This Wednesday night is the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It could be argued that the Stanley cup is the toughest trophy to win. There will be some tough competition this playoff season. You have the Nashville Predators coming into this playoff season capturing the #1 seed of the Western Conference. They no longer looking to be the underdog from the previous year, as they just barely scraped into the playoffs last year as the last playoff entrant at #16 and making it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Not only that, they pulled off something that no other #16 seed has ever done in Stanley Cup Playoff history. They swept the #1 seed in the Chicago Blackhawks. And now the Chicago Blackhawks will not be in the Playoffs this year. It seems forever that the Blackhawks were not in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. And the there is Vegas…
Straight Outta Nowhere…
One other headliner the most surprising one at that coming into the Stanley Cup Playoffs is the new expansion team out of Las Vegas, becoming the very first expansion in all of sports. Yes, that includes the MLB, NBA, NFL so on and so forth. Yes, you have a brand new team built from the ground up just a year ago make it into the Playoffs in their very first season. They have gone from the underdog from their birth of their franchise just a year ago and now being a legit contender to hoist Lord Stanley by seasons end. Let us take a little history lesson on the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Birth Of A Franchise…
The NHL has had quite a presence in Las Vegas from hosting a preseason game between the Los Angeles Kings and the Colorado Avalanche for many years. And since 2009 the NHL awards have been held in Las Vegas. Speaking of 2009, rumors started swirling around that the Phoenix Coyotes would be moving to Las Vegas. Obviously that did not happen. The Phoenix Coyotes are still the Phoenix Coyotes.
Rumors once again rose in November 2014 that the league had selected billionaire business man Bill Foley to lead a group of investors for a possible NHL expansion team in Las Vegas. First order of business was For Foley told hold a season ticket drive to see and generate interest starting Feb 2015. Within the first day and a half of the drive, they received 5,00 deposit. By April 2015, the reached their goal of 10,000 deposits for the 16-17 season.
And Then There Were Two…
A few months pass and the NHL opened the window for possible expansion cities to make a bid. Las Vegas was one city. The other was Quebec. Both cities bid was excepted allowing them to move to Phase II of the expansion process. By August ’15 Las Vegas advanced to Phase III of the process, making them just one step closer to getting their hockey team.
At the league owners meeting on June 22, 2016. The Vegas bid was approved by the league. So now Las Vegas has themselves a pro hockey team, becoming Las Vegas’ first professional team in the cities history. The next step is obviously to come up with a team logo and name.
Team Name colors and logo:
Bill Foley came up with the name of Golden Knights. The Golden part of the name comes from what Bill Foley describes it as gold being the”#1 precious metal in the world.” And also because Nevada is the is biggest producing of gold in the country.
Knights is an homage to the Black Knights of the United States Military Academy.
Making them the Vegas Golden Knights. The Las was dropped because the organization thought 4 words was too long of a name for a team.
The main team Logo is a Barbute helmet on a black and gold seal with a V shape opening .
The primary color is steal gray representing “strength and durability.” The other colors are red, gold, and black.
Red represents the Vegas skyline. Black representing “power and intensity”.
Tragedy strikes Las Vegas:
5 days before the Golden Knights were to play their first regular season game, Vegas suffered through the worst mass shooting in US history leaving 58 dead 581 injured at the Route 91 country music festival.
Soon after their seasons opener, the Golden Knights retire the number #58 in honor of the 58 victims of the tragedy. And thus creating “Vegas Strong”.
The Season:
Vegas took on the Dallas Stars for their first ever regular season game in Vegas on October 6,2017. James Neal scored the first and second in Golden Knights history leading to he first Golden Knights victory over the Dallas Stars 2-1 that night.
And now have found themselves in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in their first ever season. An expansion team that has never done that in not just NHL history, but in all of sports. Their record is at 51-24-7. And with that record they became the champions of the Pacific division and taking on the Los Angeles Kings in the openings round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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