Emotions ran very high during the Golden Knights and Sharks seven game first round thriller. From the Ryan Reaves vs. Evander Kane jabs (both literal and figurative) to Joe Thornton’s dirty hit on Tomas Nosek, to the “clown” comment from Gerard Gallant, the series will leave a lasting impression.
George McPhee clearly had some thoughts on the way the Sharks played in the series and in the most calculated way possible, he didn’t take long to let some slip out early in his season-ending press conference.
(Our) guys played their guts out. I like the way they competed for this organization, for this city. I think it’s a team that people can be proud of, they play hard, they play honest, they don’t embellish, we don’t cheat, we play the game right. We play hard. -George McPhee
Who could he possibly be referencing that plays a different way?
Aside from the apology from the NHL, admitting that the Sharks were the benefit of a horrendous call that changed the series, McPhee obviously wasn’t a fan of some of the embellishing, and apparently cheating, the Sharks did in the series.
San Jose benefitted from a 114-105 penalty minute advantage in the series, and were called for more penalties than Vegas in just two of the seven games, in Games 3 and 4.
There was a lot of after-whistle garbage and even an after game scrum that left Cody Eakin with a broken nose.
It was a hard fought series, but clearly, the GM of the Golden Knights felt there were a few liberties taken by the eventual winner of the series. It doesn’t matter now, but there’s no question the Golden Knights franchise, from top to bottom, will be ready to make amends against San Jose as quickly as possible.




Greg Louganis
A few years ago Thornton blindside elbowed Perron in the back of the head immediately after Thornton exited the penalty box. He got only a 2 game suspension while Perron was out for an entire calendar year with a concussion.
Couture is the biggest diver in the league, now joined by Lindell of Dallas.
Embellishing in Dallas is a penalty, but embellishing and diving while wearing teal is ok with NHL refs.
Setoguchi was a well known diver when he played in SJ, but after he was traded to Minn he was all of a sudden no longer diving. isn’t that interesting.
younger divers on the Snarks now are Meier and Sorenson just to name a couple
Derrick
Thornton has been a cheap player at times, but outside of those incidents, he hasn’t been subject to disciplinary considerations in his long career and is very much well respected around the league. Couture was never accused of being a diver around the league until this series. In this case, yes, he probably sold the call a couple times, but comparing him to Lindell may be off base since he legitimately got hit up high. Also consider, Couture has quite a horrific history surrounding his mouth. I do agree with Meier and Sorensen (and Kane) as culprits.
Blake Chinn
Couture, Thornton, Meier,Sorenson, Kane and Pavelski are all known to be divers,criers and embellishers. The only way that San Jose ever makes the playoffs is with the help of the refs…don’t believe me look at all the crap the refs missed their last cup run.. It was laughable at best. Violence is part of hockey at least dole out the supplemental discipline if the refs are going to decide the games… Ref should be fined for six figures and asked to retire. San Jose also plays in a trash arena.
Cam
I’m a Knights fan, but I can’t even take your homer comment seriously, Blake. Refs are the reason why SJ has made the playoffs 14/15 seasons? We just happened to be on the wrong end of the bad call that mattered the most. Does it suck? Yes, but gotta move on. I will say SAP Center is old and and stale, but I was treated well there by their fans and staff members (despite some of the nasty things I’ve heard).
Schpadoinkel
Knights blew a 3-1 lead and a 3-0 lead. Blame it on the refs, blame it on the “cheap shots”, blame it on whatever you want…whatever you do though, don’t take responsibility…
Joe Shornton
They’re new fans to hockey. They’re just going to whine like this and blame everything on the refs until they watch the game a little bit more. Most of them don’t even know what icing is yet.
Barry Obummer
Sounds like sour grapes. Typical from VGK fan.
BWT- Reaves is an overrated loud mouth, and Tom Wilson is a better hockey player BY FAR.
Let’s Go Caps!
RandomJoe
Just more whining from the Knights fans. 114-105 in penalty minute difference in 7 games? Do some math, that’s just over half a penalty a game. The Sharks are a very well respected team in the league. Joe Thornton is one of the most respected and we have a Knights fan accusing him of being dirty and favored by the refs.
Think about this – Joe Pavelski is out with a bad head injury, potentially really bad – we don’t know how bad it is – and all the Knights and their fans can think about is blaming someone else for their loss. Grow up!!
