Well, I certainly didn’t expect to write something like this this soon.
It’s very difficult to come up with the right words after watching what unfolded on Tuesday, knowing that this season — so much promise, so much potential of another run to the Stanley Cup Final — ended in a way that has been best summed up on Twitter in the past 48 hours.
But it is what it is. The Vegas Golden Knights are off to the golf course for an early summer. There will be no repeat for the Western Conference champions, and a summer of what ifs will begin sooner than everyone expected.
We will get into all of that later, and we will have more content coming in the next few days that will carry us over until we reach the dark abyss that is an early NHL offseason.
Right now, however, I just want to say thank you.
When last season ended, it was the continuation of a tumultuous time period. I didn’t get a chance to digest what actually transpired. An expansion team made the Cup Final. Said team had a 1-0 lead in said Cup Final, and had it not been for Braden Holtby’s stick, who really knows what would’ve happened? But when Game 5 ended, the season was over and I went back to work that very night at my overnight job (that we all got laid off from a week after I got married, so that’s fun!) that same night. I never got a chance to sit down, process the fact that history had been made and we were all witnesses to it.
My plan was to write something like this after last year, and it never happened because life happens. Because we’re still the new kids on the block, we’re not like the top hockey blogs on this network, and it’s difficult to reach that pinnacle. We’re slowly, surely, gradually getting there. And I am fortunate to have a staff of editors who are constantly putting in work behind the scenes to make things happen, as well as a staff of writers that I feel will evolve into greater things next season. Without them, this site would be nothing.
But those who have read what we’ve produced last year, even leading into this year, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has interacted with us here, on Twitter, on Facebook, and whatever else. You are all wonderful people, and we hope to be even better going into Year 3. Whatever changes we need to make to ensure this is a place you want to come to, to read our content, we’ll make it happen. But on behalf of the entire staff at KOI, thank you for visiting our site the past two seasons.
Even if it was just one time to give us one big old “screw you, asshole,” we appreciate you, too.
And also congrats to our brethren at Fear The Fin for one hell of a series.
So, what’s next now that we actually have an early offseason?
We still have content coming down the pipeline. We’ll have some stuff from exit interviews coming sporadically over the next week or so, and we’ll try and podcast some more. We’ll also have player profiles and much more leading up to the NHL Draft, as well as free agency. So we’ll still be around, but maybe we’ll take a break or two to recharge. I know Quigs is all giffed out, if that’s a thing.
So, thank you again for your reads, your comments, your interaction. Everything is appreciated. Even if we can’t get to every comment or every reply, we know you’re there.
Enjoy the offseason.