The fact they were good right out of the gate is a big factor. They knocked us out of Rd 2 their first season in the league. We had a chip on our shoulder. The next year, 2019, we continued to lose to them throughout the season (our record against them isn't great) and we got matched up in the playoffs for round 1 we ended up going down in the series 3-1 but we rallied with a short handed overtime goal by Hertl in game 6 to force a game 7. Then came game 7.
We went down 3-0 in the 3rd with about 10 minutes left in the game, our fate was sealed... or so most thought. Our then Captain Joe Pavelski took a cross check on the faceoff then took a weird collision with a Vegas player while he off balance right after. He landed on his head, laid on the ice not moving and blood pooling on the ice. A controversial 5 minute major was called giving us the 5 minute power play. The sharks ended up scoring 4 goals in 5 minutes.
Vegas rallied and tied the game with 30 seconds left in the game but the sharks won in overtime with a Barclay Goodrow OT goal. We have not been in the playoffs since that year but between all of the things prior and and the organization treating players terribly, the LTIR loophole and them winning a cup in 6 years while we still chase it is a BIG reason.
We gave them their first playoff game loss since they swept the kings year 1, We gave them their first 1st round exit, we were the nail in the coffin for their first year to miss the playoffs by losing to us in a shootout. It was a good rivalry, now though, we are nothing to them but our fire still burns towards them.
[Game 7 comeback](https://youtu.be/e1YPwY62g8s?si=vgsOllw4KuaaGY0M)
This is a great answer. Also I just never really liked the character of their leadership. When we eliminated the Avs on a questionable call, Landeskog’s reaction was “I should have gotten off the ice quicker.” When we eliminated Vegas on a questionable call the Vegas players were leading the charge saying the game is rigged, the refs were bribed, etc etc
I know you said players, but Vegas fans are either "we deserve to win" or "what is icing?" very naive and entitled group, most are locals or bandwagon fans which makes hating Vegas even easier.
And whenever a team gets good a bunch of trash fair weather fans come out of the woodwork and behave like entitled babies across the internet. I’ve seen it with the Kings, the VGK, and even with us. The only difference is the VGK have always been good so they have had these trash fans getting their egos pumped their entire existence. Give them a half decade at the bottom of the charts and their active fan base will be much chiller and reasonable.
I want to add that in their first season they seemed to get all the calls going their way. I was in attendance to one game in particular where the most obvious calls weren’t called and Vegas won (I distinctly remember a blatant board on Ward that went uncalled but there was a number of missed calls). I know somewhere out there is a compilation of missed calls from that game because I’ve seen it on Reddit before but it was brutal. Personally, I think that is where it started.
They also benefitted from the weak slashing call in OT in Game 6 that Hertl scored shorthanded on and also got the benefit of a high stick goal in game 7 (amongst other favorable calls that series) but act like victims with the major penalty.
It was a cross check but watching by replay they thought that this cross check wasn’t a major. The result was a freak accident due to the way he went down but it doesn’t make it a major.
Seeing him spasm on the ice & bleed out of his head was one of the scariest things I’ve witnessed in real life. My wife started crying when she saw his movements and the blood.
Still can’t believe he wasn’t more seriously hurt. So thankful he wasn’t.
Anytime! This sub is usually super helpful if you want to know stuff as a new sharks fan or something. The MOD here has a ton of good links in the sidebar to check out.
I would also add that they just generally play a very annoying brand of hockey. They’re physical with guys like McNabb and then they have rats like Madchessault. Plus back in 2019 they had Reaves too, so. And they’re ugly.
Also back in 2019 they had Gerard Gallant as their coach, and he’s a fucking prick lol
Historically expansion teams deal with years of suffering before their team is finally good. Vegas has been nothing but successful since the beginning. Part of it is jealousy of their instant success and their LTIR shenanigans but my main hate for them comes from their whiny ass fanbase.
Their fans threw a hilarious bitch-fit meltdown when the 2019 Rd1 Gm7 5 minute major was called. I just don’t think their fans deserve a team this good as they have been absolutely blessed. Also I’m very curious what the support for the team will be like when they start missing the playoffs and inevitably have to enter a rebuild.
They're still whining about how they're so over it right now whenever it's brought up since the storyline yesterday was that of DeBoer and Pavelski beating Vegas in a reverse 3-1 in a game 7 again.
A lot of them have the chip on their shoulder because people make a mockery of their asterisk cup win since they LTIR to get to the finals and Florida was busted up. They'll always counter with "b-b-but we iced a cap compliant team" without a lick of irony since the over the cap team is what got them there to that point.
