Henriks best stretch was during Daniels absence. Honestly Henriks shooting isnt that much worse than Daniel. And Daniel doesnt really shoot, he just passes into the net when the goalie gets caught on the wrong side
>I mean, would anyone have *really* known if a few of the games during Henrik’s ironman streak were actually played by Daniel?
Somehow I've made it this far in life not realizing the league has seen two sets of identical Swedish twins in which one twin was named Henrik.
I was also a bit incredulous that Henrik's brother could play goal for the 00s Rangers without anyone realizing something was off. Until I remembered his name was Joel.
It's pretty heavily [rumored ](https://www.basketballnetwork.net/old-school/markieff-morris-denied-he-switched-places-with-twin-marcus#:~:text=The%20twins%20switched%20places%20before,and%20tests%20in%20high%20school.) that the Morris twins did it in the NBA
As an aside I read today that the Sedin's went up the Grouse Grind the other day with the Canucks prospects - the Grouse Grind is a roughly 1 hr (if you're in shape) running hike up a mountain in North Vancouver. Both Sedin's beat all the prospects and it was revealed Daniel Sedin once did 11 Grouse Grinds in a single day.
Not sure if I should admire that the Sedins are able to beat a bunch of young athletes less than half their age, or worried that none of our prospects could beat a couple retirees twice their age.
[Every other actual expansion team was either getting a first overall pick or a chance at a first overall pick before they ever put a team on the ice. Not San Jose, for whom 20+ years of established precedent was set aside and after which that precedent would go right back into place.](https://nathangabay.com/1991-eric-lindros-and-the-san-jose-screwjob/)
The way the Sharks came into the league was in itself unprecedented though. They weren't really a conventional expansion team, they were basically a spin-out of the Northstars, which is the franchise the original Oakland Seals merged into (after being relocated to Cleveland).
It was one part expansion and one part relocating the original franchise back to the Bay. They even did a dispersal draft so Sharks could pick from the existing Northstars contracts prior to the Northstars and Sharks _both_ participating in the expansion draft.
It's a pretty strange and interesting story, but anyways my point is that you can't really cite precedent for situations that don't fit the precedent.
I agree though, Lindros being drafted by the Sharks would have been pretty awesome. There wasn't any good reason to not let the new franchise have the next big superstar.
In an alternate timeline where the Sharks draft Lindros, the Scott Stevens hit wouldn't have happened. I have to think he'd have a much loftier career point total in that timeline.
Or who knows, maybe he'd have had an even shorter and more injury plagued career. It's not like the NHL gave a shit about concussions back then.
Didn’t it come out that the reason why he wouldn’t play for Quebec is because Marcel Aubut made some remarks about his mother, not knowing she spoke French. On top of that, he had control of the press which of course made it an issue even worse than he imagined. Then years later after he lost the team, it came out he did in fact sexually assault women.
That’s not a conspiracy; that’s just an obvious fact.
What was galling was not making it up in some way. Ottawa and Tampa had the top two picks a year later (when they entered the league), and Anaheim and Florida were granted 1-2 in 1994 no matter what the standings were since they weren’t getting it in 1993.
San Jose? “Sucks to suck…moving on.”
I imagine it was as simple as “this kid could the be the face of the league for years, we don’t want him on some new team no one cares about out in California”
When the Rick Tocchet gambling ring issues came to the surface during his tenure as assistant coach of the Coyotes, Janet Jones was accused of placing quite a few bets on the Coyotes. She was implicated of doing so. Conspiracy theory is she fell on the sword to cover Wayne Gretzky's ass, as Gretzky was both Head Coach and part owner of the team at the time.
I’ve heard something similar but with Tocchet being the sacrificial lamb. Just because we couldn’t ruin TGO’s reputation of being a squeaky clean good guy who doesn’t get into trouble.
It seems so obvious he was involved. But, how do you tell the GOAT who built the game in the sun belt to fuck off a few years? Even then, you have the noble truth factor a where it’s better if the public doesn’t know.
Even more conspiracy-ish, I sometimes wonder if this has to do with Meruelo getting so many chances with Arizona and running it in to the ground (and even more egregious, getting a chance thereafter). Though he came in after NHL ownership, that doesn't hide the fact that he's a huge casino magnate based in the original state of Gretzky's coyotes. Of course, this is just thinking...
That very well could be true, but an unnecessary coverup IMO
All they would’ve had to say is that Wayne was too drunk to realize it was occurring and everyone would’ve believed it
I think it’s very possible that the Sharks hid the results of or didn’t test Brent Burns for Covid so that he could keep his Ironman streak alive. That team got decimated by Covid and other illnesses but Burns never missed a game
I wondered about that with all the Ironman streaks, like Kessel. It seems like every NHL player would have at least one positive because they were tested for, what, 2 years?
Yeah, I work in film and they were basically testing us weekly and I never tested positive despite my roommate and other people I work with testing positive.
The iron man in sumo - Tamawashi - will be 40 years old this year and he's never missed a match. Small asterisk by that.
There was one sumo tournament absolutely wrecked by COVID. Their rules are if someone in the stable (gym) tests positive, every member needs to sit out. One of Tamawashi's friends got sick, so he had to sit on the sideline for the first time in his career.
The sumo association just straight up said this was a weird circumstance and it doesn't count. The iron man streak is still alive.
More a Russian conspiracy than NHL. But I believe many russian hockey players have cheated on their age to reach NHL. A +20 years old playing with 16-17 years is quite an advantage. That's why couple of really promising russian player never flourish in the NHL. Grigorenko and Yakupov were the more obvious ones.
[https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/rumor-three-nhl-star-russian-players-reportedly-lied-on-their-age](https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/rumor-three-nhl-star-russian-players-reportedly-lied-on-their-age)
If there's one thing I wish hockey fans understood better, it's being able to correct for physical maturation when evaluating prospect talent. Some people just start physically maturing a few years early their age group then tear up Juniors less because of talent and more because they're literally a man among boys. Then they're a bust in the NHL because they lose that advantage as soon as they aren't playing against teenagers all the time.
That and if they're bigger and better than their peers, they don't have to try as hard and that carries over. It was once said about Allen Iverson if he was five inches taller, the NbA would be screwed. But he probably wouldn't have been so tenacious if he was taller.
They don't even have to be that much older. A few months difference in age around the cutoff dates and a player can get a massive advantage. Saying a child who was born July 1st was born January 1st the following year would translate into a significant advantage and be practically undetectable.
Everytime I see this posted, I have to point out that if it is true that Ovechkin is several years older than he claims, then it makes what he has accomplished all the more impressive.
He turns "39" officially in September. Two seasons ago he scored 50 goals.
