady things like we're approaching that status literally. And it was the
Dodgers, it was the Yankees, and it was the Patriots. Those are the three teams that I was seeing comparing to the Vegas Golden Knights of all teams, which again is insane. Long story histories for all of those. Yeah. Exactly. Like the expansion team from eight years ago that is located in Las Vegas that is on the same level now as some of those teams. Um, but yeah, I mean, they're getting thrown around in the conversations. I'm not making this up myself. You can go see it online. Um, so yeah, I think that's that's a good standpoint from you, John. Josh, sorry. Um, Kyle, my
question for you, how much of this hate do you think is warranted? Because if, let's say, put yourself in the f in the shoes of a Golden Knights fan, would you feel at all apologetic for all the stuff they were doing or does winning kind of just cure everything? Most cases, winning cures everything. It is a fine line between ruthless and classless like you kind of mentioned there earlier and a lot of moves in the past in terms of either player personnel decisions or some other things like that were in the vein of we're trying to win. We don't really care what it costs to get We don't care about her feelings. Exactly. We don't care about what it takes to win those games. We just care about actually winning those
games. feels like more recently there's been some more petty stuff like specifically the Cassidy stuff is just like on one hand you can maybe make the argument that paying his contract and not letting him go coach a rival is still trying to win games but they blocked him from the Kings too. Are you that threatened by the LA the Oilers I can maybe squint and see. It's very strange like that whole process and like the general manager saying like well we're busy we don't want like the distraction during the playoffs like the general manager is not making any moves during the playoff take to even just give permission is it just like an email it takes 5 seconds kind of distraction is that too you're playing playoff games this is more of a distraction
what are you doing from Monday 9 to5 before the games start what are you doing at all as a general manager really uh right now and at this point of the season but it is something where it has changed a little where there are also some player personnel decisions where they've made specific decisions to either draft or sign players that have specific baggage that other franchises wouldn't touch. Yes. Whether that's Carter Hart, whether that's drafting Trevor Connelly, whether that's signing Kaiuch, like there's a lot of players or I should say a handful of players that they've made the decision to go out and sign
despite their baggage, which you can say that's right or wrong. You can say that's in the same vein as going out and trading a Mike Andre for Flurry for future considerations or whatever that trade was to clear salary because it's all in the goal of winning. You can make that argument. But I do think like it is valid for fans of other fan bases to look at this team to look at how they've treated some players in terms of how they've gone out the door in terms of players that they brought in terms of what they're doing with their former head coach right now and be like this is petty. This is classless. Sure, it might end up with winning, but is that really the way that you want to win? I think
that's fair for other fan base. So, certainly, I think if you're one of the other 31 fan bases, absolutely, there's reason to hate. And like there's more petty reasons to hate. Like, as you mentioned off the top, if you're a Leafs fan, watching Mitch Martner succeed in the playoffs, like that's is that's a very specific reason to hate a team. But in terms of like generally speaking for other fan bases, I think is very valid. If you're a fan of the Golden Knights, I think it is much more of a maybe a dilemma for you where in the past if it's like maybe you're you got to be a Vegas fan because of Mark Andre Flurry or Jonathan Marshes or whoever and they're treated unceremoniously
going out the door. Does that impact your fandom? Or it is it something where it's very strictly like you don't care what it takes to win, you go out and win. I think that is something that's a bit more of an interesting debate as a fan because I know that there's tons of fans that care deeply about those star players, those players that brought them in the door that got them to be fans. Um, so certainly the Golden Knights are doing well in terms of their success. You mentioned their record off the top and the one year they missed the playoffs. They barely missed the playoffs. It was the year that they brought in Jack Eel. That worked out pretty well. Um, but it is certainly a bit of a situation where if you're a
fan of the team, like do you want to be rooting for certain players on that team? Do you want to be supporting a team that is uh the Stanley Cup coach that you had is not being allowed to go and interview for other jobs because he's still under contract technically and there's no real reasons that you're you have to other than other teams have always just done it because it's the nice thing or courteous thing to do. Um, so it like the thing that I go to is like the Tampa Bay Lightning is another team that's been fairly ruthless in terms of like forcing Ryan Mcdana to wave his no trade clause, not resigning Steven Stampos is obviously the huge one, but I think there's a difference between some