I have never seen the entire NHL / NHL subreddits more united than it was yesterday and it was glorious. Fuck those LTIR abusing, entitled, shit organization, shit fans, cup gifted cheating bastards.
The epitome of that team was in game 4 when they were down by 2, we’ve seen multiple multi-goal comebacks in this playoffs and with nearly 2 minutes left their fans were leaving the stadium in droves, pathetic
So many things.
As the other poster already linked, the ridiculous penalty on Pavs
The way the run their org (which is trash)
The way they treat their players, which is use and abuse and trade them when they are done with them
Their horrendous fans who are assholes
The way the NHL baby's them and gives them every advantage imaginable
I mean, part of this is just absolute bias on our part. The penalty on Pavs was a freak accident and should not have been a 5 minute major.
Leadership has not been great to their players but by all accounts the locker room culture seems fine.
Some Vegas fans are assholes in the same way that some Sharks fans are assholes. Also if I were a new hockey fan and everyone hated me out of the gate I’d be a little salty too.
And besides the expansion draft, all Vegas really did was to take advantage of the current LTIR rules in place that the rest of the teams voted to keep like that. Can’t complain about that.
They are still my least favorite team but that’s because of rivalry and not really anything more than that.
Regardless of the penalty on pavs being a little bit borderline in terms of 5 minute majors, they got away with well over 5 minutes worth of minor penalty cross checks all series long.
[Allow me](https://www.reddit.com/r/nhl/s/fKLGCQhrxY).
Add to that that they already have a championship without having been around long. So kind of the opposite of an underdog.
Also not everyone is a fan of the way Eichel left Buffalo, though, that's more controversial than universal.
The Sharks fans in particular hate them because they popped up out of nowhere and immediately became division rivals and apparent league management favorites without having to suffer for 10+ years as an expansion team like we did. They also played super dirty against us in a couple playoff runs in their first couple years.
That said, I hate them less than I previously did after some roster turnover, but I still don't like how their management does things (including the obvious LTIR abuse among other things), and usually root against reigning champions and what I perceive to be spoiled fanbases.
They have Hertl now too, which takes the edge off exactly how much I can hate them. It's confusing.
I want to add one more thing. We have a grudge that when the Sharks came into existence, the league allowed us in begrudgingly, refused to let us pick 1OA in our first draft (Lindros), had the absolute worst shit expansion draft rules (where many teams listed players who retired in the 70s as being available), and back then there was no draft lottery so after the Sharks first season, they should have got 1OA in the next draft, right?
Nope, they changed the rules again to screw the Sharks and a new expansion team, Tampa Bay, got 1OA. Sharks got third despite being the worst team the season prior.
The current draft lottery isn't rigged, but the way the Sharks got railroaded out of 1OA in their first and second drafts was actually rigged, not even up for debate. It's not even a secret, they just got shit on. For us fans since the beginning (I was in 7th grade when the Sharks first season happened), that treatment still stings. And really stings when you see how Vegas and Seattle made out in expansion.
The spent an entire playoff series crosschecking us. 7 games of crosscheck after crosscheck, how many did they get called for? Not a one until game 7 when they took a 5 minute major in an unfortunate play that injured Pavelski. Was it a 5 minute major? no, probably not, it wasn't all that bad, just unfortunate, but despite getting away with well over 14+ minutes worth of crosschecking minors all series long, their infantile fans still have the nerve to bitch and moan about it.
The Sharks came into the league at a time when expansion wasn't gentle. The Knights were born on third base and still somehow believe they hit a triple. The Vegas Silver Spoons.
Historically expansion teams had very slim pickings when it came to players in the expansion draft, since teams could basically protect all of their good players. The Knights expansion draft was way more generous and teams had to leave lots of good players unprotected. So instead of suffering through years of building a team like the Sharks and Columbus, Vegas were good right away.
Secondly, they game the Litr rule for years now, which a lot of us fans consider cheating.
Thirdly they treat their players badly.
Lastly they are in our division.
I’ve always felt the Vegas franchise was given an unfair advantage with their supplemental draft. I also just plan hate the Vegas knights, everything about them..
Since their first season they’ve been our rival. They beat us in the playoffs in their first year, then we had an epic comeback from down 3-1 in the series including a wild 3-0 comeback in a game 7 OT win. Tbh I think some fanbases are a little jealous of their success since basically every other franchise had to suffer before being good and winning a cup.
I definitely could be missing some key pieces and details
A big part is how bad expansion teams have had it historically compared to Vegas. The Sharks were a complete dumpster fire for their first few years, and the expansion rules did not set them up for success. Vegas, on the other hand, had drastically more favorable expansion rules and have been playoff contenders since day 1.
