It’s bulletin board season and today’s material to be pinned to the wall comes from Dallas Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness.
The veteran head coach appeared on NHL Network’s NHL Tonight (video below) and was asked “which team is the biggest threat to your chances at winning the Cup?”
Unlike most coaches who would go with a cliche answer, Bowness did not hesitate and blurted out…
Colorado. In our conference Colorado. -Bowness, Stars interim head coach
The Stars are one of the four teams in the round-robin and their first real game comes against the Golden Knights. However, his sights are not set on Vegas, they’re set on a team his Stars defeated four times out of four this regular season.
Colorado has a lot of young, talented, high skill level players and they’re going to be coming at us with a lot of speed. Listen, nothing but respect for St. Louis, the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Vegas, they’re a great hockey club, but Colorado’s a team that when you are coming out of a break like this and a short time to turn things around you’re going to rely on high skill level and speed and Colorado has a lot of that. -Bowness
Sure, the Avalanche have MacKinnon, Landeskog, Rantanen, Makar, and Girard, but the Golden Knights may be just as skilled. Stone, Pacioretty, Karlsson, Smith, Marchessault, and Theodore match up pretty well with the Avs top players. Plus, the Golden Knights have two goalies better than anything the Avs roll out.
The most surprising part of the answer was how quickly he gave it. Bowness wasted no time in jumping directly to the team second on their schedule.
Are the Golden Knights being overlooked by the best teams in the West?
Maybe, and that’s probably not the worst thing in the world.
Doktor Hockey
That’s it WC teams. Ignore or down play the Knights. We love it!!!!!!
Tim
Ya know Ken that’s why you play the game. Here’s a fact people are missing when looking at the playoffs. Everyone knows the Knights underachieved under Gallant this year so you can forget about those stats. Since DeBoer took over look at our record what we expected earlier to do but not achieved by Gallant. Don’t get me wrong what Gallant did for this organization is undeniable but I think he got to buddy buddy with the players and the team got complacent. Who will win he west who knows but my money is on the Knights.
A Fan
I have always said and and agree with Tim. As much as I liked Gallant and all he did with the team, he let his guard down and look what happened. Now let’s see if DeBoer can continue what he started. Let’s win the Cup!