Block Party! Golden Knights Blocked Their Way To The Semi-Final

A NEW MAGIC SHOW on the STRIP in VEGAS !?! Revision 1

by the HockeY God (the hockey ‘guy’ was already taken)

Millions of visitors come to the Strip every year. Tens of thousands go to a myriad of magic shows to see Penn n Teller, Copperfield, Mindfreak, Burton, Shin Lim, the likes of Houdini and Blackstone and Doug Henning. But last night we were treated to a gigantic show of shows. Some same the likes of which have never been seen ! And not in venue of some dark, dank, smokey theater where you can’t see the behind and below stage mechanics, nor the props of disappearing ladies, or assistants seemingly cut in half disappearing behind smoke and well placed mirrors, blinded by flashing lights.

NAY NAY NAY say I (shout out to great John Pinette-RIP).

Last night’s venue a fully lighted stage, in form of a slick fast ice hockey rink! Viewed by tens of thousands and broadcast live to millions. And our performers have names and wear numbers on their backs so you can not confuse them. Smith, Stone (not Blackstone), Max Patches, the Chief, the Flower, JM, the Fourth Line, et al. Add to that an opposing team hellbent to stay alive, playing with reckless abandon . A roster filled with high round draft picks, skating with skill and velocity faster than light speed. Not to mention a top notch goalie between the pipes. There’s more , tilt the ice to one end with wave after wave of attacks on the defense sort of like that table top game but without that spot where the slot- hinged little metal players can’t get to the puck.

The principle mainly involves that simple concept of keeping your eye on the moving object. Which in this case is that shiny little black thing called the puck. Most of what we saw last night was much like that shell game. Every one knows it, three shells, move the pea around, and guess which shell it’s under. Only in this game our pea is the puck.

Our first performance of the night goes to no. 19, the DUKE OF JUKE. Up along the boards in the o zone this guy plies his well honed skills , not an amateur move by any means. He jukes his head towards the red line, but alas the puck doesn’t go there. It ends up on the stick of 22 at the blue who deftly directs the flying object towards the net. Meanwhile the illusion is complete. Tens of thousands are fooled including the opposing team’s goalie and the puck shows up in the net ! This was no power hockey move, this was a trick right out of Felix’s magic bag.

Next up you have the flare for the dramatic, the chief performer plays the goat. Flings the puck into the crowd, showing all that this thing is no illusion, but the real thing. Violating the no. 1 rule in game of trickery and tomfoolery. Which is never let the the audience touch your main prop! But then the dramatics come later.

When ?

Enter the masters of misdirection, not once but twice ! First off we have no. 23 with his no look pass, and head fake towards opposing goalie, to no. 71 who pockets that elusive puck into the back of the net. Then his partner in crime going the other way, no. 89 plays back board banko to no. 7 who again flips that elusive puck for what ended up being the game winner into top of the net. Making up for his goat play completing the drama. So the uproar of the crowd sees right through the irony ! Goat to hero, zero to hero. What ethos, Aristotle couldn’t write a better script.

But there’s more. Let’s not forget the fourth line playing their game of Panchinko. Set up not once but twice. First by the deception of no. 27 and then by that zero to hero no.7, this is not misdirection, this is shear ACTS of STRENGTHS and deception. Not seen since the likes of FEATS of STrength in George Costanza’s living room during Festivus (for the rest of us). Strength you say ? Yes the power shot from the point. And more strength from 55 and 28 to gain position. Then there is misdirection. This is clearly the main point of anyone watching FOOL ME , or is it FOOL US. Penn, or is it Teller, one talks , one doesn’t. Always getting them missed up. His favorite point is “your misdirection didn’t fool us”. Well this display of misdirection was pure PANCHINKO. Bingo, bango, bango, ping pang pong ! FOOLED. Two goals.

Last but not least we have the THIEF of the NIGHT , and his supporting cast , the D men. One of which is known as the CHIEF. The Thief is AKA as the FLOWER. The top performer, the coup de grace, the cake and the ICING on the cake. Another master of illusion. It takes a great artist a master, well honed in his craft. His specialty, along with is crew. Taking away TIME AND SPACE. Do do do doo. Twilight zone stuff. Stealing the puck nearly every time with save after save after save. Now you see it now you don’t. What do you see? Well that easy. An opposing team member with a high quality sure score, back in the net with the puck. Then his cohorts come in. No. 2 goes down, covers the bottom of ice. No. 3 back ups the net , a whole score of defenders come down. The shots are blocked or deflected. The magic opportunity is gone is FLASH.

We are not seeing hockey players, we are seeing FOOLERS, MASTERS of MISDIRECTION and ILLUSION, pick pockets, thieves, scoundrels. Certainly this was not a display of your normal brand of power hockey and sharp shooters. And their leader , the master mind behind all of this all of this is no more then a meek, slender, wily, mask wearing man, his push button control station, and deep pocketed magic bags of tricks.

Next up, the team of hockey lore, the once great dynasty filled with the many legends the likes which the “game’ will never ever see again. Half way there, and the bottom half is always the toughest half.

– THG

Habs are A LOT tougher than most think. They play a similar game to how Dallas played last year but they aren’t as fast. Habs grind play, so this series will look much different than AVS series did.

They’ll clog up the middle and stack 5 to try to force VGK outside the dots, something AVS should learn from. I think we will win this one, but it might go the full 7.

The key for us to win this series is to NOT take too many blue line one timers as we did against Dallas last year. Price won’t allow those goals in, so I hope we don’t hear “how great he is” if we have problems scoring that way on him.

HABS DMEN are bigger than AVS, so will be harder to get more established net presence. Petro I think will be the difference in this one as HABS more suited opponent that should bring out a more offensive advantaged Petro who should be looking to pinch in a lot more on the cycle against Habs.

Habs will have a hard time scoring on us, and we will have a hard time scoring on them, so expect goal totals betting line to be low and most of the game will likely see the under come in.

I don’t expect VGK to get a lot of odd man rushes here as Habs play a style as I said, like Dallas last year. Their Dcore is better (defensive minded, less turnovers) than AVS overall which actually gives them a much better chance in this series than oddsmakers are giving them.