of those previous moves that were viewed as rumors. I don't think they're crossing any lines. No. And kind of the more getting into that classless territory that we've seen more recently over the last couple years from the Golden Knights. Yeah. My two biggest takeaways, actually three. The first one I'll say is like you're talking about players with baggage. I think the other element that adds to this is like you look at Jack Eel, you look at Mitch Marner, they they've become this home for disgruntled star players where they're like, "Oh, you hate where you're playing. Don't worry, come join us." So that's the sides of it, right? Like Jack Eel, we forget hadn't needed neck surgery when they
traded for him. There were certain teams that didn't want to touch that. Obviously, the Sabres wouldn't approve the surgery, otherwise he probably would still be there. understand. But like that's the more positive side in terms of the bets or certain things that they've made. Yeah. So there's that too. Honestly, like as a sports and hockey fan, I do kind there's a part of me that really loves it like the villainous element that they add to the league. It's like it's as it's like the they're like the Dennis Rodman of hockey basically where like you want you love to have him on your team, you hate to play against him. um like the bad boy Pistons of those old basketball uh years
back in the early 2000s and stuff like that's kind of where I get the sentiment from. And for a league like the NHL where there's some teams that people hate but it's so deeply rooted. This gives the perfect opportunity for a new hockey fan to hate a team right away. Basically, it's you don't have to be a Leafs fan to a Habs fan or a Bruins fan or a Penguins fan to a Flyers fan or anything like that. You can just get your foot in the door and hate a team. So there's that element. You really don't even need to be a hockey fan. No. He could just be a and this media thing recently is just the cherry on top. Like it's such an unnecessary situation.
They won the series. I honestly thought they won the game. That's what I can believe after a win. I honestly thought too if they were think oh we're just going to get away with this like no problem. And then you heard there was reporting that they went to the meeting and they were really apologetic like oh yeah I bet you just left a sucker pick like Yeah. And then the other thing too that really piqu my curiosity is would I don't think like I think the reason why they're getting as much hate as they are is because they're good. I think if this is a bad team that's cutting ties with guys like this, they're bringing in players.
They don't hate nobody's, right? That's what Exactly. They're treating their players and coaches like garbage. You just kind of feel bad for them. Like, oh, that organization sucks. But the fact that they win so much, I think that's the reason why everybody hates them so much. Like I don't know how would you guys feel if this was just like a bottom of the barrel type of team that wasn't making any I don't think they'd get away with it in terms of either like the fan base in terms of like players going there. But I think the thing that's maybe lost in like talking about the way that they've treated players out the door. It's also
the way they treat players while they're there. It's a great place to play. It's a great fan base to play. Seems like a great spot to live like but as soon as the team doesn't want you out the door. We'll see you later. No more hockey for you in Vegas. But I mean, again, like I said, winning cures everything. And they just continue winning. We're we're filming this on Thursday. They just beat the Avalanche in game one last night, which I don't think a ton of people saw coming. So, I don't know. How do you guys see that series shaping up? Do you think that the these bad boy Golden Knights have what it takes to knock off the Avalanche? They needed that game
one without Kale Mar specifically in the lineup. And if Mark Stone comes back either before Kale Mar, whatever it is, like they're very much in the series. Like, this is a tough out. I still love the Avalanche throughout this series. I'd still pick them in this series, but it is much more of a coin flip than maybe I expected going in. Absolutely. I'm still picking the Avalanche as well, but I agree with Kyle. Like, I think this could go down to game six or seven. Just I'd love to see a seven game series.
The way they've been rolling too, like since Tors took over, like I mean, it's been uncanny. I know we've been giving Tors some hate here, but he's good at what he does. He's great at what he does, both the negatives and the positives. He can get the most out of a team in a short span, and he's doing that right now. That's also like the cherry on top of the cherry on top is like the coach that's causing all this ruckus and stuff. It's John Tordella. It's like an alltime, you know, loud. It makes way too much sense. So, yeah, I'm I'm fired up to see how the rest of that series goes. Let us know in the comments, first of all, if you hate the Golden Knights,
if all this hate is warranted, and secondly, let us know who you think is winning this series between the Golden Knights and Avalanche. Should be a fun one. Excited to see it. Thanks for watching. If you like this video and want to see more content like it, hit the sub button and ring that notification bell.
