WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Okay, let's just unpack 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:05.639 this. Let's do. Today, we are looking at this 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:10.539 highly condensed, incredibly dense text focusing 00:00:10.539 --> 00:00:14.199 on the 2017 -18 NHL season. Yeah, and it is a 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:16.579 lot to process in just a few lines. Right. If 00:00:16.579 --> 00:00:18.440 you're someone who follows hockey, you already 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:20.219 know the basics, right? You know how a season 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:21.859 operates, how the playoffs are structured, the 00:00:21.859 --> 00:00:25.300 general rhythm of the league. Exactly, the day 00:00:25.300 --> 00:00:27.500 -to -day grind. But the document we have in front 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:30.109 of us today... It strips away all that daily 00:00:30.109 --> 00:00:32.789 noise, all the headlines. It leaves us with this 00:00:32.789 --> 00:00:35.969 fascinating, almost clinical distillation of 00:00:35.969 --> 00:00:38.429 a 31 -team league. It really does. It's just 00:00:38.429 --> 00:00:40.789 the raw results of the regular season standings, 00:00:40.789 --> 00:00:42.549 the progression of the Stanley Cup playoffs, 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:45.149 and the awarding of team and individual player 00:00:45.149 --> 00:00:47.549 awards. And our mission for this deep dive is 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:50.329 to examine this specific text and explore the 00:00:50.329 --> 00:00:52.429 radically different timelines of success it presents. 00:00:53.130 --> 00:00:55.469 Because we have a towering stack of implications 00:00:55.469 --> 00:00:58.539 to get through. based on just a few lines of 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:00.719 historical record. It is a remarkable piece of 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.539 text, honestly, simply because of how it categorizes 00:01:03.539 --> 00:01:05.920 achievement. When you look at the summary of 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.980 that 2017 -18 season, it fundamentally challenges 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:12.299 how we measure success in professional sports. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.280 How so? Well, the source material highlights 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:19.079 the performance of 31 teams, right? But... Beneath 00:01:19.079 --> 00:01:21.939 that high -level overview, it zeroes in on three 00:01:21.939 --> 00:01:25.379 specific franchises. Right, three completely 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:28.099 different paths. Exactly. What is fascinating 00:01:28.099 --> 00:01:31.400 here is that each of these three franchises represents 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.700 a completely different philosophy of what it 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:36.519 means to reach the pinnacle of the sport. You 00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:39.319 have instant arrival, you have relentless daily 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:42.739 dominance, and you have this generational struggle. 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:44.680 That is the perfect way to frame it. Instant 00:01:44.680 --> 00:01:47.579 arrival, daily dominance, and generational struggle. 00:01:47.849 --> 00:01:49.810 So let's start by looking at the sheer scale 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:52.230 mentioned right in the first sentence. The text 00:01:52.230 --> 00:01:54.569 focuses on the regular season standings across 00:01:54.569 --> 00:01:58.909 31 teams. 31 teams. 31 organizations. That number 00:01:58.909 --> 00:02:01.750 alone tells you so much about the modern landscape 00:02:01.750 --> 00:02:04.730 of the league. It's an immense, sprawling ecosystem. 00:02:05.150 --> 00:02:08.110 Oh, absolutely. When you have 31 teams all competing 00:02:08.110 --> 00:02:11.050 for the exact same singular goal, the mathematical 00:02:11.050 --> 00:02:13.750 probability of any one franchise breaking through 00:02:13.750 --> 00:02:16.979 is incredibly slim. It's basically a lottery. 00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.060 Right. It requires navigating this grueling eight 00:02:20.060 --> 00:02:23.560 month gauntlet where every single point matters. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:25.639 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:29.960 managing a 31 team league means you are dealing 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:33.340 with. An enormous dilution of probability. Yeah, 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:35.240 the math just gets harder. Every time the league 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:37.780 adds a franchise, the mountain gets higher for 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:41.219 everyone else. Exactly. And the text explicitly 00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:44.219 separates the results of the regular season standings 00:02:44.219 --> 00:02:46.520 from the progression of the Stanley Cup playoffs. 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.099 Which is such a vital distinction. It really 00:02:49.099 --> 00:02:51.620 is. It acknowledges that the NHL essentially 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:54.319 operates two completely different seasons. Right. 