Global Courant
LAS VEGAS –
Golden Knights games have always been as flashy as any other show on the Las Vegas Strip, the swordsman mascot climbing the ice before what appears to be a legion of players marching out through the mirrored entrance into the roar of the crowd.
If this team ever won the Stanley Cup, it would win Vegas Flash.
The Knights delivered just that, from dazzling passes to Mark Stone’s hat-trick to grand goal celebrations, capturing the fledgling organization’s first title with a 9-3 romp over the beaten and exhausted Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Coach Bruce Cassidy, in a nod to the Knights’ brief history, started five of the original Vegas players known as the Misfits and put the sixth on the second squad. Cassidy sounded confident the day before the game that his team would play well, and it certainly did, blowing open a one-goal game in the second period to lead 6-1. The nine goals equaled the record for most in a cup final.
“Vegas, you sure know how to throw a party,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told the crowd. “What’s happening inside and outside of this arena is incredible and a testament to what a great hockey market this is.”
Vegas closed out the series in five games to win the Cup in front of a frenzied franchise-record crowd of 19,058 at the T-Mobile Arena that drowned out the pregame introductions from forward Jonathan Marchessault and goaltender Adin Hill and cheered all the way through the final buzzer.
Marchessault, who finished the postseason on a 10 game point streak, was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our organization,” said Marchessault. “Everyone left at different times and that’s why we’re winners.”
Stone’s hat trick—with the third in an empty net with 5:54 remaining—was the first in a Stanley Cup Final since Colorado’s Peter Forsberg in 1996, also against the Panthers.
The Knights got the rest of their score from Nic Hague, Alec Martinez, Reilly Smith, Michael Amadio, Ivan Barbashev and Nicolas Roy. Martinez’s goal in the second period came nine years to the day after he scored in double overtime in Game 5 to give the Los Angeles Kings the Cup.
Hill put in another strong performance with 31 saves, quickly making him a Knights fan favorite and even earning “MVP! MVP!” chants in the third period. Jack Eichel, the eight-year-old pro who played in his first postseason, had three assists.
“This is what everyone dreams of,” said Eichel. “You come to an organization like this and the expectation is to win this thing. It’s a special place to play.”
As captain, Stone was the first to lift the cup before handing it to the six Misfits, who each took a turn to skate with the trophy before handing it to the rest of the team.
“Incredible,” Stone said. “The look in my teammates’ eyes when I got it, one of the craziest feelings I’ve ever had. I can’t even describe the feelings in my gut right now. It’s everything you can imagine.”
Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky was overwhelmed in another tough performance against Vegas – conceding eight goals on 30 shots on target – after taking Florida to the final. Star forward Matthew Tkachuk was missing from the lineup after playing injured in Game 4.
“It was a privilege for me to play and fight with them,” said Bobrovsky. “It’s definitely hard to lose like that and finish the season like that. But we did a great job and I want to stick to that.”
The Knights have set the standard for what an expansion franchise should look like, winning the cup final in their first season and the playoffs in every year but one. Six players remain from the original 2017-18 team that lost to the Washington Capitals in five games in the Finals.
Those players watched the Capitals skate the Stanley Cup that night, and then they got a chance to do it the same Tuesday to fulfill owner Bill Foley’s quest to win the championship in its sixth year.
“We waited a long time for that moment to come back.” Marchesault said. “We wanted to make sure we cash in on this time.”
Creating such a high standard from the start, the Knights played with high hopes, but repeatedly fell short despite going four runs to at least the NHL semifinals – until Game 5 against the Panthers.
This is Las Vegas’ second pro title in nine months — the Aces won the WNBA championship in September — and continues the astonishing growth of a sports market largely confined to prizefights, UNLV track and field, NASCAR and a whole lot of golf before the Golden Knights took the city by storm. The Raiders started playing here in 2020, the Oakland Athletics seem to be headed for the desert, Las Vegas is hosting a Formula 1 race this year, and the Super Bowl will take place at Allegiant Stadium in February.
As for the Knights, their connection to Las Vegas was sealed since the October 1, 2017, shooting that took 60 lives. They played an integral role in helping the city heal, reaching out to the off-ice community and winning big on it.
Beating Florida justified the many moves Knights management made to reassemble the roster over the years. Stone, Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo are the most notable players Vegas has acquired to get to this point.
And Cassidy, hired a week after being fired by the Boston Bruins last year, proved to be the coach to get them there.
“He came in and brought an intensity to our dressing room that maybe we needed,” said Stone. “He wanted to win as much as anyone else in that dressing room.”
Cassidy seems to be pushing all the right buttons to help Vegas become the top seed in the Western Conference and then the champion of the NHL.
“It’s a great story — very, very grateful to be given another chance,” said Cassidy. “I’m just here to do my job and it worked out well.”
The Knights also won with an unlikely goalkeeper in Hill, who was injured as the playoffs began. Laurent Brossoit was the starter until he went out with an injury in Game 3 of the second round against the Edmonton Oilers, when Hill got his chance.
“You dream about it every day when you grow up as a kid.” Hill said. “Being here with this group of guys, in this city, in this building, is a dream come true.”