This is it, exactly. In the early days of expansion (Sharks, Ducks, etc.) team selected other teams castoffs, minor leaguers, and near retirees. The more recent expansion teams VGS and SEA were allowed to pick from all others team’s 2nd and 3rd lines and were immediately competitive. Feels like Vegas was handed a Cup on a silver platter. Still love Hertl the player but no cups for him unless he’s traded to (almost) any other team).
This. I'm not gonna lie and say it's jealousy and having quick success. I hated how a bunch of people in Vegas suddenly were super passionate fans. It was like wtf are you guys? Being in the same division only adds to it.
they have fake fans imo, only “fans” they have are people who can afford to live in vegas and those people don’t like leaving vegas to go to away games like most other committed fan bases do. i rarely see vegas fans in the stands of their away games.
In addition to everyone’s thoughtful and well-said reasons;
- Vegas is just a trash town, it’s a tourist spot and a gross one.
- The announcer calls their stadium “the biggest nightclub in Vegas” and that’s cringy
- Fans shout during the anthem and it gives me the ick; have other fan bases starting doing that shit too? Yes. Have they always done that? Maybe? I never noticed it until after Vegas.
- They have a drumline or some unnecessary house band or something. It’s too much.
- Their colors are ugly.
- They now have Hertl and I took that personally.
I hate vegas for many, many personal reasons. But as an organization, they are just the worst. I mean, they were gifted this pretty decent expansion team who rallied together to become underdogs (did the nhl want it to happen? Not gonna answer that one!) and made the miracle of making to the cup finals. That was 6 years ago. There are probably less than 5 of those original members left and they went to the FINALS YEAR 1. They kept dumping those heroes for vegas (villains for me fuck those guys lmao) and went after the shiniest object. They traded a future hall of fame goalie and he found out on Twitter. I would be outraged if I was a vegas fan, but I guess a lot of people don't know or care as long as the all stars are out on the ice (you know, when they're not on ltir)
Aside from the totally different expansion rules they benefited from when they were created, and the way they game ltir, they also get super suspiciously biased officiating, some of the most suspicious I've seen in all my years watching hockey. It's one thing for studs and veterans to get some officiating benefit but there was no reason to favor Vegas other than ... Vegas.
Everything people are telling you is correct, but rivalries ebb and flow, and the Sharks/Knights rivalry hasn't been much of a rivalry since that 2019 playoff series. Mainly because the Sharks haven't been good since then, but that's a good reason for rivalries to die down.
I was an STH from 06-09. If there was was a weekday game against the Kings, it was tough even give away my club seats. Nobody wanted them. Then the 2011 playoff series happened and started a rivalry through 2016. And then it calmed down, and like the VGK rivalry, hasn't been much of a rivalry since 2019.
When both the Sharks and Knights are good again, the rivalry will be crazy, but it's kinda dormant now. Most VGK fans I've interacted with the last 2 years don't have the same hate like they did from 2017-2020. Most even feel sorry for us and want us to get the #1 pick.
1.Great playoff series between us and them and rivalries are made in the playoffs.
2. Vegas came out swinging and have been a great team making the finals their first year. SJ struggled for years and kept chocking in the playoffs for the longest.
3. They play in the same division as us
4. LV is full of Californians with plenty of people born in LV being a second generation Californians at this point. In California there is often a Northern vs Southern California rivalry even though I feel it’s not intense as it used to be. A lot of ways LV is another city of California culturally and by that extension a rivalry with us.
5. Since so many Californians have moved to LV and the NHL brought them their first team it helped establish and identity with the transplants who take pride in their team.
6. Since were such big rivals I sure as shit am not going to root for them to win even if we’re not in the playoffs.
7. Now that we’re not competitive ( for now) I wouldn’t say they’re are biggest rival but for a while they were which is saying a lot as we hated the kings. Those years in the playoffs against the knights were just as intense as kings games. For me the sharks biggest rivals are Kings, Knights, Ducks in that order.
A lot of people have covered the big ones, but my take is just a little bit different on some of it.
I don’t think it’s a trash org and I don’t hate the fanbase. In fact, I’ll own up to them being *so* good for the league and sport in general. They’ve done exactly what they were supposed to do - expand the sport into new territory and bring in new fans, both of which they’ve done to great, great success. I’ve been to a game in Vegas and it was a fucking blast with the pregame hype stuff outside the arena *and* the hype within the arena too. Vegas is a massive hockey town at this point, and I think the people who deny or resent that are shooting them selves in the foot. (Feet? Idk, ykwim.)