00:02:54.379 --> 00:02:56.919 There's the marathon of the regular season, which 00:02:56.919 --> 00:03:00.389 tests depth. Consistency, organizational stability. 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:02.689 And then there is the progression of the playoffs, 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:05.750 which tests pure survival. Which forces us to 00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:07.689 look at the Nashville Predators in a very specific 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.430 light here. Oh, Nashville. Yeah. The source notes 00:03:10.430 --> 00:03:13.449 that by completing the regular season with 117 00:03:13.449 --> 00:03:16.610 points, the Nashville Predators received the 00:03:16.610 --> 00:03:19.969 President's Trophy. 117 points. Now, 117 points 00:03:19.969 --> 00:03:22.909 is a staggering accumulation of success. It's 00:03:22.909 --> 00:03:25.229 huge. It means that night after night, week after 00:03:25.229 --> 00:03:27.919 week, across the entire continent, They were 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:30.900 accumulating points at a rate that no other team 00:03:30.900 --> 00:03:33.919 in that entire 31 -team landscape could match. 00:03:34.180 --> 00:03:36.780 That level of consistency is almost terrifying 00:03:36.780 --> 00:03:40.240 if you're an opponent. Right. To secure 117 points, 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:43.020 an organization cannot afford prolonged slumps. 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:45.599 They cannot afford to let injuries derail their 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.599 system. They just have to be machine. Exactly. 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:50.379 The President's Trophy is awarded to the team 00:03:50.379 --> 00:03:52.740 with the most points, making it the ultimate 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:55.560 empirical measure of who the best team was over 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.960 the long haul. But the text highlights this achievement 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:01.240 in a way that feels almost isolated from the 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:03.099 rest of the season's narrative. I read it the 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:05.900 exact same way. Yeah. The text places Nashville's 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:08.979 117 -point season at the very end of the paragraph 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:11.879 almost as a distinct separate category of greatness. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:14.759 It's like spending months acing every single 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:18.139 quiz, dominating every midterm, being empirically 00:04:18.139 --> 00:04:20.449 the smartest student in the room. But knowing 00:04:20.449 --> 00:04:22.589 that the final exam is graded on a completely 00:04:22.589 --> 00:04:25.689 different curve. Yes, a completely different 00:04:25.689 --> 00:04:28.949 curve. The president's trophy validates their 00:04:28.949 --> 00:04:32.089 regular season, but the text is careful to note 00:04:32.089 --> 00:04:35.430 that the ultimate prize went elsewhere. The Stanley 00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:38.050 Cup. Right. It raises a question about how history 00:04:38.050 --> 00:04:41.709 remembers these teams. Does a 117 -point season 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:44.360 just get... overshadowed by the chaos of the 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:46.740 playoffs? It often does, unfortunately, which 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:48.939 is why the text's emphasis on the progression 00:04:48.939 --> 00:04:50.899 of the Stanley Cup playoffs is so deliberate. 00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:53.600 Progression implies a forward march. Right, a 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:57.160 whittling down of that 31 -team field. Nashville 00:04:57.160 --> 00:05:00.079 mastered the regular season standings, but the 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.740 playoffs demand a totally different kind of toll. 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:05.300 And that leads us directly into the anomaly that 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.839 completely disrupted the equilibrium of the 2017 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.459 -18 season. The Vegas Golden Knights. The Vegas 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:12.439 Golden Knights. Here is where it gets really 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:14.459 interesting for you listening. The text describes 00:05:14.459 --> 00:05:17.019 this as their inaugural season of operation. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:20.810 Inaugural season. That phrase. inaugural season 00:05:20.810 --> 00:05:24.009 of operation. It's so clinical, but it contains 00:05:24.009 --> 00:05:26.870 a massive logistical reality. Building from absolute 00:05:26.870 --> 00:05:29.449 zero. This was an organization that had to build 00:05:29.449 --> 00:05:32.370 everything from scratch. Every system, every 00:05:32.370 --> 00:05:35.449 process, every single roster spot. No history. 