Death Buddy
Injuries happen dude. The point is and always will be that is was not malicious or purposeful. Your hero Thornton cant say that about his cheap shot. Can you even imagine the whining and bitching if this happened the other way around? Yeah, 25 years of mediocrity. Enjoy the gift while you can cause they still wont win the cup hahaha.
Sheila
Not blaming the loss but blaming the Refs call who basically didn’t see exactly what happened at the time but looked at the aftermath and made his decision. Guess that’s what happens when you assume too much. ASS-U-ME….
Craig Blair
How overrated can a 4th line guy be? He does exactly what he is paid to do and as a 4th line guy in the VGK lineup, he put up a career high in points. Hell, Reaves will tell you he is not a very good hockey player yet you Capital fans still want to compare him to Wilson. Why is that, we don’t compare the two and there is no need to.
Barry Obummer
Ummm….both your fans and the media compared the two during the SC last year. and Reaves has continued to run his mouth about Wilson.
Pay attention, dude.
East German judge
typical of a Craps fan to be lurking on another team’s message board.
Not sour grapes, but a very fine whine 🙂
Death Buddy
That “better player” is golfing right now. Got whooped fair and square too.
Barry Obummer
Annnnd…..your VGK made it to the golf course before the Caps did. And didn’t win the Cup either. Bwahahahaha!
Lyn
Stick to the 2019 topic of shady players and inconsistent rulings, dude.
Don’t bring up Wilson unless you want to get collectively pummeled by the entire NHL world. He’s the dirt under dirt.
Homer
Reaves left Wilson on the ice earlier his year. Wilson needed help to the locker room and missed two games after.
sunid
Caps fan, get the F out of here. Nobody cares what you think.
Terry D
McPhee is throwing a temper tantrum. Enjoy the off season.
MHSRHC
LVGK plays “goon hockey” George … that is what is going to stick for years to come! And the $500M it cost to get a hockey team was last year, time to suck it up like all others and welcome to the NHL.
lol
so about that pity party they vgk wasn’t going to ask for?
chokersSJ
yeah, Thornton is so well respected that he was stripped of the captain’s “C” by the Sharks for constant playoff failures.
and traded by Boston for the same reason
Z
you’re an idiot. lol
Keith
“They don’t embellish” expect for Colin Miller being fined as a REPEAT OFFENDER for diving less than a month ago
“We don’t cheat” except for Nate Schmidt getting suspended like 20 games at the start of the season for using PEDS
The Sharks aren’t saints but LMAO at this pitiful, victim mentality VGK is perpetuating about themselves.
Jerry Attrick
Snarks have mortgaged the future. Their very old team will get even older as they have traded away most of their top 2 picks in the next 3 drafts
core players aged 40, 35, 34, 32, and 30
Mike
Step 1 to cementing your franchise as the biggest bunch of crybabies in the league..
actually this is like step 5 now.
SJsnarkie
the franchise of Link Gaetz, Bryan Marchment, Raffi Torres, and many others.
Dougie’s cheapshot-ville
Nick
Lol Vegas is the trashiest organization in the league and it’s only been 2 years. Good job guys
P Funk
The sharks probably were gifted that major but 3 goals in 2 min on a standard 5 on 4 pp? And Mier was fined for embellishment late in the season, Jumbo was suspended for that hit. The Sharks are playing well against the Avs without bad calls to help. And what’s wrong with SAP? Concrete floors too polished?
Kandi
Are you even watching the Av’s series?! A cross check to the actual face and just a double minor. That’s only an example. They’re hungry, I get that.. but play the fucking game and play it right. Diving should be an embarrassment and called out! Pav’s dive cost him. He brought it on himself but it cost VGK even more. Pathetic. Am I saying Vegas didn’t blow it? Absolutely not. Game 5 and 6 were hard to watch. The penalty broke the cadence in 7 and they choked. But it was a ridiculous call! There was no call on the play for a very long time. Utter bullshit! NHL wouldn’t be apologizing if it wasn’t.
biff
Did they rescind the game misconduct to Eakin? If not then McPhee is lying about the apology. If the NHL actually thought it was a mistake they would rescind the game misconduct.
P Funk
Wow! Aggression alert! I am a big Sharks fan have watched every game, which includes both teams blowing it, blown calls, and total domination by every team involved. I also watched them get crushed last year by the K’s. Sport happens and there isn’t really much of an excuse for losing a best-of-7 series other than just getting beat by the better team. Agreed? Did BOTH TEAMS not play fairly dirty for the first 5 games?