A few years ago the Sharks imploded and fell off a cliff. Evander Kane had recently signed a big long term contract. He used it as collateral to gamble and racked up massive debt. His personal life spiraled out of control just like the franchise in the standings.
I think his AHL assignment, breaking COVID protocols and subsequent contract termination were agreed to by the team and him in private to get him off the books and free him from his creditors.
That's juicy, spicy, and a total bro move if it happened. I don't know about the logistics and other stuff around his debts related to him losing that contract but if they worked that together to make sure he was safe and then flew him all the way to Canada not literally but you know what I mean.. that would be super cool
It’s a lot more simple than this. Kane declares bankruptcy during his contract with the Sharks. The court can seize most of your assets when declaring bankruptcy (with exceptions to certain things like a certain amount of equity in the home and a certain amount for personal property). Once Bankruptcy has been declared, any money made afterwards is not included in the proceedings. Kane had a shrewd bankruptcy lawyer because he knew that as soon as Kane declared bankruptcy, it would be in Kane’s interest to get out of his old contract and get a new one, one in which the bankruptcy court couldn’t reach. So after declaring bankruptcy, all he had to do was act like an ass to have his contract voided so he could sign with a new team.
Also consider that Kane went to a Canadian team immediately after being terminated. The bankruptcy court operates in the US and has no way of accounting for earnings in Canada. So he’s also further removed from the bankruptcy process in the US.
Not really a conspiracy theory, more of a shrewd legal maneuver.
I’m glad other fans have been coming around to this over the years cause I spent a lot of time getting heckled for complaining about Campbell and his involvement in the league during the 2011 playoffs.
The hockey establishment is 16 guys aged 70+.
Hockey execs never retire. Until Bettman and these dinosaurs literally die, the nhl will never progress or gain a greater share of the north American sports market.
Really the thing close to a conspiracy that I believe regarding the league is that a bunch of players on the 1980s Oilers were frequent cocaine users, if not complete addicts, and that the team and the league tried its damnedest to keep in under wraps. Grant Fuhr was one of these players, and he was only punished by the league because the details of his addiction and recovery went public and the league felt it necessary to suspend him to save face.
I grew up a couple hours south of Edmonton. I don't think this is a conspiracy really. This is something I always heard growing up. Think this is more one of those things that everyone knows but just talked about quietly.
Remember, some people unironically think bettman hates everything Canada and rigs it against them but gave Edmonton 4 first overalls in 6 years and the biggest one was when they had the third best odds behind two smaller American markets (Mcdavid).
And a recreational drug problem.
When Simmers was on the Kings with Doughty, he and Doughty lived together at Doughty’s house, Clune joined them when he came onboard. They were always partying and pretty much just being young pro players with money. The Kings staff and everyone called it “The Fraternity House.” Lots of drugs and shady girls. Doughty at the time was having a lot of issues on the ice, not living up to his potential. Anyone who read about Clune shouldn’t be surprised at this.
Simmers also slept with an ice girl, she was fired. Then Simmers was traded in the move that helped put our cup winning core together.
When Simmers left and they broke up that little party house Doughty became consistent and elite on the ice without the distractions. Simmers also got much better. It proved to be mutually beneficial.
Important to note, Simmers was well liked. He wasn’t like bad for the locker room or anything, he was just a kid having fun and so was Doughty, but putting them together created a bit of a party monster.
We all remember Stoll getting busted in Vegas with drugs. Mike Richards too.
I’m not necessarily saying there’s anything really crazy about it, most of us would probably be doing the same stuff, living In Hermosa as rich 20-something young NHL players.
NHL guys typically fall into one of two extremes, either party dudes having fun being young and dumb. Or they marry young and just spend all their time with their wife and kids creating a family, like Dusty and Nicole.
Not just PED’s and painkillers. How about straight up cocaine and mollies. There was a post about it in this sub about 4 years ago.
Edit: link added —> https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/0mNhbPsjKb
Ekblad's wife comes from money, so she's taking some huge bribes to dye her hair brown If you don't believe me, my third cousin's husband's 11th grade bio teacher's ex-girlfriend worked in the hair salon she went to one summer
Tessa Virtue dyed her hair brown to not blend in with the ice even before the NHL started paying her to do so. Blond hair is dangerous for figure skaters
That the NHL is rudderless other than its pursuit of short term opportunism and embraces mismanagement as a cost saving measure that still drives negative engagement from the media and fans.
Idk if it counts as a conspiracy theory or just a business decision behind closed doors, but I believe the Kraken were very close to being called either Thunderbirds or Totems.
Months prior to the Kraken name being announced there were a number of very reputable reporters who tweeted out the Seattle was having a press conference that Friday, with the belief that it was going to be to announce the name. Thunderbirds and Totems had been the betting favorites for a little bit and there were even articles detailing the plan/potential arrangement for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds if the NHL team were to take the name.
But between the tweets and the actual press conference an event unrelated to hockey took place. The then Washington Redskins would be changing their name after years of pushback for using a slur against Native American people as their team name. I think Seattle was going to announce their new Native American theme’d name up until that announcement when they figured they would get bad press and decided to avoid it all together.
The loss of the two most likely names, and the legal back-and-forth that would have likely come with naming the team Metropolitans (clashing with the New York Mets), lead to the team going with the fan favorite name, Kraken, which no insiders or prognosticators thought had a real chance until they dropped the team name jerseys and all.
You are forgetting all about how Sockeye was almost the name but a certain hockey romance novelist trademarked the name and prevented the team from being able to use that name unless they met her demands.
I don’t mind that Sockeyes wasn’t the name, for the sole reason that if you look at the mascots for the two geographically closest West Coast teams the jokes write themselves.
I heard the Sockeyes as a front runner name as well. I thought Seattle Sockeyes had a nice ring to it, and imagine the salmon colored jerseys! I didn’t know this was exactly why the name wasn’t chosen but I had heard something about someone owning the trademark as the reason why it wasn’t chosen.
Anyways, the Kraken name nor logo wasn’t my favorite at first, but it’s really grown on me since then. The logo has a neo-classic look that I think will age well.
I too wasn’t the biggest fan of the name at first. But once I saw the jerseys and the logo, I was instantly sold. My fear was the team would do some kind of cartoonish kraken design but they nailed that logo.
I would have loved to see Totems - between the Canucks, Seahawks, and WHL Thunderbirds, there is a long history in the region of tasteful, well-designed use of Salish art in sports brands, so it can absolutely be done well. The Seahawks are beloved by the local tribes and have a long history of working with them.
Totems would be dicey at best as a team name. Totems are sacred and spiritual, in a way that the other names are not. At some point, they would've been dragged through the mud for a choice like that. Deservedly so.
To be fair. Seattle is home to a decent size Scandinavian population from immigrant fishermen. They're a notable part of Seattle maritime history. Imagine what those first fishermen thought when they pulled up a giant pacific octopus lol.
