Before the Vegas Golden Knights played a single NHL game, team owner Bill Foley made the bold prediction that they would win the Stanley Cup in their sixth season.
"Playoffs in three. Cup in six," he said back in 2017.
The Golden Knights not only made the playoffs in their inaugural season, but made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final back in 2018.
Even though they lost the Finals that year, they delivered on his word and won the fabled trophy now.
Just five other NHL franchises needed six or fewer seasons to win their first Stanley Cup, and those other five won it between the inception of the NHL and the repeal of the Prohibition. Those five being the Toronto Maple Leafs (then the Toronto Arenas) in 1918, the original Ottawa Senators in 1920 (third season), the Montreal Maroons in 1926 (second season), the New York Rangers in 1928 (second season), and the Boston Bruins in 1929 (third season).
The Edmonton Oilers won it in their fifth season in 1984, but they technically started as a franchise in 1972 when they were in the WHA.
And now the Golden Knights have redefined what it means to be an expansion franchise, setting the gold standard for that, after entering as the 31st franchise in the NHL.
A team that started as a collection of castoffs, leftovers and "misfits" created instant success and then faced the mounting pressure on growing from the carefree days into a sustainable team.
And it all turned out to be like the flashy Vegas shows, like the sword-fighting mascot taking the ice.
They delivered just that, from Mark Stone's hat trick, to all the goal celebrations, paving the way for the team's first Stanley Cup with a 9-3 rout.
Four of those goals came in the second period alone.
The second period has been their bread and butter throughout the postseason, as they have scored the majority of their goals in that frame, but this game was basically a three-course meal.
First came the appetizer.
Two goals in the first period, both coming after an AMAZING save by Adin Hill on Florida's only power play on a Sasha Barkov backhander, followed up by Mark Stone's first goal shorthanded, which he initially faked a shot when parked in the slot, and then fired the puck top shelf on a beauty!
Then all sorts of chaos developed in front of Sergei Bobrovsky's crease, but after Jack Eichel had the initial shot, Bobrovsky lost his stick, and Nic Hague buried it at the back of the net! Panthers coach Paul Maurice opted not to challenge, and so it's 2-0.
Not to mention one of the most beautiful saves from Hill in the earlier stages of the period, after Eichel mishandled the puck, Anton Lundell moved in all alone to the crease, and Hill made the sprawling save across!
Next up came the main course. A main course reminiscent of steak, potatoes, and asparagus.
Because the Golden Knights were feasting on the Panthers through that second period! While Florida did get one back on an Aaron Ekblad seeing-eye shot from the point with Ryan Lomberg and Eric Staal providing traffic in front, with Nick Cousins setting up Ekblad on a poke along the far wall, that was the only goal Florida got in the second period.
What was a 2-1 game early in the second period turned into a 6-1 game by the end of it. First, the Golden Knights had tremendous pressure in the offensive zone for what seemed like an ETERNITY. Ivan Barbashev, Jonathan Marchessault and Alex Pietrangelo all had great chances, but it was 2014 Stanley Cup clincher Alec Martinez who fired the puck top shelf after the feed from Eichel for another big goal in the Finals.
Next it was Reilly Smith, after getting a filthy between-the-legs pass from William Karlsson, who banks it home with Bobrovsky down!
Then came Stone's turn again on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing sequence. Chandler Stephenson first gained the zone entry, made a drop pass to Brett Howden, who finds Stone at "Ovi's Office" for the one-timer goal. While Bobrovsky did get a piece of it, he didn't get all of it.
And for the coup de grâce, though the puck was initially stopped by Bobrovsky at the final seconds of the frame, Mike Amadio was able to squeeze the puck right between the ice sheet and his right leg when the netminder was down.
The game was all but decided by this point, and there was basically nothing the Panthers could do.
It didn't help that they were without Matthew Tkachuk, who sat out of Game 5 as he suffered a fractured sternum from the Keegan Kolesar hit in Game 3.
He couldn't even get up out of bed or put on his jersey on his own in Game 4, and he needed the help of his teammates to get him dressed.
And Ekblad was revealed to be playing through a broken foot, two shoulder dislocations, and a torn oblique, while Radko Gudas, who took a heavy hit from Ivan Barbashev in Game 2, played through the entire Finals with a high ankle sprain.
None of these players used it as an excuse for why they lost, as they know they want to give it their all throughout the postseason.
Of course, these guys are battling through wear and tear. But they never quit.
But in all the games at T-Mobile Arena, Florida got outright winded, and had the life sucked out of them.
But Vegas wasn't done after two periods. They got the appetizer and entrée out of the way, and it was time for dessert.
