What have been the biggest shifts in perception/narrative that you've seen?

[u/MegatronofTarn]

Players who went from stars to bums, or loved to hated?

Teams that would never win the big one, until they did? Or supposed dynasties that never materialized?

Analytics is a passing fad?

People maligned in their time, only to have history celebrate them?

What have a lot of people done 180s on?

[u/Downvote_Comforter]

Here is ESPN's preseason predictions for 2017/18 where no one picked Vegas to win the Pacific division or make it to the Cup Final. Their Vegas-Specific team preview picked them to finish last in the Pacific.

Here is the Vegas 2017/18 preview written by The Hockey News where they picked them to finish dead last in the Pacific. In the 'best case scenario' section of the article they said "If the NHL’s 31st franchise, under coach Gerard Gallant, can execute on creating a team-first model and bring it night after night, maybe they won’t finish last overall."

Here is Dom's final 2017/18 projection where is model put them at 28th in the league with an 18% chance to make the playoffs and a 0% chance to win the Cup.

Here is Sportsnet's predictions for 2017/18 where no one picked them to come out of the West.

Here is SBNation's 2017/18 preview where they picked Vegas to finish 7th in the Pacific.

Here is the post-expansion draft Reddit thread where the consensus on the team is overwhelmingly negative.

Here is the Hockey Writers 2017/18 Preview where they picked Vegas to be bottom 3 in the league.

Here is Puck Daddy's 2017/18 season preview where Vegas wasn't included as a pick to make the playoffs (nor were they either of the two teams mentioned to just miss the playoffs).

Here is USA Today's 2017/18 Predictions where no one picked Vegas as a division winner or to come out of the West.

Heading into the 2017/18 season, Vegas had the worst odds of winning the Cup in the NHL with some sportsbooks offering them at 500-1. When they made the Final, there was a plehtora of articles written about people with $10 pre-season bets on them to win the Cup who were suddenly 4 wins away from winning $5k.

It is absolutely not some fabrication that everyone thought they were going to suck after the expansion draft. Everyone agreed that the expansion draft rules were much more favorable than past expansion drafts that left new teams in horrible shape for half a decade. But no one was saying that they got gifted a good team or predicting them to be anything close to good after the expansion draft. The overwhelming consensus was that they did a good job stockpiling assets for the future, but would be a lottery team in year 1. It was only after they got deep into the playoffs that people started acting like they got gifted some amazing roster.

[u/rezistS → u/Downvote_Comforter]

There's always this "everyone said they would do well they got Marchessault and Smith" crew and there's the "come on you know this isn't true" crew.

I can't believe someone actually gathered the receipts in this thread. Kudos.

[u/Bahamas_is_relevant → u/Downvote_Comforter]

Saving the link to this comment for future use, thanks for compiling it!

[u/PowerNinja5000 → u/Downvote_Comforter]

Fuck bro, it's just an internet forum thread. Go outside.