It really did look for a hot second that were trying to really align themselves with the WHL team and it seemed like they were going to use the same colors and theme, too. And I swear at one point there was a tweet about one of the team's like... executives or governor or whomever had also said no, they weren't doing Kraken. I remember being so disappointed by that. Then suddenly it was like JK! We're actually doing sea green and blue as our colors and going with kraken.
My all-time favorite is that David Stern intentionally sandbagged the NHL by recommending NBA general counsel Gary Bettman. Stern knew he’d be less effective than some other candidates and wanted to handicap a rival league.
Of those names you just listed, Goodell is probably the least hated, especially after he started leaning into the boos on draft day. And his comfy COVID chair. Then again, the NFL are near gods at marketing
But you're forgetting one important name:
The bastard Bud Selig
My conspiracy is that there aren't any league-wide conspiracies. Cuz if there are then the NHL sucks at them.
They rigged the 05 draft to get Crosby to Pittsburgh to save the team? Why didn't they rig any other draft to save the Yotes or Thrashers? Didn't rig any drafts so that the Oilers didn't get like 4 1st overalls in 5 years or whatever it was?
That whole “the draft lottery is rigged” theory goes completely out the window when you realize that the NHL had back to back drafts where they could have sent the best prospect since Crosby to his hometown team (who are also arguably the biggest team in the league). Then the next year they could have rigged it so the hometown boy once again goes home, this time to a team that’s struggled to really establish a presence in their state and build up a real fanbase.
I mean if I’m the NHL and I’m rigging the draft, I’m sending McDavid to Toronto and Matthews to Arizona the next year, no questions asked. So why didn’t they do that then? Because it would be “too obvious” ?? It’s a theory that loses its credibility when you really sit down and think about it and the results they could have had compared to what we actually got
Cole Harbour?
Jk. But Montreal doesn’t need Crosby to sell tickets.
I don’t think it’s rigged. And I agree if any rigging is happening, it’s Matthews to AZ.
Matthews and Arizona is the smoking gun that the lottery is NOT rigged and the conspiracies are just people pouring piss bottles on themselves.
Big market/O6 team wins lottery? Rigged
Small market/lovable loser wins? NHL got it right
It’s just complaining. Matthews and Arizona proved it to be false.
"X is rigged" is my favorite conspiracy. Do people not realize that even if that were true, it requires not only people to be able to keep a secret, but to be hypercompent at their jobs. Few people are are good at one or the other, even fewer people are good at both.
that's def a possibility but I remember reading something about this, prob on here, about how there's some kind of combo of things hockey players do along with the constant traveling that increases it. leg injuries and flying really increase the chances iirc
Mario Lemieux is actually a saiyan sent to conquer the planet. But his ship landed off course in Canada. He was supposed to land in the US where he would learn to be violent and cruel. Instead he landed up north and learned to be compassionate and play hockey.
The Canadiens were one of the winners of the 2018 Draft Lottery as repayment from the NHL for trading for John Scott and sending him to the AHL in an attempt to make him ineligible/miss the NHL All-Star Game in 2016.
The NHL REALLY didn't want John Scott in that game. (Not that I agree with them, that was BS of them to try and stop it, and it was a lot of fun for him and his family)
That was such a boneheaded take from the league.
They're desperate for us to care about the ASG and then something happens that has everyone super fucking excited for it and they decided to try and squash it.
When the Habs played Vegas in 2021 and Corey Perry got his nose chopped in OT and they had to take multiple minutes to clean the blood off the ice but the refs didn’t call anything. Obvious series they wanted Vegas to win with blatant one sided officiating.
Or Suzuki getting punched in the face by McNabb right in front of the ref with absolutely no call, that was brutal. That and how pissed it felt like Bettman was when he had to congratulate the Habs on making the cup final and getting the Clarance Campbell trophy lol
I seem to recall people on this subreddit saying if Vegas won that series it should have an asterisk on it. Genuinely the most biased officiating I've ever seen.
Reminded me of Lakers vs Kings which was also extremely crooked and one-sided reffing, among other compared instances of where at least one of the officials were in on the take or rigging it.
Dany Heatley (and several other 2000-2008 Sens) were notorious cocaine users. This is pretty widely known in Ottawa.
The theory I’ve heard is that Heatley racked up a nasty debt with some sort of organized crime connections in Canada, and his trade request was primarily because he needed to move to the states for safety reasons. Apparently, one of the reasons he wouldn’t go to Edmonton was because he needed to leave Canada altogether.
I have no idea if this is true. It’s just something I heard years ago that I always found interesting
He slept with a prominent Italian man’s girlfriend. As they would be frequenting his establishments and doing coke in the back. He was given the option to leave town or else…
The NHL will never do another expansion/relocation to a Canadian market because the taxes are too high and will instead just keep adding teams to low tax US states, let them game the hard cap to build stacked rosters, and win cups to grow the market.
I believe the league was going to do whatever it could to have an extended montreal-Toronto series in the covid playoffs to try and stem some of its bleeding from the pandemic seasons.
Taro Tsujimoto was actually a completely real player, but he changed his identity and faked his own death when he learned that he had been drafted to the Buffalo Sabres 😔
The Wideman Effect was real
Prior to Dennis Wideman hitting the official, Calgary was one of the least (I think least) penalized teams in the NHL.
After it, they became one of the most penalized .
I'm not saying officials were lying about penalties, just they stopped letting little things go
Super easy. 2009 Finals, Malkin gets an instigator penalty late in Game 2. By rule he should have been suspended for game 3. I firmly believe the league disregarded their own rules to get Pit the cup that year.
Alex Ovechkin is a good 2 years older than he says he is. Why? To outplay all the equivalent players in his youth and secure a better entry into the NHL.
Crosby/Penguins rigged draft is a dumb conspiracy theory
But the one I do believe is that the league wanted to make sure Pittsburgh had the best odds and when they realized their mistake in assigning the process for who had the best odds, they chose to ignore them as it would benefit Florida instead of Pittsburgh.
Basically, all teams had three lottery balls. If you made the playoffs in the past three years or had a 1st Overall pick in the last four years, you lost a ball. Every team would have at least one ball.
In the 2003 NHL Draft the Florida Panthers traded down from #1 Overall and the Pittsburgh Penguins traded up, selecting Marc Andre Fleury. For the purposes of determining the Crosby draft lottery odds, the league determined that this didn't count as Pittsburgh drafting #1 Overall and subtracted a pick from Florida, not Pittsburgh.
Also, the last time Pittsburgh made the playoffs? Four years prior. The cutoff for losing a ball for making the playoffs was set at three years, but first overall picks at four years.