Though the Knights cooled off in the third, they built a very comfortable lead that had the "Comeback Cats" put in a position where they would be doomed to lose.
While the third period was Florida's best period, it was already too little, too late. The damage was already done.
For all the heroics that Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett tried to pull off, with Reinhart firing a slapper top shelf and Bennett doing the same minutes after from the deep point with the puck going off Pietrangelo's stick, that was all that they could muster.
Not to mention another MASTERFUL save by Hill, with Anthony Duclair getting stoned on a one-touch feed from Barkov, and it was the former Arizona Coyote and San Jose Shark with a sprawling glove save!
Many times, Hill got standing ovations with chants of "MVP! MVP!", and it's moments like these on why he is a Vegas fan favorite.
Eichel finished with three assists, with the third coming on Barbashev cashing in on a rebound chance off the former Buffalo Sabre's backhand.
Stone finished the hat trick when he fired a 150+ footer to the empty net, and Nic Roy got another goal when, after getting the first shot off, he rushed to get his own rebound to bank it home for the 9-3 final score.
And in creating the lofty standard for expansion teams, Vegas was playing with high expectations, but they were falling short for many years, up until Game 5 of this year's Finals.
Everyone has delivered in the moment. From the stars to the depth players, everyone has delivered for the Golden Knights in their Stanley Cup run.
And it was because of them in which they outscored the Panthers 26-12 throughout the entire Finals, with the scoring ratio being 3:1 at T-Mobile Arena, scoring 21 goals to Florida's seven.
They held the Panthers goalless on the power play, shutting them down on all 14 of their chances, bouncing back from a porous penalty kill in the first three rounds. On the other side, they converted on 6 of 19 power play chances.
Mark Stone, who had at least one point in each Finals game, finished with nine points, the first captain with nine or more points in a Finals series since Joe Sakic in 2001, and is also the first player to score a hat trick in a Finals game since Peter Forsberg in 1996 and the first to do so in a Stanley Cup series-clinching game since Babe Dye in 1922.
Stone, the heart and soul of the team, coming off two back surgeries in the span of nine months, knew there was something special about this team. He wanted to be there with his guys on the ice.
He was limited to 37 games in the 2022 season, went through a lumbar discectomy in May 2022, returned for the start of the 2023 season and played until January 12th when he suffered a back injury against the Panthers. He wanted to avoid surgery, but then any chance of playing in the postseason depends on undergoing another surgery as soon as possible.
And he underwent another successful back surgery on January 31st, performed by Dr. Chad Prusmack in Denver, the same doctor who performed Eichel's artificial disc replacement surgery.
When he had his back surgery, his $9.5 million cap hit was moved to the LTIR. That allowed the Knights to add Barbashev, Teddy Blueger and Jonathan Quick at the trade deadline.
Stone came on in time for Game 1 of the first round series against the Winnipeg Jets. And his presence boosted the team.
His defensive prowess distinguishes him as a star in the league, having twice been nominated for the Selke Trophy, a remarkable feat for a winger, as only centers have won the award since 2003.
Bruce Cassidy has coached one of these centers with the Boston Bruins, that being Patrice Bergeron, who won the Selke a record five times.
Cassidy, the head coach who the Bruins used as a scapegoat in their shortcomings as they made the playoffs every year with him, and was fired at his home when he was having dinner, getting his revenge in the quest for ultimate glory.
He coached Eichel into turning into a 200-foot player in the playoffs after years of which Eichel was seen as a one-dimensional offensive player, a poor leader, a "coach killer" and locker room cancer.
Eichel, who had artificial disc replacement surgery upon landing in Las Vegas, said he took some inspiration from watching Stone, and facing him in scrimmages.
He knows it’s hard to emulate what Stone does defensively. It's his competitiveness that he shows since he arrived from Ottawa to Vegas.
And the original misfits still on the team continued every year to show that competitive fire in their eyes.
Even Jonathan Marchessault, who became the first undrafted player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy since Wayne Gretzky in 1988 after tying the league lead in goals scored through the postseason.
He and Reilly Smith were essentially given away basically for free by the Panthers as Dale Tallon opted to protect Alex Petrovic over the two of them.
And they got their payback.
Alec Martinez and Jonathan Quick, who were teammates on the Los Angeles Kings' 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup teams, with the former scoring the Stanley Cup winner in the latter year and the latter winning a Conn Smythe Trophy in the former year, won it together once again as teammates.
Martinez almost thought about retiring after last season after taking a skate to the head and suffered severe migraines.
He came back for his age-35 season to play top pairing minutes with Pietrangelo and averaged 19:29 of ice time, third on the team.