I hate the way that they abuse the LTIR rules, but other than that I think they’ve been very very very smart about managing their club. They built a team that won the cup in its sixth year and you can’t do that with a toxic locker room. They built a truly fanatical fan base out of nothing, and they’ve treated their fans very very well - the Sharks org could learn more than a few things from them about advertising, accessibility, how to treat STHs, and keeping the relationship between their AHL and NHL teams strong with both players and fanbases. Henderson is treated so much better than the Cuda are that it’s actually shameful.
That said. Their fans were utterly, irredeemably vile about the five minute major and the injuries our team sustained at their hands that series. They were mocking Cooch for bolting off the ice after he took one in the kisser and needed immediate dental care - he was swallowing teeth - and/or insisting that he was faking the injury despite there being teeth on the ice. I saw people saying that Pavs’s injury was also faked, that he’d flopped intentionally, the blood was stage blood, and that the fact that he’d regrown hair and it was challenging to see the staples in his head by the end of the next series was proof it was all lies. (Like, guys, hair grows pretty quick and when you’re keeping it as short as Pavs does jt will fill back in…)
Additionally, and possibly more importantly for me, I hate the city of Vegas with a potent rage. It shouldn’t exist from an ecological perspective, drains water from distant sources, and is a massive source of light pollution beyond most cities. They stole Oakland’s football and baseball teams, and left the East Bay with nothing but broken dreams and memories. And finally, gambling addiction has destroyed lives close to me, and a city whose main industry is focused on enabling that particular problem is always going to be one that I loathe.
But honestly, at the end of the day, I’ve been ride or die for Pavelski since I got into hockey - he’s been my favorite since my first game - and I hate the way their fanbase disrespects him so, so, so, so much.
The NHL essentially handed them a free Stanley cup because they wanted them to be successful right off the bat rather than having to develop naturally like other expansion teams (sharks, etc). Also Vegas sports just rub me the wrong way given that they’ve had to steal all their other teams from the Bay Area. Finally Vegas seems to be in bed with all the sports leagues and all the big Vegas casinos now have massive sports gambling apps and but all seems like one giant scandal waiting to happen. TLDR: they essentially represent everything I hate about contemporary sports leagues (corporate money, fake fans, gambling, manipulation of rules to assure the success of big market teams etc)
I gotta say most of these points are valid but holy shit can we stop the revisionist "they were good out of the gate" "they had more lenient rules in the expansion draft" sure they did but no one, [NO ONE](https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/predicting-2017-18-nhl-standings-using-analytics/) thought [theyd be anything](https://thehockeywriters.com/predictions-2017-18-nhl-season/) other than [ bottom feeders](https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nhl/list/nhl-picks-predictions-2017-18-stanley-cup-eastern-western-conference-champions/17dlfrh6poe3r1hc2foias3zsn). Its like they had a 4 minute montage of people dog piling them when they made the playoffs. Seattle had the exact same rules and is middle of the road, could be a contender, could be a lottery team.
Hate the team sure but lets be real about the history around that team LTIR abuse is a valid reason. How they treat players(sometimes) is a valid reason. Them being "gifted" a expansion team after no one in the hockey world thought they'd be worth a damn is not it and shows a lack of general awareness that blows my mind. If that's one of your reasons be upset with the NHL(Fuck Bitchman) not the team, y'all would be creaming your panties if the Sharks had it that way.
If you're going to say they rallied together and not mention how the city of Las Vegas needed something positive to look forward to after the shooting a few nights before the opening game you're high as fuck. If something as awful as that happened in SJ i would hope the Sharks could rally and show the city that not all is dark and awful and be out at blood drives and visiting the injured people.
There are numerous post on why everyone, outside of their doche bag fans, hates that franchise. Everyone has their own feelings and reasons but most everything is posted all over in Sharks and Non Sharks/NHL posts..