Pittsburgh never should have had three lottery balls for that draft and how the lottery was determined and interpreted fell very much in their favor at every step of the way. I wouldn't say "the NHL then got their wish", as their wish was definitely Crosby to the Rangers, who also had three lottery balls, but it's interesting how things fell perfectly for Pittsburgh.
And to be clear, once the lottery took place, it's all random. I'm not saying the actual draft lottery selection was rigged and think anyone who thinks any of these are just saying it to be loud and different. It's impossible and/or not feasible at all to actually rig it. But you can tip the scales in certain teams' favor in rare instances like the 2005 draft.
In the third overtime of Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup finals at Marine Midland Arena, Brett Hull’s goal, despite his skate clearly occupying the crease, was allowed to stand, and the Dallas Stars skated off the ice as champions while the Sabres skated off screaming at the moon. All season the NHL had made it a point to disallow goals scored when any part of a players’ body was in the crease, but on the most important non-goal of the season they let it slip in.
The NHL purposely didn't release the video angle of Bennett sucker punching Marchand right away to hide the bad optics of Marchand being very clearly concussed and still playing another period
I believe a major exec high up with the league puts pressure on his underlings, the referees, to make favourable calls for his family member who works for a team that plays in the NHL.
2013 game 7 Leafs vs Boston. The big leafs collapse.
Start of OT, Horton is on for the opening faceoff but Julien is trying to get his attention to tell him something.
Right before the puck is dropped, Marchand throws his water bottle on the ice because Julien is not able to get Hortons attention.
Blatant delay of game, and a call that all 4 referees saw and could've called but didn't because it was OT game 7. And we know how that OT played out.
I'm fairly certain the NHL interfered in the Oilers/Ducks series, I want to say 2016?
I'm not sure how you miss THAT many BLATANT goalie interference calls on Anaheim, even after review. Anaheim was down by three, ran Cam Talbot 3x to tie it up and win the game in OT to force a game 7.
And they wonder why the Anti Canada Cospiracy Theory is a thing.
The NHL chose not to suspend Malkin in 2009 SCF because they wanted to get their golden child Crosby a cup to further push their Crosby - Gretzky narrative
Game 6 of the 1993 conference finals Kerry Fraser the referee called such a horrible game on purpose all game and then intentionally ignored Wayne Gretzky's obvious high stick on Doug Gilmour which drew blood in OT because the NHL wanted the kings led by Gretzky to go to the Stanley Cup finals because it would grow the game more for the NHL.
Yeah and now that Leafs and Habs are in the same division we will never get a chance of seeing them play in the Cup finals against each other ever again.
I mean, would anyone have *really* known if a few of the games during Henrik’s ironman streak were actually played by Daniel?
Did Henrick, err, Daniel score any goals during those games? Could be a clue.
Henriks best stretch was during Daniels absence. Honestly Henriks shooting isnt that much worse than Daniel. And Daniel doesnt really shoot, he just passes into the net when the goalie gets caught on the wrong side
He literally passed to Daniel through a goalies legs...
They definitely switched jerseys at least once.
>I mean, would anyone have *really* known if a few of the games during Henrik’s ironman streak were actually played by Daniel? Somehow I've made it this far in life not realizing the league has seen two sets of identical Swedish twins in which one twin was named Henrik. I was also a bit incredulous that Henrik's brother could play goal for the 00s Rangers without anyone realizing something was off. Until I remembered his name was Joel.
Henrik is somehow more handsome than Joel
I forgot the Lundqvists were identical twins!
Henrik would know. And Henrik don’t play that way.
That reminds me of Man united had Fabio and Rafael and there was rumours of Sir Alex changing them at halftime without anyone noticing
Such a ballsy move to try something like that, but you gotta think someone has done it.
Well, it’s just a rumour. But if anyone would tried, for sure it would have been Sir Alex
It's pretty heavily [rumored ](https://www.basketballnetwork.net/old-school/markieff-morris-denied-he-switched-places-with-twin-marcus#:~:text=The%20twins%20switched%20places%20before,and%20tests%20in%20high%20school.) that the Morris twins did it in the NBA
Daniel would though, being a complete lowlife and all.
As an aside I read today that the Sedin's went up the Grouse Grind the other day with the Canucks prospects - the Grouse Grind is a roughly 1 hr (if you're in shape) running hike up a mountain in North Vancouver. Both Sedin's beat all the prospects and it was revealed Daniel Sedin once did 11 Grouse Grinds in a single day.
Not sure if I should admire that the Sedins are able to beat a bunch of young athletes less than half their age, or worried that none of our prospects could beat a couple retirees twice their age.
If I remember correctly, as late as 2019 Rod used to do the Hurricanes fitness tests and beat the pants off most of the players, so it’s not just us.
Have you seen our glorious leader without a shirt recently. It'd be less believable that a player beat Rod, honestly.
Big Z retired from hockey to go run marathons, I wouldn’t be surprised if he could demolish the entire Bruins roster in a fitness test lol.
They beat all of the prospects to the top, too! In the words of Aiden Celebrini, “they’re insane” lol
In 1991 NHL screwed the Sharks out of the number one pick and the ability to draft Eric Lindros
[Every other actual expansion team was either getting a first overall pick or a chance at a first overall pick before they ever put a team on the ice. Not San Jose, for whom 20+ years of established precedent was set aside and after which that precedent would go right back into place.](https://nathangabay.com/1991-eric-lindros-and-the-san-jose-screwjob/)
The way the Sharks came into the league was in itself unprecedented though. They weren't really a conventional expansion team, they were basically a spin-out of the Northstars, which is the franchise the original Oakland Seals merged into (after being relocated to Cleveland). It was one part expansion and one part relocating the original franchise back to the Bay. They even did a dispersal draft so Sharks could pick from the existing Northstars contracts prior to the Northstars and Sharks _both_ participating in the expansion draft. It's a pretty strange and interesting story, but anyways my point is that you can't really cite precedent for situations that don't fit the precedent. I agree though, Lindros being drafted by the Sharks would have been pretty awesome. There wasn't any good reason to not let the new franchise have the next big superstar.
In an alternate timeline where the Sharks draft Lindros, the Scott Stevens hit wouldn't have happened. I have to think he'd have a much loftier career point total in that timeline. Or who knows, maybe he'd have had an even shorter and more injury plagued career. It's not like the NHL gave a shit about concussions back then.
I never knew this, but my mom used to work for Gordon Gund and we always had random North Stars and then Sharks merch. Makes a lot of sense now!
I’m so sorry it had to be you gents in 2016.
Lindros as a Shark would’ve been so fun
His parents might have requested a trade because he can't speak Spanish (Lindros would roll his eyes at this).
