The Vegas Golden Knights, born of terror, tragedy and ultimately triumph, won their first Stanley Cup in just their sixth season, defeating the Florida Panthers, 9-3, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
The Knights, the top seed in the Western Conference, used a high-speed, sharp-elbowed offense to crush the Panthers, the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, in five games. The Knights were making their second finals appearance, as were the Panthers.
But while the Panthers advanced to a championship round for the first time since 1996, the Knights made the second-fastest trip to a Stanley Cup victory of any team in the expansion era that began in 1967, trailing only the Edmonton Oilers, the who won the Cup in their fifth season in the league. (The Oilers played seven seasons in the World Hockey Association before joining the NHL)
“We’ve been waiting a long time to get back at that point and we wanted to make sure we got some money,” said Vegas winger Jonathan Marchesol, who was selected by the Panthers in the expansion draft and was one of the original misfits. Vegas’ inaugural season. “This team has been incredible from the start.”
After captain Mark Stone lifted the Cup after the game, he handed it to Riley Smith, who is another player from the first season and also came from the Panthers. He passed it to Marchessault, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.
After a shaky start in Game 5, the Golden Knights opened the scoring about 12 minutes into the first period. After Vegas goaltender Adin Hill stopped Florida center Alexander Barkov, Stone scored an unassisted goal. Vegas scored again less than two minutes later.
In the second period, Vegas scored four times in less than 10 minutes, including a second goal by Stone, to build an insurmountable lead. The Panthers were playing without their leading scorer, Matthew Tkachuk, who was injured in Game 4. But Vegas was clearly the hungrier team.
Fueled by a raucous DJ, cheerleaders and an over-the-top light show, Knights fans spent the third period primed for an all-out celebration few could have imagined just six years ago.
The annals of the NHL are littered with failed franchises. Extension clubs. Groups that moved into new markets. Groups that moved again. Remember the Cleveland Barons? The Kansas City Scouts? The Minnesota North Stars?
So it’s no wonder critics were skeptical when, in 2016, Commissioner Gary Bettman held a press conference at a Las Vegas hotel to announce the city would host the Golden Knights, the league’s 31st team. With the outside temperature topping 108 degrees, Bettman raised questions about the viability of a professional hockey team in a desert town where many residents are retired or work nighttime service jobs.
A number of minor league hockey teams – including the Gamblers, Outlaws, Aces, Thunder and Ice Dice – have played in Las Vegas. The Coyotes, who moved to Arizona from Winnipeg for the 1996-97 season, were in such bad shape financially that the NHL had to take over the team at some point. Maybe hockey wasn’t meant to be played in the desert.
However, Bettman pointed to the city’s growing population and reputation for entertainment.
“We think this is an extremely exciting opportunity not only for Las Vegas but for the league,” he said.
There were also questions about adding a franchise in a city known for legal sports gambling, something major sports, including the NHL, have long shied away from. Bettman said betting on hockey wasn’t as popular as it was on football, so the threat of punters dropping a game was minimal.
“We’re not worried about the integrity of our game,” Bettman said.
As it turns out, Bettman should have put money into the team before taking the ice for the first time. The Knights have overcome seemingly every obstacle thrown at them in their inaugural season. They sold more than 14,000 season tickets before the team even had a name. The team moved into the T-Mobile Arena, which was already open on the Strip.
But after the team’s final preseason game, a gunman at the Mandalay Bay hotel, about a mile south of the arena, opened fire on a concert nearby, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more. The team’s players, who were supposed to appear at a public rally the next day, became a galvanizing force in the city. They reached out throughout the community, thanking police officers, donating blood and donating tens of thousands of dollars to help victims, their families and emergency medical personnel.
Their response endeared them to the surprised and saddened townspeople. And remarkably, the Knights had an epic run. Led by three-time Stanley Cup Champion Marc-Andre Fleury in goal, the team began the season as 500-to-1 long shots to win the Stanley Cup. However, they did put up 109 points and a .622 hitting percentage in the regular season, both league records for a team in its first season by a wide margin. They advanced to the first three rounds of the playoffs, defeating the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, and Winnipeg Jets, and won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals against the Washington Capitals. The team lost the next four games and the series, but it had made its mark like no other.
“The team wrapped around the city and the city wrapped around the team,” Brad Kreel, a longtime Las Vegas resident, told me before the team’s final game that season.
The WNBA aces came from San Antonio in 2018, the Raiders arrived from Oakland, California, a few years later, and now the Athletics are trying to find a stadium in the city, validating the NHL’s view that the city, despite being the 40th larger media market in the United States, could support major sports teams.
Knights, however, are now races. They have reached the playoffs in five of their six seasons and, against the odds, have shown the sports world that Las Vegas can support a professional sports team and that this team can succeed.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Vegas center Jack Eichel said. “It is a truly special organization and I feel blessed to be a part of it. I started to really enjoy coming to the rink again.”
Marchessault, asked what kind of party Las Vegas is throwing, said with a smile, “I don’t know. Probably big.”
