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Showing posts from May, 2018

How The NHL Gift-Wrapped A Cup Contender To The Desert: An Analysis on Expansionism

I certainly don't wake up every morning with the intention on being a cynic. But sometimes people like NHL commissioner Gary Bettman come along and make it so damn hard not to be. It would be amazing if my mind could allow me to take the 2018 Vegas Golden Knights at face value: The "feel good" story of yet another tragedy-marred city rallying around its major sports franchise. The captain-less team of discarded talent. Cinderella making it to the Stanley Cup Final in under 250 days of existence. Sorry, I just can't go there. And it's a shame, too. There's not a bigger fan of goaltender  Marc-Andre Fleury . At present, there are 32 teams in the National Football League, 31 teams in the National Hockey League, and 30 in both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. That's 123 if you lost count. With that, there have officially been 71 modern-era "expansion teams" into the four major North American sports leagues (MLB, NFL, N