Didn’t it come out that the reason why he wouldn’t play for Quebec is because Marcel Aubut made some remarks about his mother, not knowing she spoke French. On top of that, he had control of the press which of course made it an issue even worse than he imagined. Then years later after he lost the team, it came out he did in fact sexually assault women.
That’s not a conspiracy; that’s just an obvious fact. What was galling was not making it up in some way. Ottawa and Tampa had the top two picks a year later (when they entered the league), and Anaheim and Florida were granted 1-2 in 1994 no matter what the standings were since they weren’t getting it in 1993. San Jose? “Sucks to suck…moving on.”
Gund screwed himself. The sharks were not a typical expansion team, and thus didn't have the typical expansion team rules.
What was the intention behind the conspiracy? Just “fuck them”?
I imagine it was as simple as “this kid could the be the face of the league for years, we don’t want him on some new team no one cares about out in California”
When the Rick Tocchet gambling ring issues came to the surface during his tenure as assistant coach of the Coyotes, Janet Jones was accused of placing quite a few bets on the Coyotes. She was implicated of doing so. Conspiracy theory is she fell on the sword to cover Wayne Gretzky's ass, as Gretzky was both Head Coach and part owner of the team at the time.
I’ve heard something similar but with Tocchet being the sacrificial lamb. Just because we couldn’t ruin TGO’s reputation of being a squeaky clean good guy who doesn’t get into trouble.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rick was used as the sacrificial lamb, and they had him go away for a few years till the stench of it all washed over.
Seems to be the NHL's modus operandi. See: the Blackhawks org members that just got unsuspended on the first day of free agency.
Not just go away a few years, but come back to guaranteed positions.
This is another one I readily believe. Gretzky's wife was running a betting ring in collusion with his assistants and he's oblivious to the matter?
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Now back to the Steve Dangle Podcast.
It seems so obvious he was involved. But, how do you tell the GOAT who built the game in the sun belt to fuck off a few years? Even then, you have the noble truth factor a where it’s better if the public doesn’t know.
You have him go play AA baseball for a couple of years.
Even more conspiracy-ish, I sometimes wonder if this has to do with Meruelo getting so many chances with Arizona and running it in to the ground (and even more egregious, getting a chance thereafter). Though he came in after NHL ownership, that doesn't hide the fact that he's a huge casino magnate based in the original state of Gretzky's coyotes. Of course, this is just thinking...
That very well could be true, but an unnecessary coverup IMO All they would’ve had to say is that Wayne was too drunk to realize it was occurring and everyone would’ve believed it
Honestly this doesn't even seem like a conspiracy as much as an NHL business decision lol. Most believable here by a mile.
I've always found it weird how quickly everything was brushed under the rug. Like it seemed at the time that Gretzky was 1000% involved.
I think it’s very possible that the Sharks hid the results of or didn’t test Brent Burns for Covid so that he could keep his Ironman streak alive. That team got decimated by Covid and other illnesses but Burns never missed a game
I wondered about that with all the Ironman streaks, like Kessel. It seems like every NHL player would have at least one positive because they were tested for, what, 2 years?
I don't know about this, I attended college during 21-22 and got tested regularly. Never once tested positive
Yeah, I work in film and they were basically testing us weekly and I never tested positive despite my roommate and other people I work with testing positive.
The iron man in sumo - Tamawashi - will be 40 years old this year and he's never missed a match. Small asterisk by that. There was one sumo tournament absolutely wrecked by COVID. Their rules are if someone in the stable (gym) tests positive, every member needs to sit out. One of Tamawashi's friends got sick, so he had to sit on the sideline for the first time in his career. The sumo association just straight up said this was a weird circumstance and it doesn't count. The iron man streak is still alive.
More a Russian conspiracy than NHL. But I believe many russian hockey players have cheated on their age to reach NHL. A +20 years old playing with 16-17 years is quite an advantage. That's why couple of really promising russian player never flourish in the NHL. Grigorenko and Yakupov were the more obvious ones. [https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/rumor-three-nhl-star-russian-players-reportedly-lied-on-their-age](https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/rumor-three-nhl-star-russian-players-reportedly-lied-on-their-age)
If there's one thing I wish hockey fans understood better, it's being able to correct for physical maturation when evaluating prospect talent. Some people just start physically maturing a few years early their age group then tear up Juniors less because of talent and more because they're literally a man among boys. Then they're a bust in the NHL because they lose that advantage as soon as they aren't playing against teenagers all the time.
That and if they're bigger and better than their peers, they don't have to try as hard and that carries over. It was once said about Allen Iverson if he was five inches taller, the NbA would be screwed. But he probably wouldn't have been so tenacious if he was taller.
They don't even have to be that much older. A few months difference in age around the cutoff dates and a player can get a massive advantage. Saying a child who was born July 1st was born January 1st the following year would translate into a significant advantage and be practically undetectable.
Everytime I see this posted, I have to point out that if it is true that Ovechkin is several years older than he claims, then it makes what he has accomplished all the more impressive. He turns "39" officially in September. Two seasons ago he scored 50 goals.
Ovi is theoretically only 7 years older than my daughter, but he looks closer to my age (56) than hers (31).
How many liters of vodka per month does your daughter drink though?
A few years ago the Sharks imploded and fell off a cliff. Evander Kane had recently signed a big long term contract. He used it as collateral to gamble and racked up massive debt. His personal life spiraled out of control just like the franchise in the standings. I think his AHL assignment, breaking COVID protocols and subsequent contract termination were agreed to by the team and him in private to get him off the books and free him from his creditors.
That's juicy, spicy, and a total bro move if it happened. I don't know about the logistics and other stuff around his debts related to him losing that contract but if they worked that together to make sure he was safe and then flew him all the way to Canada not literally but you know what I mean.. that would be super cool
It’s a lot more simple than this. Kane declares bankruptcy during his contract with the Sharks. The court can seize most of your assets when declaring bankruptcy (with exceptions to certain things like a certain amount of equity in the home and a certain amount for personal property). Once Bankruptcy has been declared, any money made afterwards is not included in the proceedings. Kane had a shrewd bankruptcy lawyer because he knew that as soon as Kane declared bankruptcy, it would be in Kane’s interest to get out of his old contract and get a new one, one in which the bankruptcy court couldn’t reach. So after declaring bankruptcy, all he had to do was act like an ass to have his contract voided so he could sign with a new team. Also consider that Kane went to a Canadian team immediately after being terminated. The bankruptcy court operates in the US and has no way of accounting for earnings in Canada. So he’s also further removed from the bankruptcy process in the US. Not really a conspiracy theory, more of a shrewd legal maneuver.
Nah Occam's razor......he just dumb.
Collin Campbell is a little piss baby.