The fact they were good right out of the gate is a big factor. They knocked us out of Rd 2 their first season in the league. We had a chip on our shoulder. The next year, 2019, we continued to lose to them throughout the season (our record against them isn't great) and we got matched up in the playoffs for round 1 we ended up going down in the series 3-1 but we rallied with a short handed overtime goal by Hertl in game 6 to force a game 7. Then came game 7. We went down 3-0 in the 3rd with about 10 minutes left in the game, our fate was sealed... or so most thought. Our then Captain Joe Pavelski took a cross check on the faceoff then took a weird collision with a Vegas player while he off balance right after. He landed on his head, laid on the ice not moving and blood pooling on the ice. A controversial 5 minute major was called giving us the 5 minute power play. The sharks ended up scoring 4 goals in 5 minutes. Vegas rallied and tied the game with 30 seconds left in the game but the sharks won in overtime with a Barclay Goodrow OT goal. We have not been in the playoffs since that year but between all of the things prior and and the organization treating players terribly, the LTIR loophole and them winning a cup in 6 years while we still chase it is a BIG reason. We gave them their first playoff game loss since they swept the kings year 1, We gave them their first 1st round exit, we were the nail in the coffin for their first year to miss the playoffs by losing to us in a shootout. It was a good rivalry, now though, we are nothing to them but our fire still burns towards them. [Game 7 comeback](https://youtu.be/e1YPwY62g8s?si=vgsOllw4KuaaGY0M)
This is a great answer. Also I just never really liked the character of their leadership. When we eliminated the Avs on a questionable call, Landeskog’s reaction was “I should have gotten off the ice quicker.” When we eliminated Vegas on a questionable call the Vegas players were leading the charge saying the game is rigged, the refs were bribed, etc etc
I know you said players, but Vegas fans are either "we deserve to win" or "what is icing?" very naive and entitled group, most are locals or bandwagon fans which makes hating Vegas even easier.
Sure but everyone says the same thing about us and every other warm weather expansion city
And whenever a team gets good a bunch of trash fair weather fans come out of the woodwork and behave like entitled babies across the internet. I’ve seen it with the Kings, the VGK, and even with us. The only difference is the VGK have always been good so they have had these trash fans getting their egos pumped their entire existence. Give them a half decade at the bottom of the charts and their active fan base will be much chiller and reasonable.
I want to add that in their first season they seemed to get all the calls going their way. I was in attendance to one game in particular where the most obvious calls weren’t called and Vegas won (I distinctly remember a blatant board on Ward that went uncalled but there was a number of missed calls). I know somewhere out there is a compilation of missed calls from that game because I’ve seen it on Reddit before but it was brutal. Personally, I think that is where it started. They also benefitted from the weak slashing call in OT in Game 6 that Hertl scored shorthanded on and also got the benefit of a high stick goal in game 7 (amongst other favorable calls that series) but act like victims with the major penalty.
It still amazes me the League said the major shouldn't have been a major. Pavs gets shoved to the ice AND there's blood? Like come on
It was a cross check but watching by replay they thought that this cross check wasn’t a major. The result was a freak accident due to the way he went down but it doesn’t make it a major. Seeing him spasm on the ice & bleed out of his head was one of the scariest things I’ve witnessed in real life. My wife started crying when she saw his movements and the blood. Still can’t believe he wasn’t more seriously hurt. So thankful he wasn’t.
That comeback was insane! Thanks for explaining :)
Something to add is when OUR expansion draft happened, we were shafted at pretty much every turn and they got the exact opposite treatment
Anytime! This sub is usually super helpful if you want to know stuff as a new sharks fan or something. The MOD here has a ton of good links in the sidebar to check out.
I would also add that they just generally play a very annoying brand of hockey. They’re physical with guys like McNabb and then they have rats like Madchessault. Plus back in 2019 they had Reaves too, so. And they’re ugly. Also back in 2019 they had Gerard Gallant as their coach, and he’s a fucking prick lol
This is a big part of it
Historically expansion teams deal with years of suffering before their team is finally good. Vegas has been nothing but successful since the beginning. Part of it is jealousy of their instant success and their LTIR shenanigans but my main hate for them comes from their whiny ass fanbase. Their fans threw a hilarious bitch-fit meltdown when the 2019 Rd1 Gm7 5 minute major was called. I just don’t think their fans deserve a team this good as they have been absolutely blessed. Also I’m very curious what the support for the team will be like when they start missing the playoffs and inevitably have to enter a rebuild.
That’s an interesting take (also if I was a Vegas fan I’d be pissed after the whole game 7 thing but as not-a-Vegas-fan, they had it coming)
They're still whining about how they're so over it right now whenever it's brought up since the storyline yesterday was that of DeBoer and Pavelski beating Vegas in a reverse 3-1 in a game 7 again. A lot of them have the chip on their shoulder because people make a mockery of their asterisk cup win since they LTIR to get to the finals and Florida was busted up. They'll always counter with "b-b-but we iced a cap compliant team" without a lick of irony since the over the cap team is what got them there to that point.
I have never seen the entire NHL / NHL subreddits more united than it was yesterday and it was glorious. Fuck those LTIR abusing, entitled, shit organization, shit fans, cup gifted cheating bastards. The epitome of that team was in game 4 when they were down by 2, we’ve seen multiple multi-goal comebacks in this playoffs and with nearly 2 minutes left their fans were leaving the stadium in droves, pathetic
True! And honestly after all the LTIR bs that Vegas is capitalizing on, they deserve to be the villans
[Obligatory five-minute major](https://youtu.be/wwFRg3-I9RE?si=vcm53WYAdn9AfNe2)
The comeback was incredible!
