Hell froze over
Vegas Golden Knights roar into finals
With apologies to the late, great Shirley Povich, the million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Stanley Cup Final.
Mr. Povich had never heard of the Knights when he penned that famous lede for The Washington Post, of course. He was instead describing Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. But his immortal words stand the test of time as a fitting tribute to a first-year NHL team that is rewriting the professional sports history books.
The latest chapter in this remarkable story concluded Sunday north of the border when the Knights handled the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 to take the Western Conference championship in five games. Throughout the series, the
Jets had few answers for the Knights’ speed and tenacious forechecking. Of equal importance, Knights goaltender Marc-andre Fleury is on a roll reminiscent of when Jean-sebastien Giguere carried the unheralded Anaheim Mighty Ducks to the 2003 Cup Final.
Nobody saw this coming. Not last June, when the Knights made their roster selections. Not in January, when the Knights ran up an eight-game winning streak. Not in April, when the Knights finished the regular season with the fifthbest record in the league. Expansion teams and their castoffs are supposed to be cannon fodder. But just as the city they represent is unlike any other in the world, the Knights are clearly not your standard expansion team.
“It’s been an awesome ride so far,” said Knights coach Gerard Gallant before slipping into coachspeak. “We’re far from satisfied. We’ve got a big series to prepare for.”
The record books say the Knights will become the third NHL expansion franchise to play for the Stanley Cup in its inaugural campaign. But the reality is much more impressive. When the Toronto Arenas captured the 1918 title, the NHL was in its first season. And the 1968 St. Louis Blues advanced to the final round only because the league grouped six new teams in the same division that year, ensuring one would reach the championship.
The Knights’ run is even more striking given that no firstyear expansion team has ever advanced this far in the NFL, the NBA or Major League Baseball.
Make no mistake, the Knights brain trust — particularly GM George Mcphee — has made more than a handful of general managers around the league look foolish in terms of talent evaluation and roster management. The Columbus Blue Jackets handed sniper William Karlsson — who scored 43 goals during the regular season and led his new team in points — to the Knights in order to shield other prospects in the expansion draft. Oops. The Pittsburgh Penguins did the same with Mr. Fleury, as did the Florida Panthers with topline performers Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith.
The success of the Knights has invigorated a community and created hordes of new hockey fans in the most unlikely of locales — all while leaving shattered assumptions and conventions in the rearview mirror. The Knights are on a heater for the ages, and they’re still holding the dice.
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