100% and his lack of integrity makes me doubt the league when it comes to matches from teams he has a stake in
I’m glad other fans have been coming around to this over the years cause I spent a lot of time getting heckled for complaining about Campbell and his involvement in the league during the 2011 playoffs.
The fact that he can hold such an integral position with a son playing/involved in hockey ops is ridiculous.
It was SHOCKING that Aaron Rome got the longest suspension in finals history in a series against his kid. Shocking.
Tim Peel got in trouble previously for admitting that game management is a thing. It’s the worst kept secret anyways.
There's probably no single person who has done a much damage to the product or held it back as much over the past few decades as that dinosaur.
But he got into the HHOF this year so the hockey establishment doesn't even care.
The hockey establishment is 16 guys aged 70+. Hockey execs never retire. Until Bettman and these dinosaurs literally die, the nhl will never progress or gain a greater share of the north American sports market.
Sorry, this thread is for conspiracy theories, not facts.
Your really gunna get canucks fans riled up for mentioning 2011 and Collin Campbell in the same post.
I got my riot gear polished and ready to go after reading this post
14 year old me thought the riots were the coolest thing in the world (I was angsty and upset Lu didn’t get his cup)
All thirty-two NHL teams conspired to keep me undrafted because they knew I would threaten all of 99's records. That's as plausible as any other.
I've definitely played hockey against you and this is plausible
on the bright side, you're now one of the top free agents in the league
Get a load of 98 over here eh boys?
Really the thing close to a conspiracy that I believe regarding the league is that a bunch of players on the 1980s Oilers were frequent cocaine users, if not complete addicts, and that the team and the league tried its damnedest to keep in under wraps. Grant Fuhr was one of these players, and he was only punished by the league because the details of his addiction and recovery went public and the league felt it necessary to suspend him to save face.
This was known back then, but kept quiet.
There were rumors that a coked up Messier crashed his car into a guardrail and it was swept under the rug
Lafleur nearly killed both himself and Gretzky drunk driving and it wasn't widely reported so this is entirely believable.
I grew up a couple hours south of Edmonton. I don't think this is a conspiracy really. This is something I always heard growing up. Think this is more one of those things that everyone knows but just talked about quietly.
[Considers what it’s like to be a Sabres fan in his late 40’s. Pours a full pint glass of whiskey]
You’re going to need a handle, my friend. A pint will only take the edge off.
First Nations elder curse is real isn't it.
Who am I to question Ted Nolan, especially based on all observable evidence?
He is the father of two Jim’s, the ultimate beauty’s.
On a related note, I usually don’t believe drafts are rigged. 2015 made me seriously think it was
Remember, some people unironically think bettman hates everything Canada and rigs it against them but gave Edmonton 4 first overalls in 6 years and the biggest one was when they had the third best odds behind two smaller American markets (Mcdavid).
I don't believe Bettman hates Canada because I believe he is completely devoid of human emotions
Oh no. I don't need more history.
There is wide spread PED use in the league and the league covers it up.
There's definitely a pain killer problem around the league Like, fucking terrifyingly huge
And a recreational drug problem. When Simmers was on the Kings with Doughty, he and Doughty lived together at Doughty’s house, Clune joined them when he came onboard. They were always partying and pretty much just being young pro players with money. The Kings staff and everyone called it “The Fraternity House.” Lots of drugs and shady girls. Doughty at the time was having a lot of issues on the ice, not living up to his potential. Anyone who read about Clune shouldn’t be surprised at this. Simmers also slept with an ice girl, she was fired. Then Simmers was traded in the move that helped put our cup winning core together. When Simmers left and they broke up that little party house Doughty became consistent and elite on the ice without the distractions. Simmers also got much better. It proved to be mutually beneficial. Important to note, Simmers was well liked. He wasn’t like bad for the locker room or anything, he was just a kid having fun and so was Doughty, but putting them together created a bit of a party monster. We all remember Stoll getting busted in Vegas with drugs. Mike Richards too. I’m not necessarily saying there’s anything really crazy about it, most of us would probably be doing the same stuff, living In Hermosa as rich 20-something young NHL players. NHL guys typically fall into one of two extremes, either party dudes having fun being young and dumb. Or they marry young and just spend all their time with their wife and kids creating a family, like Dusty and Nicole.
Not just PED’s and painkillers. How about straight up cocaine and mollies. There was a post about it in this sub about 4 years ago. Edit: link added —> https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/s/0mNhbPsjKb
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No hockey players ever marry brunettes. The NHL forces a random 3% to dye their hair brown in order to promote diversity
I can’t believe I had to scroll down THIS far for the most obvious one.
Ekblad did, shes also a doctor. That guy is living life.
Ekblad's wife comes from money, so she's taking some huge bribes to dye her hair brown If you don't believe me, my third cousin's husband's 11th grade bio teacher's ex-girlfriend worked in the hair salon she went to one summer
same with morgan rielly who's with one of the best figure skaters of all time and probably 10x more beloved by the country of canada than he is lol
Tessa Virtue dyed her hair brown to not blend in with the ice even before the NHL started paying her to do so. Blond hair is dangerous for figure skaters
That the NHL is rudderless other than its pursuit of short term opportunism and embraces mismanagement as a cost saving measure that still drives negative engagement from the media and fans.
Is it really a conspiracy theory to say that team owners don't care how the sausage gets made if their bottom lines stay healthy?
The refs are definitely out to fuck over your favorite team specifically
yes but us especially
Idk if it counts as a conspiracy theory or just a business decision behind closed doors, but I believe the Kraken were very close to being called either Thunderbirds or Totems. Months prior to the Kraken name being announced there were a number of very reputable reporters who tweeted out the Seattle was having a press conference that Friday, with the belief that it was going to be to announce the name. Thunderbirds and Totems had been the betting favorites for a little bit and there were even articles detailing the plan/potential arrangement for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds if the NHL team were to take the name. But between the tweets and the actual press conference an event unrelated to hockey took place. The then Washington Redskins would be changing their name after years of pushback for using a slur against Native American people as their team name. I think Seattle was going to announce their new Native American theme’d name up until that announcement when they figured they would get bad press and decided to avoid it all together. The loss of the two most likely names, and the legal back-and-forth that would have likely come with naming the team Metropolitans (clashing with the New York Mets), lead to the team going with the fan favorite name, Kraken, which no insiders or prognosticators thought had a real chance until they dropped the team name jerseys and all.
You are forgetting all about how Sockeye was almost the name but a certain hockey romance novelist trademarked the name and prevented the team from being able to use that name unless they met her demands.
I don’t mind that Sockeyes wasn’t the name, for the sole reason that if you look at the mascots for the two geographically closest West Coast teams the jokes write themselves.
What's so funny about Ducks and Kings?