Both of them came to Vegas via trades in different paths.
When Martinez was traded, the Kings were headed towards a rebuild, while Vegas was trying to win the Stanley Cup.
Quick got there by way of the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the Kings trying to contend and figured they would be better off without the goalie who was struggling in his age-37 season.
While he did not see the ice throughout the postseason, he did go 5-2-2 with a 3.13 goals against average and a respectable .901 save percentage, with one shutout, when he made 33 saves in a 4-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
He backed up Adin Hill, who was traded to the Knights for a 4th round pick from San Jose, and was expected to be the third-string goalie at best as the Knights were expected to roll with the tandem of Robin Lehner and Logan Thompson to start the season.
Lehner was lost for the year before the season started, and Thompson's year was cut short after the All-Star Break.
Hill stepped in, and immediately delivered for the Knights. And while he missed some time at the end of the season because of injury, when Laurent Brossoit went down in Game 3 of the second round against the Edmonton Oilers, Hill immediately stepped into action and did not turn back.
As for Florida, like the Miami Heat before them, there is no shame in making it to the Finals as an 8th seeded team.
But sadly, they ran out of gas as the Cinderella story struck midnight.
Bobrovsky was heroic throughout the playoffs for his guys, but had it not been for his wizardry, the Panthers don't get to this point in the first place.
Paul Maurice was emotional when he mentioned about how his team "gave me a great year of my life," but he knows that returning to the playoffs is not going to be easy.
The loss for them was heartbreaking, but making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final effectively puts them back on the map. With a superstar in Matthew Tkachuk and ample cap room in the offseason, they are in a position to succeed once again.
As we turn the page from one NHL season to the next, I just want to say thank you so much for tuning in to the Twitter Spaces broadcasts throughout the season. I look forward to doing this again next season, whether it be on the play-by-play or on the analyst role, we can all expect many things to change in the offseason when the Entry Draft and free agency come and go.
Let's do this again next season, guys!
Scoring
VGK, 11:52 1st: Mark Stone [9] (unassisted), SH, wrist shot, 1-0 VGK
VGK, 13:41 1st: Nic Hague [2] (Jack Eichel [18] & Jonathan Marchessault [12]), EV, snap shot, 2-0 VGK
FLA, 2:15 2nd: Aaron Ekblad [2] (Nick Cousins [5]), EV, snap shot, 2-1 VGK
VGK, 10:28 2nd: Alec Martinez [2] (Jack Eichel [19] & Alex Pietrangelo [9]), EV, wrist shot, 3-1 VGK
VGK, 12:13 2nd: Reilly Smith [4] (William Karlsson [6] & Shea Theodore [10]), EV, snap shot, 4-1 VGK
VGK, 17:15 2nd: Mark Stone [10] (Brett Howden [5] & Chandler Stephenson [10]), EV, snap shot, 5-1 VGK
VGK, 19:58 2nd: Mike Amadio [5] (Reilly Smith [10]), EV, wrist shot, 6-1 VGK
VGK, 8:22 3rd: Ivan Barbashev [7] (Jack Eichel [20] & Shea Theodore [11]), EV, wrist shot, 7-1 VGK
FLA, 8:47 3rd: Sam Reinhart [8] (Sam Bennett [10]), EV, slap shot, 7-2 VGK
FLA, 11:39 3rd: Sam Bennett [5] (Gustav Forsling [6] & Sam Reinhart [5]), EV, slap shot, 7-3 VGK
VGK, 14:06 3rd: Mark Stone [11] (unassisted), EN, wrist shot, 8-3 VGK
VGK, 18:58 3rd: Nic Roy [3] (Shea Theodore [12] & Brayden McNabb [4]), EV, wrist shot, 9-3 VGK
Goaltending
VGK: Adin Hill—32/35, .914 save percentage
FLA: Sergei Bobrovsky—23/31, .742 save percentage
Penalties
FLA, 7:53 1st: Aaron Ekblad two-minute minor, interference on Brett Howden
VGK, 10:38 1st: Keegan Kolesar two-minute minor, interference on Sam Bennett
Team Stats
Shots: VGK 32, FLA 35
Faceoffs: VGK 37, FLA 30 (VGK 55.2% advantage)
Power Play: VGK 0/1 (2 shots), FLA 0/1 (1 shot)
PIM: VGK 2, FLA 2
Hits: VGK 27, FLA 27
Blocks: VGK 26, FLA 12
Giveaways: VGK 23, FLA 14
Takeaways: VGK 14, FLA 7
Three Stars
Third star: Alec Martinez
Second star: Jack Eichel
First star: Mark Stone
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