HOT CORNER: Incredible season continues for Vegas Golden Knights

The incredible season continues for the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Golden Knights are in Winnipeg on Saturday night for the start of the Western Conference final against a very strong Jets’ team. Who would have ever thought the expansion Golden Knights would be in this position, and still be the talk of the hockey world in May?
Tenacity, speed, lineup depth and great coaching are the reasons why Vegas is still playing, and the same can be said of the Jets. They just beat last year’s Stanley Cup finalists – Nashville Predators – and, if they play the way they can, the Jets will be very tough to beat.
The Golden Knights defeated a very good San Jose Sharks’ team in Round 2. It was impressive watching the Knights beat the Sharks with their relentless work ethic in the series-clinching win. The Knights, at one time, were outshooting the Sharks 13-3 in the third period – and that was with San Jose’s season on the line.
The Jets and Knights are similar in the way they play, with Vegas winning two of the three regular-season games between the teams. Most in the hockey world think the Jets will win the series. In fact, 11 of the 13 writers for NHL.com are picking a Winnipeg/Tampa Bay final. The four remaining teams, including the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final, are so close that it’s nothing more than a guess as to who will win.
Local fans will get a bit of a break as the start times in Vegas will be moved up to where one game starts at 9 p.m., P.E.I. time, and the other two at 10 p.m.

Dave Cameron

It is great to see Dave Cameron get another head coaching job in pro hockey. His latest appointment takes him all the way to Austria with the Vienna Capitals of the top Austrian Professional League – the EBEL.
It will be a big challenge, and a very worthwhile experience, for the soon-to-be-60-year-old Cameron to coach in Europe. It is a different game on the big European ice surfaces, where speed and skill are so prevalent, and hockey played in its purest form.
The Austrian league has a long and storied history dating all the way back to 1923. It currently has 12 teams.
The Capitals were founded in 2001, and play in a 7,000-seat arena to some of the best fan support in the league. They won league championships in 2001 and 2017.
This will be Cameron’s 10th coaching job since taking the Summerside Western Capitals all the way to the 1989 Centennial Cup final in Summerside, before losing 4-1 to the Thunder Bay Flyers. It will be 30 years next year since the Caps advanced to the Canadian junior A hockey championship, and maybe that anniversary will be good luck for Cameron with his second Capitals’ team.

Charlottetown Islanders
It is too bad, but not surprising, that the Charlottetown Islanders have taken a year’s leave of absence from the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League (NBSBL).
It is a huge commitment for a P.E.I. team to play in this league with all the time, travel and financial requirements. Considering the age group of players is in the over-21 group – and this is a point in their lives where jobs and family become so important – it is doubtful a P.E.I. team will ever flourish in this league.
That thought comes from experience in running a team in the NBSBL. Like it was in the mid 1990s, player availability is just not there. A poor feeder system is one reason, and the lack of an Island league to help develop players is another.
Hopefully, for the players that want to play and baseball fans, the Islanders can regroup this year and get back at it next year.

Joe MacIntyre is a Summerside resident. His column appears every Saturday. Comments and suggestions can be sent to [email protected].