I heard the Sockeyes as a front runner name as well. I thought Seattle Sockeyes had a nice ring to it, and imagine the salmon colored jerseys! I didn’t know this was exactly why the name wasn’t chosen but I had heard something about someone owning the trademark as the reason why it wasn’t chosen. Anyways, the Kraken name nor logo wasn’t my favorite at first, but it’s really grown on me since then. The logo has a neo-classic look that I think will age well.
I too wasn’t the biggest fan of the name at first. But once I saw the jerseys and the logo, I was instantly sold. My fear was the team would do some kind of cartoonish kraken design but they nailed that logo.
I would have loved to see Totems - between the Canucks, Seahawks, and WHL Thunderbirds, there is a long history in the region of tasteful, well-designed use of Salish art in sports brands, so it can absolutely be done well. The Seahawks are beloved by the local tribes and have a long history of working with them.
Totems would be dicey at best as a team name. Totems are sacred and spiritual, in a way that the other names are not. At some point, they would've been dragged through the mud for a choice like that. Deservedly so.
"Should we use a mythical creature from Native American history? No, let's use one from Norse history, less controversial"
To be fair. Seattle is home to a decent size Scandinavian population from immigrant fishermen. They're a notable part of Seattle maritime history. Imagine what those first fishermen thought when they pulled up a giant pacific octopus lol.
It really did look for a hot second that were trying to really align themselves with the WHL team and it seemed like they were going to use the same colors and theme, too. And I swear at one point there was a tweet about one of the team's like... executives or governor or whomever had also said no, they weren't doing Kraken. I remember being so disappointed by that. Then suddenly it was like JK! We're actually doing sea green and blue as our colors and going with kraken.
Hextall was a Flyers sleeper agent who purposefully tanked the Pens
Triple agent who also tanked the Flyers
Literally every Yinzer is in agreement with this.
My all-time favorite is that David Stern intentionally sandbagged the NHL by recommending NBA general counsel Gary Bettman. Stern knew he’d be less effective than some other candidates and wanted to handicap a rival league.
This is believable solely based on the fact that David Stern was an absolute ghoul.
Is there any major league that isn't run by someone who isn't garbage? Bettman, Manfred, Goodell... All just awful.
Of those names you just listed, Goodell is probably the least hated, especially after he started leaning into the boos on draft day. And his comfy COVID chair. Then again, the NFL are near gods at marketing But you're forgetting one important name: The bastard Bud Selig
Gretzky helped to develop COVID in China to spread a global pandemic in order to stop ovechkin from breaking his goal record.
Yeah, fuck it, I'll incorporate that into my belief system
Ya I’m game for this one too, it’s fun. Gretzky caused the pandemic.
I've heard worse COVID conspiracy theories!
My conspiracy is that there aren't any league-wide conspiracies. Cuz if there are then the NHL sucks at them. They rigged the 05 draft to get Crosby to Pittsburgh to save the team? Why didn't they rig any other draft to save the Yotes or Thrashers? Didn't rig any drafts so that the Oilers didn't get like 4 1st overalls in 5 years or whatever it was?
That whole “the draft lottery is rigged” theory goes completely out the window when you realize that the NHL had back to back drafts where they could have sent the best prospect since Crosby to his hometown team (who are also arguably the biggest team in the league). Then the next year they could have rigged it so the hometown boy once again goes home, this time to a team that’s struggled to really establish a presence in their state and build up a real fanbase. I mean if I’m the NHL and I’m rigging the draft, I’m sending McDavid to Toronto and Matthews to Arizona the next year, no questions asked. So why didn’t they do that then? Because it would be “too obvious” ?? It’s a theory that loses its credibility when you really sit down and think about it and the results they could have had compared to what we actually got
Cole Harbour? Jk. But Montreal doesn’t need Crosby to sell tickets. I don’t think it’s rigged. And I agree if any rigging is happening, it’s Matthews to AZ.
Rigging conspiracies are negated by McDavid to Edmonton.
>And I agree if any rigging is happening, it’s Matthews to AZ. Bingo
Matthews and Arizona is the smoking gun that the lottery is NOT rigged and the conspiracies are just people pouring piss bottles on themselves. Big market/O6 team wins lottery? Rigged Small market/lovable loser wins? NHL got it right It’s just complaining. Matthews and Arizona proved it to be false.
"X is rigged" is my favorite conspiracy. Do people not realize that even if that were true, it requires not only people to be able to keep a secret, but to be hypercompent at their jobs. Few people are are good at one or the other, even fewer people are good at both.
If bettman has been rigging games for 30 years without getting caught, then he’s better at his job than Gretzky was at his.
I think some players who have had to miss time or retire because of blood clots were doping.
that's def a possibility but I remember reading something about this, prob on here, about how there's some kind of combo of things hockey players do along with the constant traveling that increases it. leg injuries and flying really increase the chances iirc
my friend's dad was a pilot and his legs are just a web of varicose veins, it's disgusting. I believe it.
Mario Lemieux is actually a saiyan sent to conquer the planet. But his ship landed off course in Canada. He was supposed to land in the US where he would learn to be violent and cruel. Instead he landed up north and learned to be compassionate and play hockey.
I can buy this
The Canadiens were one of the winners of the 2018 Draft Lottery as repayment from the NHL for trading for John Scott and sending him to the AHL in an attempt to make him ineligible/miss the NHL All-Star Game in 2016. The NHL REALLY didn't want John Scott in that game. (Not that I agree with them, that was BS of them to try and stop it, and it was a lot of fun for him and his family)
Now this is one I can get on board for
That was such a boneheaded take from the league. They're desperate for us to care about the ASG and then something happens that has everyone super fucking excited for it and they decided to try and squash it.
When the Habs played Vegas in 2021 and Corey Perry got his nose chopped in OT and they had to take multiple minutes to clean the blood off the ice but the refs didn’t call anything. Obvious series they wanted Vegas to win with blatant one sided officiating.
Or Suzuki getting punched in the face by McNabb right in front of the ref with absolutely no call, that was brutal. That and how pissed it felt like Bettman was when he had to congratulate the Habs on making the cup final and getting the Clarance Campbell trophy lol
I seem to recall people on this subreddit saying if Vegas won that series it should have an asterisk on it. Genuinely the most biased officiating I've ever seen.