00:05:35.730 --> 00:05:38.949 None. And yet the document tells us they became 00:05:38.949 --> 00:05:41.449 the first NHL expansion team to win their division. 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:44.189 The Pacific Division. Let's just isolate that 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:46.230 achievement for a second. Please. Winning the 00:05:46.230 --> 00:05:48.790 Pacific Division means they didn't just participate 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:51.730 in their inaugural season. They dictated the 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:54.810 terms of engagement to establish franchises. 00:05:54.829 --> 00:05:57.069 Right. They didn't just survive. They looked 00:05:57.069 --> 00:05:59.449 at teams that had spent years drafting, developing, 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:01.810 and building institutional knowledge, and they 00:06:01.810 --> 00:06:04.230 immediately leapfragged all of them. It's wild. 00:06:04.389 --> 00:06:07.730 In sports, there is a deeply ingrained dogma 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:10.579 that an expansion team must suffer. You have 00:06:10.579 --> 00:06:13.060 to pay your dues. Exactly. Yeah. The assumption 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:15.120 is that you pay your dues, you struggle at the 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:17.040 bottom of the standings for a few years, and 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.279 you slowly acquire the assets needed to compete. 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.860 Vegas completely shattered that paradigm. But 00:06:22.860 --> 00:06:24.899 consider the alternative perspective on that. 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:27.120 Is it possible that the lack of institutional 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:30.319 history was actually their greatest asset? Oh, 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:31.939 that's interesting. When you have an inaugural 00:06:31.939 --> 00:06:35.459 season of operation, you have zero baggage. Right. 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:39.019 No ghosts of playoffs past. No disgruntled holdovers. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:42.759 No established hierarchy in the locker room to 00:06:42.759 --> 00:06:46.120 navigate. You are a blank slate. That is a very 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:49.720 compelling argument. The absence of baggage creates 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:53.240 a vacuum. And in this case, that vacuum was filled 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:56.360 with immediate, unprecedented momentum. Exactly. 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:58.459 But the text doesn't just tell us they won the 00:06:58.459 --> 00:07:01.220 Pacific Division. It anchors their achievement 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:04.379 against some very specific historical benchmarks. 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:07.139 Yeah. historical context here is crucial. It 00:07:07.139 --> 00:07:09.779 states they became the first NHL expansion team 00:07:09.779 --> 00:07:13.060 to qualify for the playoffs since the 1979 -80 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:15.300 Hartford Whalers and the Edmonton Oilers. I really 00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:17.060 want to pause on those dates because the math 00:07:17.060 --> 00:07:20.319 there is just staggering. From 1979 -80 to 2017 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.259 -18. We are talking about a gap of nearly four 00:07:23.259 --> 00:07:25.959 decades. That's a lifetime in sports. For 38 00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.259 years, every single time a new team entered the 00:07:29.259 --> 00:07:31.040 league, they failed to make the playoffs in their 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:33.899 first attempt. Entire generations of fans grew 00:07:33.899 --> 00:07:36.980 up being conditioned to expect futility from 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:39.199 expansion teams. They just accepted it as a rule 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:41.740 of physics. Right. So when the text places Vegas 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:44.740 in the same sentence as the 1979 -80 Whalers 00:07:44.740 --> 00:07:47.839 and Oilers, it is forcing us to confront just 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.980 how deeply entrenched that expectation of failure 00:07:50.980 --> 00:07:53.160 actually was. And it goes even further than that. 00:07:53.379 --> 00:07:55.899 Making the playoffs is one threshold, but the 00:07:55.899 --> 00:07:58.279 progression of those playoffs is another entirely. 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:01.379 Yeah. The source material notes that Vegas became 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:05.519 the first NHL expansion team since the 1967 -68 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:08.139 St. Louis Blues to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. 