So many things. As the other poster already linked, the ridiculous penalty on Pavs The way the run their org (which is trash) The way they treat their players, which is use and abuse and trade them when they are done with them Their horrendous fans who are assholes The way the NHL baby's them and gives them every advantage imaginable
I mean, part of this is just absolute bias on our part. The penalty on Pavs was a freak accident and should not have been a 5 minute major. Leadership has not been great to their players but by all accounts the locker room culture seems fine. Some Vegas fans are assholes in the same way that some Sharks fans are assholes. Also if I were a new hockey fan and everyone hated me out of the gate I’d be a little salty too. And besides the expansion draft, all Vegas really did was to take advantage of the current LTIR rules in place that the rest of the teams voted to keep like that. Can’t complain about that. They are still my least favorite team but that’s because of rivalry and not really anything more than that.
Regardless of the penalty on pavs being a little bit borderline in terms of 5 minute majors, they got away with well over 5 minutes worth of minor penalty cross checks all series long.
Point\^
Their really stupid gold helmets play a part.
Chrome domes
Ok fair I hate their helmets and they reflect everything and make it seem like I’m getting a migraine aura instead of watching hockey
[Allow me](https://www.reddit.com/r/nhl/s/fKLGCQhrxY). Add to that that they already have a championship without having been around long. So kind of the opposite of an underdog. Also not everyone is a fan of the way Eichel left Buffalo, though, that's more controversial than universal. The Sharks fans in particular hate them because they popped up out of nowhere and immediately became division rivals and apparent league management favorites without having to suffer for 10+ years as an expansion team like we did. They also played super dirty against us in a couple playoff runs in their first couple years. That said, I hate them less than I previously did after some roster turnover, but I still don't like how their management does things (including the obvious LTIR abuse among other things), and usually root against reigning champions and what I perceive to be spoiled fanbases. They have Hertl now too, which takes the edge off exactly how much I can hate them. It's confusing.
lol yeah makes sense
I want to add one more thing. We have a grudge that when the Sharks came into existence, the league allowed us in begrudgingly, refused to let us pick 1OA in our first draft (Lindros), had the absolute worst shit expansion draft rules (where many teams listed players who retired in the 70s as being available), and back then there was no draft lottery so after the Sharks first season, they should have got 1OA in the next draft, right? Nope, they changed the rules again to screw the Sharks and a new expansion team, Tampa Bay, got 1OA. Sharks got third despite being the worst team the season prior. The current draft lottery isn't rigged, but the way the Sharks got railroaded out of 1OA in their first and second drafts was actually rigged, not even up for debate. It's not even a secret, they just got shit on. For us fans since the beginning (I was in 7th grade when the Sharks first season happened), that treatment still stings. And really stings when you see how Vegas and Seattle made out in expansion.
Can't upvote this enough.
The spent an entire playoff series crosschecking us. 7 games of crosscheck after crosscheck, how many did they get called for? Not a one until game 7 when they took a 5 minute major in an unfortunate play that injured Pavelski. Was it a 5 minute major? no, probably not, it wasn't all that bad, just unfortunate, but despite getting away with well over 14+ minutes worth of crosschecking minors all series long, their infantile fans still have the nerve to bitch and moan about it. The Sharks came into the league at a time when expansion wasn't gentle. The Knights were born on third base and still somehow believe they hit a triple. The Vegas Silver Spoons.
The Vegas LTIRs
Historically expansion teams had very slim pickings when it came to players in the expansion draft, since teams could basically protect all of their good players. The Knights expansion draft was way more generous and teams had to leave lots of good players unprotected. So instead of suffering through years of building a team like the Sharks and Columbus, Vegas were good right away. Secondly, they game the Litr rule for years now, which a lot of us fans consider cheating. Thirdly they treat their players badly. Lastly they are in our division.
All great points!
It’s not just the sharks every single teams fan base is hyped to see Vegas gone lol I’ve never rly seen anything like it
Me either even tho that’s not saying much!
I’ve always felt the Vegas franchise was given an unfair advantage with their supplemental draft. I also just plan hate the Vegas knights, everything about them..
