Fairy tales just aren’t the domain of Disney and of all those little girls (and older ones) out there hoping that one day their Prince Harry will also come. And fairy tales? They do, or can come true. The tale of the Vegas Golden Knights is one of the greater tales to be told.
The Knights are going to the NHL’s Stanley Cup Championship, which begins Monday, Game 1, and Wednesday, Game 2. It’s the first time in their history—their short history.
This season, 2017-18, is the Knights’ first NHL season. They’re an expansion hockey team established in June 2016 consisting of one player from each of the other 30 National Hockey League teams.
For clarification, an expansion team is a sports team expanding into a market (a major city) that most times has never had a team, a franchise of the sport, in that area. The bottom line is the league, its teams’ owners and partners feel that this market is viable for a team to make a profit, growing their sport and the revenues of their teams, their partners and the league, i.e., earning more than $500 million, the expansion fee needed to participate.
Las Vegas, a city in Nevada with a population of 648,000-plus, is the new frontier, fertile ground for professional sports. Historically known for legal gambling, legal prostitution, casinos and show girls, gangster Bugsy Siegel, reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes, singer Frank Sinatra and Elvis impersonators, Vegas until now has been considered a town for tourism and conventions. Professional sports teams have stayed away. The gambling, Vegas’ main industry, and its criminal influences, was also thought to have prevented leagues from considering or granting franchises to this city. It compromised the integrity of their sport.
The Knights, a Pacific Division Western Conference team, are an anomaly. This season is the first time that an expansion hockey team, or any professional team from the four major American sports, has advanced so far so quickly. The St. Louis Blues advanced to the finals in 1968, but they were in a division that featured all expansion hockey teams.
Surprisingly, the Knights finished first in their division and third best in their conference, with the fourth best record in the league—51-24-and-7 out of the 82 regular game season. The 7 represents overtime losses.
During the playoffs, the Knights swept the Los Angeles Kings in four games, beat the San Jose Sharks in six games, 4-to-2, and beat the Winnipeg Jets in five games, which concluded Sunday, 2-to-1, advancing them to the championship. Ryan Reaves scored the winning goal.
“It was their time,” noted Winnipeg’s captain, Blake Wheeler, after his team’s loss. “They’re just playing really well.” They just have one more series that will determine the conclusion of their fairy tale season.
“It’s insane,” said defenseman Deryk Engelland, celebrating the conference finals victory with his teammates. “Your goal is always to make the playoffs, but if I were to guess I would be sitting here doing this right now, you would be a little skeptical at the time.”