00:08:08.259 --> 00:08:11.300 A half century. Exactly 50 years between those 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:13.300 two events. When you think about the evolution 00:08:13.300 --> 00:08:16.959 of the game between 1967 and 2017... It's basically 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:19.500 a different sport. It really is. The changes 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:21.560 in the speed of the game, the nutrition, the 00:08:21.560 --> 00:08:24.899 scouting, the sheer size of a 31 -team league 00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:27.860 compared to the past. The fact that this record 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:30.589 stood for... 50 years highlights how nearly impossible 00:08:30.589 --> 00:08:33.269 it is to build a championship contender overnight. 00:08:33.549 --> 00:08:36.309 What's crucial to understand about the 1967 -68 00:08:36.309 --> 00:08:38.769 benchmark is that it serves as the ultimate historical 00:08:38.769 --> 00:08:41.490 outlier in the text. By citing the St. Louis 00:08:41.490 --> 00:08:43.690 Blues, the document is telling us that Vegas 00:08:43.690 --> 00:08:46.090 didn't just have a nice regular season. They 00:08:46.090 --> 00:08:48.090 didn't just surprise people in the Pacific Division. 00:08:48.330 --> 00:08:51.029 No, they navigated the progression of the Stanley 00:08:51.029 --> 00:08:53.590 Cup playoffs all the way to the final round. 00:08:53.769 --> 00:08:56.269 They survived the attrition of a modern postseason. 00:08:56.669 --> 00:08:58.610 Doing something that hadn't been done since the 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:01.409 era of black and white television. Which brings 00:09:01.409 --> 00:09:04.429 up an interesting tension when we evaluate the 00:09:04.429 --> 00:09:07.629 2017 -18 season as a whole. Let's hear it. You 00:09:07.629 --> 00:09:11.629 have Nashville grinding out 117 points over the 00:09:11.629 --> 00:09:14.070 long haul to win the president's trophy. And 00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:16.889 then you have Vegas, a team in its inaugural 00:09:16.889 --> 00:09:20.830 season of operation. bypassing decades of conventional 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:23.850 team -building wisdom to reach the Stanley Cup 00:09:23.850 --> 00:09:26.590 finals. It's a complete contrast. It almost feels 00:09:26.590 --> 00:09:28.590 like a disruption of the natural order of the 00:09:28.590 --> 00:09:30.970 sport. It absolutely is. If a team can be built 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:33.190 from scratch and reach the finals in year one, 00:09:33.350 --> 00:09:36.149 it forces every other organization in that 31 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:38.649 -team league to look in the mirror and question 00:09:38.649 --> 00:09:41.049 their own timelines. Because it removes the excuse 00:09:41.049 --> 00:09:43.590 of time. Exactly. If you are a fan of a team 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:46.190 that has been rebuilding for five years and you 00:09:46.190 --> 00:10:00.190 see an inaugural franchise... But the text makes 00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:02.590 it very clear that while Vegas disrupted the 00:10:02.590 --> 00:10:05.269 timeline, they didn't reach the absolute summit. 00:10:05.490 --> 00:10:07.809 Right. The final piece of this puzzle is the 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:09.990 team that actually completed the journey. The 00:10:09.990 --> 00:10:18.919 text states, thus winning the franchise's first 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:21.899 Stanley Cup in team history. Notice the stark 00:10:21.899 --> 00:10:24.740 contrast in the language there. Yeah. Vegas is 00:10:24.740 --> 00:10:27.379 defined by their inaugural season. Washington 00:10:27.379 --> 00:10:30.360 is defined by their 44th year of operation. 44 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:33.720 years. 44 years. I cannot get over that number. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.440 Think about what 44 years of operation actually 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:39.340 means for a franchise. It's generations. It means 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:42.139 fans who started watching this team as children 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:44.980 were now watching them as grandparents. It means 00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:48.299 decades of draft picks, coaching changes, front 00:10:48.299 --> 00:10:51.539 office overhauls, and just constant playoff heartbreaks. 00:10:51.659 --> 00:10:53.919 It means carrying the accumulated pressure of 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:56.539 every single team that failed before you. That 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:58.659 is the immovable burden of history we were talking 00:10:58.659 --> 00:11:02.740 about earlier. Vegas had no ghosts. None. Washington 00:11:02.740 --> 00:11:05.759 had a heavily populated graveyard of playoff 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:08.789 disappointments. So well said. And when the text 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:11.450 says they concluded their 44th year of operation 00:11:11.450 --> 00:11:14.470 by hoisting the Stanley Cup, that word hoisting 00:11:14.470 --> 00:11:16.470 is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It stands out 00:11:16.470 --> 00:11:18.750 so much. It isn't just about winning a trophy. 00:11:18.909 --> 00:11:22.049 It's about physically lifting a 44 -year weight 00:11:22.049 --> 00:11:24.110 off the shoulders of the entire organization. 