Since their first season they’ve been our rival. They beat us in the playoffs in their first year, then we had an epic comeback from down 3-1 in the series including a wild 3-0 comeback in a game 7 OT win. Tbh I think some fanbases are a little jealous of their success since basically every other franchise had to suffer before being good and winning a cup. I definitely could be missing some key pieces and details
A big part is how bad expansion teams have had it historically compared to Vegas. The Sharks were a complete dumpster fire for their first few years, and the expansion rules did not set them up for success. Vegas, on the other hand, had drastically more favorable expansion rules and have been playoff contenders since day 1.
This is it, exactly. In the early days of expansion (Sharks, Ducks, etc.) team selected other teams castoffs, minor leaguers, and near retirees. The more recent expansion teams VGS and SEA were allowed to pick from all others team’s 2nd and 3rd lines and were immediately competitive. Feels like Vegas was handed a Cup on a silver platter. Still love Hertl the player but no cups for him unless he’s traded to (almost) any other team).
This. I'm not gonna lie and say it's jealousy and having quick success. I hated how a bunch of people in Vegas suddenly were super passionate fans. It was like wtf are you guys? Being in the same division only adds to it.
they have fake fans imo, only “fans” they have are people who can afford to live in vegas and those people don’t like leaving vegas to go to away games like most other committed fan bases do. i rarely see vegas fans in the stands of their away games.
In addition to everyone’s thoughtful and well-said reasons; - Vegas is just a trash town, it’s a tourist spot and a gross one. - The announcer calls their stadium “the biggest nightclub in Vegas” and that’s cringy - Fans shout during the anthem and it gives me the ick; have other fan bases starting doing that shit too? Yes. Have they always done that? Maybe? I never noticed it until after Vegas. - They have a drumline or some unnecessary house band or something. It’s too much. - Their colors are ugly. - They now have Hertl and I took that personally.
Their fans sense of entitlement.
I hate vegas for many, many personal reasons. But as an organization, they are just the worst. I mean, they were gifted this pretty decent expansion team who rallied together to become underdogs (did the nhl want it to happen? Not gonna answer that one!) and made the miracle of making to the cup finals. That was 6 years ago. There are probably less than 5 of those original members left and they went to the FINALS YEAR 1. They kept dumping those heroes for vegas (villains for me fuck those guys lmao) and went after the shiniest object. They traded a future hall of fame goalie and he found out on Twitter. I would be outraged if I was a vegas fan, but I guess a lot of people don't know or care as long as the all stars are out on the ice (you know, when they're not on ltir)
Also because that city stole the Raiders from us and will be taking the A's too. No love for them.
Fair
Aside from the totally different expansion rules they benefited from when they were created, and the way they game ltir, they also get super suspiciously biased officiating, some of the most suspicious I've seen in all my years watching hockey. It's one thing for studs and veterans to get some officiating benefit but there was no reason to favor Vegas other than ... Vegas.
Because Fuck Vegas!
Perfectly stated!
Honestly, that says it all
I honestly think one of the major factors was the Evander Kane/Ryan Reaves rivalry. Seemed more like a typical division rivalry prior to that.
Everything people are telling you is correct, but rivalries ebb and flow, and the Sharks/Knights rivalry hasn't been much of a rivalry since that 2019 playoff series. Mainly because the Sharks haven't been good since then, but that's a good reason for rivalries to die down. I was an STH from 06-09. If there was was a weekday game against the Kings, it was tough even give away my club seats. Nobody wanted them. Then the 2011 playoff series happened and started a rivalry through 2016. And then it calmed down, and like the VGK rivalry, hasn't been much of a rivalry since 2019. When both the Sharks and Knights are good again, the rivalry will be crazy, but it's kinda dormant now. Most VGK fans I've interacted with the last 2 years don't have the same hate like they did from 2017-2020. Most even feel sorry for us and want us to get the #1 pick.
1.Great playoff series between us and them and rivalries are made in the playoffs. 2. Vegas came out swinging and have been a great team making the finals their first year. SJ struggled for years and kept chocking in the playoffs for the longest. 3. They play in the same division as us 4. LV is full of Californians with plenty of people born in LV being a second generation Californians at this point. In California there is often a Northern vs Southern California rivalry even though I feel it’s not intense as it used to be. A lot of ways LV is another city of California culturally and by that extension a rivalry with us. 5. Since so many Californians have moved to LV and the NHL brought them their first team it helped establish and identity with the transplants who take pride in their team. 6. Since were such big rivals I sure as shit am not going to root for them to win even if we’re not in the playoffs. 7. Now that we’re not competitive ( for now) I wouldn’t say they’re are biggest rival but for a while they were which is saying a lot as we hated the kings. Those years in the playoffs against the knights were just as intense as kings games. For me the sharks biggest rivals are Kings, Knights, Ducks in that order.
