Hi everyone! I hope you all had yourselves a wonderful week, and have been enjoying the Stanley Cup final. I was so stoked when I saw that both Edmonton and Florida would both be returning to the final round, and I haven’t been disappointed so far. It just means so much more when the teams already have a recent history. The intensity just gets ramped up a couple extra degrees, and every check, every goal, every save means just a little more. I can’t help but think back to Edmonton vs New York in the mid-80s, or Montreal vs Boston in the late 70s, both classic rivalries, and now I can see Edmonton vs Florida becoming another legendary feud. No matter how things turn out in the end, I know that the winning team will have rightfully earned the Cup; there will be no easy games over the next ten days or so.

While the Seals never had a major rivalry with another NHL team, I can imagine they certainly grew frustrated with the New York Islanders. Today, we’re heading back to early November 1972. The expansion Islanders, 1-6-1 on the year, are visiting the Bay Area for the first time, and it wouldn’t take the Seals long to wish their guests fare-thee-well. For some reason, the Seals were snakebit against the Isles that year (and really every year thereafter now that I think of it). By the end of the year, the Isles had just 12 wins, and 33% of them came against California! The Islanders scored just three hat tricks all year, two of which were against the Seals. This first meeting between the cellar-dwellers concluded in a rather prophetic way: a very one-sided Islanders’ win that featured a hat trick against the Seals. It actually wouldn’t be the Seals’ most embarrassing defeat to the future Stanley Cup dynasty (that would come in January), but it wasn’t exactly a banner night either. You can find this week’s article right here.

So that’s it for this week. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend, and have enough time to recover from last night’s double-OT thriller! Until next time, stay gold!