Biff
You guys are the biggest cry babies. How about this, Sharks will give Vegas game 7 if Vegas gives back game 2. Game 2’s phantom goalie interference had a bigger effect on the outcome than the Eakin major. It took a legal goal off the board. The Eakin major didn’t come with an automatic 4 goals. So we make that trade and the Sharks win the series in 6 games. Be happy you got to watch one extra game of the Knights choking. All this crying is designed to deflect from the real reason Vegas is golfing… they choked. The players choked by giving up almost the same amount of PP goals in one game as they had in the whole series and their neanderthal idiot of a coach choked by not calling a timeout ofter the 2nd pp goal to settle his players. Also how do you give up a shorthanded goal in double OT? MAF choked that game away.
P Funk
“How about this, Sharks will give Vegas game 7 if Vegas gives back game 2.” Nuff said.
Brian L
I guess I’ve been doing it wrong all these years. The majority of the people commenting on this post are fans of other teams. To think I I’ve been wasting my time following my own team on a VGK page when I should have been trolling the coverage of the other teams VGK plays. I’ll be sure to do that next year.
Joe
You do know that it is still goalie interference even if the goalie is outside of the crease. Right?
Johnny T
1. What embellishment? When Logan had teeth knocked out? Was it when Marchessault high-sticked Couture under his eye in the following game? I’d like to hear what he specifically is referring to. And what cheating?
2. Multiple non-calls for both teams.
3. So we can talk about the Thornton hit on Nosek and not mention the McNabb head hit on Justin Braun earlier in the same game? I’m not saying Thornton’s wasn’t more egregious, but it’s telling how the McNabb hit flies under the radar.
4. “San Jose benefitted from a 114-105 penalty minute advantage”. First 6 games, San Jose power plays: 25. Vegas power plays: 27. During games 5 and 6, either of which VGK could’ve close out the series, both teams each got 5 PP.
5. The bottom line is the refs didn’t stop Vegas from winning game 5 to end the series. The refs did give Vegas a power play in double OT, but they didn’t give up a SHG to Hertl to end game 6. The refs made a bad call (which, believe it or not, happens all the time in sports), but the refs didn’t let in 4 PP goals in 4:01 and the refs didn’t allow Goodrow to score in OT after both teams had multiple chances to end the game.
Seriously, this just come off like sour grapes. Go ask the 1999 Buffalo Sabres how they feel about officiating. Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.
SJ Sharks
The salty Vegas fans in here give me FUEL. Keep crying while we enjoy the 2nd round hahahahaha
final word
the Heimlich maneuver was invented for the Sharks . They are well known as the chokers of the NHL, and their longtime fans know it.
nuff said
biff
“Final word” (LOL!) – Spoken like someone who has only been watching Hockey for the last 2 years. Nice job. Need help understanding what that little blue line is for?
SinCitySucker
Wow, still not owning the loss of a 3-1 series lead. You blew a 3-1 series lead. The refs ad nothing to do with that. You choked. Get over it. You had a double overtime power play in game 6….and you blew it by giving up a shorty. And then you give up FOUR goals on a power play….admit it it. You BLEW it.
Johnnny
Lots of goofy insane Sharts fans on here. You guys STILL trying to justify your “win” over us? Call Toronto, they said the effed up. Shouldn’t you be worried about an Avs series? I smell something called INSECURITY
sjsnarkie
how uninformed is a Snarks fan? well, he obviously has to go to another team’s message board because the Knights are more interesting apparently . so let’s give them some history.
VGK seasons 1 and 2= 94 wins and 202 pts
plus 16 playoff wins
———————————————–
Snarks record in seasons 1 and 2 = 28 wins and 63 pts …..worst record ever
oh, and btw, expansion season #2 = The 1992–93 San Jose Sharks season was the team’s second in the NHL. They set league records for most losses in a season with 71 losses, and most consecutive losses, with 17 in a row.
—————————————
bwahahahaha
Johnny T
You’re calling Sharks fans uninformed yet your post totally ignores the fact that there were completely different draft rules (we’ll disregard the players brought from the North Stars) between the Sharks and Vegas. Next time, try comparing apples with apples because you’re the one coming off entirely uninformed.
RM
San Jose, the only California team without a cup.
Kings – 52. Years, 2 cups, 3 appearances
Ducks- 26 Years, 1 cup, 2 appearances
Sharks- 28 years, 0 cups, 1 appearances
They can’t even sell out their own barn