Reminded me of Lakers vs Kings which was also extremely crooked and one-sided reffing, among other compared instances of where at least one of the officials were in on the take or rigging it.
unfortunately chris lee being dogshit isn’t a conspiracy
This barely registers as a conspiracy
Dany Heatley (and several other 2000-2008 Sens) were notorious cocaine users. This is pretty widely known in Ottawa. The theory I’ve heard is that Heatley racked up a nasty debt with some sort of organized crime connections in Canada, and his trade request was primarily because he needed to move to the states for safety reasons. Apparently, one of the reasons he wouldn’t go to Edmonton was because he needed to leave Canada altogether. I have no idea if this is true. It’s just something I heard years ago that I always found interesting
I heard there was spezza, emery, redden and a though guy and they traded everyone except spezza to straighten him out,
He slept with a prominent Italian man’s girlfriend. As they would be frequenting his establishments and doing coke in the back. He was given the option to leave town or else…
The NHL will never do another expansion/relocation to a Canadian market because the taxes are too high and will instead just keep adding teams to low tax US states, let them game the hard cap to build stacked rosters, and win cups to grow the market.
That’s not really a conspiracy lol.
This is just facts, not a conspiracy
I believe the league was going to do whatever it could to have an extended montreal-Toronto series in the covid playoffs to try and stem some of its bleeding from the pandemic seasons.
Arthur Kaliyev is his dead brother
I had never heard this. Looked it up. I don’t believe it, but was certainly entertained.
Best part is the guy who made the post admitting he was stoned when he came up with it lol
Taro Tsujimoto was actually a completely real player, but he changed his identity and faked his own death when he learned that he had been drafted to the Buffalo Sabres 😔
the bruins under claude julien were really famous for their attractive brand of hockey.
Hahhaaa, exactly. No one was trying to stop Guy Boucher’s boring style in favor of Claude Julien’s.
Bedard is actually three little kids sitting on each others shoulders
The 2021 WCF between Vegas and Montreal felt like a rigged series where the NHL had a certain team in mind to move on.
Which is why it was so satisfying to see Montreal win it.
The refs hate my team and do everything to make it so my team loses
Everyone calls Bettman "Count von Count" behind closed doors
The thought of someone speaking in a hybrid of the count and bettman’s voice is positively horrifying
The Wideman Effect was real Prior to Dennis Wideman hitting the official, Calgary was one of the least (I think least) penalized teams in the NHL. After it, they became one of the most penalized . I'm not saying officials were lying about penalties, just they stopped letting little things go
Super easy. 2009 Finals, Malkin gets an instigator penalty late in Game 2. By rule he should have been suspended for game 3. I firmly believe the league disregarded their own rules to get Pit the cup that year.
Alex Ovechkin is a good 2 years older than he says he is. Why? To outplay all the equivalent players in his youth and secure a better entry into the NHL.
Crosby/Penguins rigged draft is a dumb conspiracy theory But the one I do believe is that the league wanted to make sure Pittsburgh had the best odds and when they realized their mistake in assigning the process for who had the best odds, they chose to ignore them as it would benefit Florida instead of Pittsburgh. Basically, all teams had three lottery balls. If you made the playoffs in the past three years or had a 1st Overall pick in the last four years, you lost a ball. Every team would have at least one ball. In the 2003 NHL Draft the Florida Panthers traded down from #1 Overall and the Pittsburgh Penguins traded up, selecting Marc Andre Fleury. For the purposes of determining the Crosby draft lottery odds, the league determined that this didn't count as Pittsburgh drafting #1 Overall and subtracted a pick from Florida, not Pittsburgh. Also, the last time Pittsburgh made the playoffs? Four years prior. The cutoff for losing a ball for making the playoffs was set at three years, but first overall picks at four years. Pittsburgh never should have had three lottery balls for that draft and how the lottery was determined and interpreted fell very much in their favor at every step of the way. I wouldn't say "the NHL then got their wish", as their wish was definitely Crosby to the Rangers, who also had three lottery balls, but it's interesting how things fell perfectly for Pittsburgh. And to be clear, once the lottery took place, it's all random. I'm not saying the actual draft lottery selection was rigged and think anyone who thinks any of these are just saying it to be loud and different. It's impossible and/or not feasible at all to actually rig it. But you can tip the scales in certain teams' favor in rare instances like the 2005 draft.
In the third overtime of Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup finals at Marine Midland Arena, Brett Hull’s goal, despite his skate clearly occupying the crease, was allowed to stand, and the Dallas Stars skated off the ice as champions while the Sabres skated off screaming at the moon. All season the NHL had made it a point to disallow goals scored when any part of a players’ body was in the crease, but on the most important non-goal of the season they let it slip in.
Given the Bruins had one of Ted Donato’s goals taken away for that exact reason in 99 is the perfect demonstration that Gary wanted Dallas to win.
The NHL purposely didn't release the video angle of Bennett sucker punching Marchand right away to hide the bad optics of Marchand being very clearly concussed and still playing another period
The puck crossed the line in Game 6 vs Tampa
And Hull’s skate was in the crease
[>mf at 2 AM reading an Oilers fan defending us on the "the puck was in" debate](https://i.imgur.com/KvjZGSv.png)
I believe a major exec high up with the league puts pressure on his underlings, the referees, to make favourable calls for his family member who works for a team that plays in the NHL.
2013 game 7 Leafs vs Boston. The big leafs collapse. Start of OT, Horton is on for the opening faceoff but Julien is trying to get his attention to tell him something. Right before the puck is dropped, Marchand throws his water bottle on the ice because Julien is not able to get Hortons attention. Blatant delay of game, and a call that all 4 referees saw and could've called but didn't because it was OT game 7. And we know how that OT played out.
I beleive any conspiracy that removes a Bruins cup
You got plenty, just back off!!
I'm fairly certain the NHL interfered in the Oilers/Ducks series, I want to say 2016? I'm not sure how you miss THAT many BLATANT goalie interference calls on Anaheim, even after review. Anaheim was down by three, ran Cam Talbot 3x to tie it up and win the game in OT to force a game 7. And they wonder why the Anti Canada Cospiracy Theory is a thing.
The NHL chose not to suspend Malkin in 2009 SCF because they wanted to get their golden child Crosby a cup to further push their Crosby - Gretzky narrative
The rule is a bad rule, but choosing not to enforce it because a star player violates it was dumb and shitty.
Yeah we literally had the same thing happen with draisaitl barkov this year too
Wayne Gretzky direct involvement in mob gambling ring
The Oilers were awarded McDavid for selling Gretzky to LA to grow the sport of hockey in California as a whole.
25 years later??
Betman with the multi generational play
Part of the long con
The NHL is actively campaigning behind the scenes against my team from being successful!
Game 6 of the 1993 conference finals Kerry Fraser the referee called such a horrible game on purpose all game and then intentionally ignored Wayne Gretzky's obvious high stick on Doug Gilmour which drew blood in OT because the NHL wanted the kings led by Gretzky to go to the Stanley Cup finals because it would grow the game more for the NHL.
I believe it but I think Fraser is on record saying it was a mistake…not sure he’d have admitted that if it was a conspiracy
Yeah and now that Leafs and Habs are in the same division we will never get a chance of seeing them play in the Cup finals against each other ever again.