Global Courant
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 scoring double overtime in Game 5 to give the Los Angeles Kings the Cup.
Hill came through with another strong performance that quickly established him as a Knights fan favorite, even earning “MVP! MVP!” chants in the third period Jack Eichel, the eight-year pro who played in his first postseason, had three assists.
Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett scored for Florida, and Sergei Bobrovsky was blown away by another tough performance against Vegas after taking Florida to the final. The lineup was missing Matthew Tkachuk, the king of the playoff winning shots, but never the same again after a crushing blow to the shoulder by Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar in Game 3.
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 2017-2018 squad lost to the Washington Capitals in five games in the final.
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.
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 claimed the WNBA Championship in September – and continues the astonishing growth of a sports market largely confined to prizefights, UNLV athletics, NASCAR and a whole lot of golf before the Golden Knights took the city by storm. The Raiders started playing here in 2020the Oakland Athletics seems to be headed for the desertLas Vegas will host a Formula 1 race this year and the Super Bowl takes 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 yearturned out to be the coach to get them there, seemingly pushing all the right buttons to help Vegas become the Western Conference’s top seed and then the NHL champion.
The Knights also won the title with a unlikely keeper in Hill, who was injured as the playoffs began. Laurent Brossoit was the starter until going out with an injury in Game 3 of the second round series against the Edmonton Oilers, and then Hill got his chance.
