For the Vegas Golden Knights to defeat the Florida Panthers 9-3 to claim their first Stanley Cup title in just five games is a remarkable achievement in itself.
But that the latest expansion team has accomplished this just six seasons after its inception — which, in fact, owner Bill Foley predicted in 2016 — is almost inconceivable.
Yes, just over six years after Foley famously promised his new fans a title, the Golden Knights finally lifted the trophy on Tuesday night in Las Vegas.
Right winger Mark Stone shone with a hat-trick while star center Jack Eichel contributed three assists, but the biggest star may have been City itself.
Less than a year after the Las Vegas Aces won their first WNBA title, Sin City is increasingly taking center stage in the sports world. Along with the NFL’s Raiders and a new upcoming Formula 1 race, Las Vegas remains a mecca for sports betting and is also rumored to attract MLB’s Oakland Athletics and a potential NBA expansion franchise.
The Golden Knights celebrate after defeating the Panthers 9-3 and winning the Stanley Cup
Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley punches Jonathan Quick #32 after warming up
Mark Stone lifts the Stanley Cup ahead of his teammates after registering three assists
In a nod to the Knights’ brief history, coach Bruce Cassidy placed five of the original Vegas players, known as the Misfits, in the starting XI and placed the sixth in the second shift. Cassidy seemed confident the day before the game that his side would play well and that was the case as he opened a one-goal game in the second period to take a 6-1 lead.
Vegas finished the streak in five games and lifted the trophy in front of an excited franchise-record crowd of 19,058 at the T-Mobile Arena, who drowned out the pre-game performances of forward Jonathan Marchessault and goalie Adin Hill and cheered until the final buzzer.
Stone’s hat trick — his third goal into an empty goal with 5:54 left — was the first in a Stanley Cup Final since Colorado’s Peter Forsberg in 1996, also against the Panthers.
The Knights scored the remaining points through Nic Hague, Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Michael Amadio, Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy. Martinez’s goal came in the second period exactly nine years to the day after scoring the double overtime goal in Game 5 and giving the Los Angeles Kings the trophy.
Hill put on another strong performance that quickly made him a Knights fan favorite and even earned him the MVP title! MVP!’ Songs in the third period.
Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky stunned with another tough performance against Vegas after leading Florida to the finals. Missing from the lineup was Matthew Tkachuk, the king of game-winning shots in the playoffs but never the same after suffering a crushing blow to the shoulder from Vegas player Keegan Kolesar in Game 3.
The Knights set the standard for what an expansion franchise should be, reaching the cup final in their first season and making the playoffs in every but one year. Six players remain from the original team of the 2017-18 season, which lost five games to the Washington Capitals in the Finals.
Those players watched the Capitals compete for the Stanley Cup that night, and then on Tuesday they got a chance to do the same to fulfill owner Bill Foley’s wish to win the championship in its sixth year.
With the Knights reaching such a high level right from the start, they played with high expectations but, despite four runs, they kept failing until at least the NHL semifinals – until the fifth game against the Panthers.
This is Las Vegas’ second pro title in nine months – the Aces won the WNBA championship in September – and continues the stunning growth of a sports market that was largely limited to prizefights, UNLV athletics, NASCAR and plenty of golf before the Golden Knights conquered the city by storm.
The Raiders started playing here in 2020, the Oakland Athletics appear to be headed for the desert, Las Vegas will host a Formula 1 race this year and the Super Bowl will be held at Allegiant Stadium in February.
As for the Knights, their connection to Las Vegas has been sealed since the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting that killed 60 people. They played an important role in helping the city rebuild, reaching out to the community off the ice and achieving great success on the ice.
The win against Florida justified the many steps Knights management have taken over the years to reshape the roster.
Stone, Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo are the most notable players Vegas has won to date.
And Cassidy, who was hired a week after being fired from the Boston Bruins last year, proved to be the coach who got her there and seemed to be pushing all the right buttons to propel Vegas to the top Western Conference seed and then the NHL – Champion to help .
The Knights also won the title with an unusual goaltender in Hill, who was injured early in the playoffs. Laurent Brossoit was the starter until he was injured in game three of the second round series against the Edmonton Oilers, and then Hill got his chance.