00:11:24.490 --> 00:11:28.049 It's the only truly poetic verb in the entire 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:30.389 summary. Right. Everything else is so clinical. 00:11:30.509 --> 00:11:33.110 It focuses on the results. Concluded their inaugural 00:11:33.110 --> 00:11:36.320 season. Receive the president's trophy. But hoisting 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:39.059 the Stanley Cup implies a massive emotional release. 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.860 It is the culmination of nearly half a century 00:11:41.860 --> 00:11:44.379 of effort. And this is where the narrative of 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:47.500 the 2017 -18 season becomes so profound. What 00:11:47.500 --> 00:11:49.559 do you mean? In the Stanley Cup finals, you had 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:51.559 the ultimate collision of these two opposing 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:53.799 forces. Right. You had the Vegas Golden Knights, 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:57.179 a team operating with absolute freedom, no history 00:11:57.179 --> 00:11:59.700 and unprecedented immediate success. And they 00:11:59.700 --> 00:12:01.879 were standing in the way of the Washington Capitals. 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:05.879 A team burdened by 44 years of history, desperate 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:07.919 to validate their existence with a championship. 00:12:08.059 --> 00:12:11.669 It is the classic. Unstoppable force meeting 00:12:11.669 --> 00:12:15.110 the immovable object, but framed entirely around 00:12:15.110 --> 00:12:17.950 the concept of time. Time is the central character 00:12:17.950 --> 00:12:21.429 here. Vegas had all the momentum of a 50 -year 00:12:21.429 --> 00:12:24.029 anomaly. They had already defied the benchmarks 00:12:24.029 --> 00:12:27.529 of the 1979 -80 Whalers and Oilers. They matched 00:12:27.529 --> 00:12:31.029 the 1967 -68 St. Louis Blues. They were playing 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:33.320 with house money. But Washington had the desperation 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:35.879 of 44 years. And ultimately, the desperation 00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:38.840 of history won out. It did. The text confirms 00:12:38.840 --> 00:12:41.120 that Washington won the franchise's first Stanley 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:43.419 Cup. It suggests that while you can bypass the 00:12:43.419 --> 00:12:45.279 traditional timeline of team building to reach 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:48.139 the finals, as Vegas did, capturing the ultimate 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:50.840 prize still required a team that had endured 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:53.279 the crucible of failure. That is a phenomenal 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:56.059 way to read that outcome. Thanks. Vegas proved 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:58.419 you don't need decades to build a contender. 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:01.320 But Washington proved that sometimes those decades 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:03.799 of failure are exactly what forge a champion. 00:13:04.019 --> 00:13:06.279 So true. It really makes you appreciate both 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:08.559 paths. It also brings us back to the broader 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:10.720 scope of the document. Okay, let's zoom out. 00:13:11.070 --> 00:13:13.870 The source mentions the awarding of NHL team 00:13:13.870 --> 00:13:17.289 and individual player awards. While it doesn't 00:13:17.289 --> 00:13:20.269 list the specific individuals, the context of 00:13:20.269 --> 00:13:22.269 these three teams tells us everything we need 00:13:22.269 --> 00:13:24.309 to know about the narratives driving those awards. 00:13:24.470 --> 00:13:26.740 Let's explore that. Because when the league sits 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:28.700 down to hand out these awards at the end of the 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:30.820 season, they're essentially trying to make sense 00:13:30.820 --> 00:13:33.360 of the chaos we just discussed. Exactly. They 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.700 have to categorize the greatness. How do you 00:13:35.700 --> 00:13:39.200 weigh Nashville's 117 -point, President's Trophy 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:41.820 -winning season against Washington's 44 -year 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:45.159 culmination or Vegas' unprecedented inaugural 00:13:45.159 --> 00:13:48.370 run? It requires recognizing that success in 00:13:48.370 --> 00:13:51.330 a 31 -team league isn't monolithic. It's subjective. 