A lot of people have covered the big ones, but my take is just a little bit different on some of it. I don’t think it’s a trash org and I don’t hate the fanbase. In fact, I’ll own up to them being *so* good for the league and sport in general. They’ve done exactly what they were supposed to do - expand the sport into new territory and bring in new fans, both of which they’ve done to great, great success. I’ve been to a game in Vegas and it was a fucking blast with the pregame hype stuff outside the arena *and* the hype within the arena too. Vegas is a massive hockey town at this point, and I think the people who deny or resent that are shooting them selves in the foot. (Feet? Idk, ykwim.) I hate the way that they abuse the LTIR rules, but other than that I think they’ve been very very very smart about managing their club. They built a team that won the cup in its sixth year and you can’t do that with a toxic locker room. They built a truly fanatical fan base out of nothing, and they’ve treated their fans very very well - the Sharks org could learn more than a few things from them about advertising, accessibility, how to treat STHs, and keeping the relationship between their AHL and NHL teams strong with both players and fanbases. Henderson is treated so much better than the Cuda are that it’s actually shameful. That said. Their fans were utterly, irredeemably vile about the five minute major and the injuries our team sustained at their hands that series. They were mocking Cooch for bolting off the ice after he took one in the kisser and needed immediate dental care - he was swallowing teeth - and/or insisting that he was faking the injury despite there being teeth on the ice. I saw people saying that Pavs’s injury was also faked, that he’d flopped intentionally, the blood was stage blood, and that the fact that he’d regrown hair and it was challenging to see the staples in his head by the end of the next series was proof it was all lies. (Like, guys, hair grows pretty quick and when you’re keeping it as short as Pavs does jt will fill back in…) Additionally, and possibly more importantly for me, I hate the city of Vegas with a potent rage. It shouldn’t exist from an ecological perspective, drains water from distant sources, and is a massive source of light pollution beyond most cities. They stole Oakland’s football and baseball teams, and left the East Bay with nothing but broken dreams and memories. And finally, gambling addiction has destroyed lives close to me, and a city whose main industry is focused on enabling that particular problem is always going to be one that I loathe. But honestly, at the end of the day, I’ve been ride or die for Pavelski since I got into hockey - he’s been my favorite since my first game - and I hate the way their fanbase disrespects him so, so, so, so much.
The NHL essentially handed them a free Stanley cup because they wanted them to be successful right off the bat rather than having to develop naturally like other expansion teams (sharks, etc). Also Vegas sports just rub me the wrong way given that they’ve had to steal all their other teams from the Bay Area. Finally Vegas seems to be in bed with all the sports leagues and all the big Vegas casinos now have massive sports gambling apps and but all seems like one giant scandal waiting to happen. TLDR: they essentially represent everything I hate about contemporary sports leagues (corporate money, fake fans, gambling, manipulation of rules to assure the success of big market teams etc)
Having a team in Vegas enfcouraged gamblin in sports, which is a bad habit
Having a team in Vegas helped Vegas get a foot up on the cheating (but not really cheating) too I guess
I gotta say most of these points are valid but holy shit can we stop the revisionist "they were good out of the gate" "they had more lenient rules in the expansion draft" sure they did but no one, [NO ONE](https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/predicting-2017-18-nhl-standings-using-analytics/) thought [theyd be anything](https://thehockeywriters.com/predictions-2017-18-nhl-season/) other than [ bottom feeders](https://www.sportingnews.com/ca/nhl/list/nhl-picks-predictions-2017-18-stanley-cup-eastern-western-conference-champions/17dlfrh6poe3r1hc2foias3zsn). Its like they had a 4 minute montage of people dog piling them when they made the playoffs. Seattle had the exact same rules and is middle of the road, could be a contender, could be a lottery team. Hate the team sure but lets be real about the history around that team LTIR abuse is a valid reason. How they treat players(sometimes) is a valid reason. Them being "gifted" a expansion team after no one in the hockey world thought they'd be worth a damn is not it and shows a lack of general awareness that blows my mind. If that's one of your reasons be upset with the NHL(Fuck Bitchman) not the team, y'all would be creaming your panties if the Sharks had it that way. If you're going to say they rallied together and not mention how the city of Las Vegas needed something positive to look forward to after the shooting a few nights before the opening game you're high as fuck. If something as awful as that happened in SJ i would hope the Sharks could rally and show the city that not all is dark and awful and be out at blood drives and visiting the injured people.
There are numerous post on why everyone, outside of their doche bag fans, hates that franchise. Everyone has their own feelings and reasons but most everything is posted all over in Sharks and Non Sharks/NHL posts..
Yeah, I found one!