00:13:51.610 --> 00:13:54.009 The awards serve as a way to validate the different 00:13:54.009 --> 00:13:57.330 types of excellence. The President's Trophy validates 00:13:57.330 --> 00:13:59.950 Nashville's day -to -day supremacy. Right. The 00:13:59.950 --> 00:14:02.610 Individual Player Awards likely recognize the 00:14:02.610 --> 00:14:05.289 sheer willpower required to navigate that eight 00:14:05.289 --> 00:14:08.049 -month regular season. But the Ultimate Team 00:14:08.049 --> 00:14:11.970 Award, the Stanley Cup, validates survival. It 00:14:11.970 --> 00:14:14.649 really emphasizes the multifaceted nature of 00:14:14.649 --> 00:14:17.250 the sport. You can be the most consistent team 00:14:17.250 --> 00:14:20.090 like Nashville and be recognized for it. You 00:14:20.090 --> 00:14:22.190 can be the most groundbreaking, rule defying 00:14:22.190 --> 00:14:25.830 team like Vegas and rewrite a 50 year historical 00:14:25.830 --> 00:14:28.049 narrative. Or you can be the team that simply 00:14:28.049 --> 00:14:30.789 refuses to let their 44 year drought extend to 00:14:30.789 --> 00:14:33.409 45. And all of this is happening simultaneously 00:14:33.409 --> 00:14:36.669 within the same 31 team ecosystem. That's the 00:14:36.669 --> 00:14:39.049 craziest part to me. Every time Nashville took 00:14:39.049 --> 00:14:42.570 the ice to secure one of those 117 points. Vegas 00:14:42.570 --> 00:14:44.970 was out there proving that expansion teams don't 00:14:44.970 --> 00:14:47.110 have to lose. And Washington was out there trying 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:49.090 to outrun their own history. The regular season 00:14:49.090 --> 00:14:51.769 standings are just a ledger. But the reality 00:14:51.769 --> 00:14:54.809 behind those numbers is a constant grinding friction 00:14:54.809 --> 00:14:57.450 between 31 different organizational timelines. 00:14:57.909 --> 00:15:00.830 Which is why this single paragraph of text is 00:15:00.830 --> 00:15:03.450 so captivating. It really is. It doesn't just 00:15:03.450 --> 00:15:06.590 tell us who won. It maps out the boundaries of 00:15:06.590 --> 00:15:10.070 what is possible in professional hockey. it redefines 00:15:10.070 --> 00:15:13.129 the timeline of success. Exactly. It forces us 00:15:13.129 --> 00:15:16.309 to ask what the true measure of a successful 00:15:16.309 --> 00:15:19.490 season really is. Is it the empirical dominance 00:15:19.490 --> 00:15:22.669 of a 117 -point campaign? Is it the historical 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:25.809 disruption of reaching the finals in your very 00:15:25.809 --> 00:15:28.169 first year of operation? Or is it the emotional 00:15:28.169 --> 00:15:30.590 closure of winning a first Stanley Cup after 00:15:30.590 --> 00:15:33.690 44 years of trying? And the beauty of the 2017 00:15:33.690 --> 00:15:36.529 -18 season is that the NHL gave us all three 00:15:36.529 --> 00:15:38.940 in a single year. It really was a perfect storm. 00:15:39.059 --> 00:15:41.519 You have Nashville setting the standard, Vegas 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:43.759 breaking the rules, and Washington finally reaching 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.679 the summit. A masterpiece of intersecting storylines, 00:15:46.740 --> 00:15:49.679 all captured in the dry, clinical results of 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:51.779 a single page of text. It serves as a reminder 00:15:51.779 --> 00:15:53.980 that behind every statistical summary, behind 00:15:53.980 --> 00:15:56.080 every mention of standings and points and divisional 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.960 titles, there are profound human narratives about 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.179 waiting, defying expectations, and the relentless 00:16:02.179 --> 00:16:05.179 pursuit of a singular goal. Absolutely. The data 00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:08.200 is just the footprint of the human effort. Okay. 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:10.700 As we close the book on this deep dive into the 00:16:10.700 --> 00:16:14.779 2017 -18 NHL season, here is a thought for you 00:16:14.779 --> 00:16:16.919 to mull over. Let's hear it. We spent a lot of 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:18.980 time discussing the Vegas Golden Knights and 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:21.879 how their inaugural season shattered the historical 00:16:21.879 --> 00:16:25.299 precedence set by the Hartford Whalers, the Edmonton 00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:27.539 Oilers, and the St. Louis Blues. They broke the 00:16:27.539 --> 00:16:30.200 mold. Vegas proved that an expansion team can 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:33.460 reach the Stanley Cup Finals in year one. But 00:16:33.460 --> 00:16:36.179 if a team with zero history and zero established 00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:39.100 culture can instantly become a powerhouse in 00:16:39.100 --> 00:16:41.940 a 31 -team league, does that suggest that the 00:16:41.940 --> 00:16:44.399 traditional slow and steady approach to building 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:47.500 a sports franchise is fundamentally flawed? That 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:49.940 is a dangerous question for general managers 00:16:49.940 --> 00:16:52.340 everywhere. Next time you see an established 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:54.929 organization... ask their fans for five years 00:16:54.929 --> 00:16:57.429 of patience to execute a rebuild, you have to 00:16:57.429 --> 00:16:59.309 ask yourself, are they really building something 00:16:59.309 --> 00:17:02.149 sustainable, or are they just afraid to be as 00:17:02.149 --> 00:17:05.250 aggressively ambitious as an expansion team operating 00:17:05.250 --> 00:17:07.210 with a blank slate? That'll keep the fans awake 00:17:07.210 --> 00:17:10.369 at night. Something to think about. Thanks for 00:17:10.369 --> 00:17:12.569 joining us on this deep dive, and we'll catch 00:17:12.569 --> 00:17:13.150 you next time.