The Vegas Golden Knights: Your New Winningest Expansion Team Ever
Maybe owner Bill Foley muddied the water with choosing the name for his hockey club, but that's about the only possible misstep he's taken.
This isn't counting the grand christening ceremony, but what the hell.
Nothing there showed up in the standings.
Like wins so. Lotsa wins.
Here's what Fabreze won't tell you: that's impossible to say if you don't win.
And don't use Fabreze. They surrendered.
The Vegas Golden Knights haven't. Dudes have proven their gloves don't stink.
The @GoldenKnights established an NHL record for most wins by a team in its inaugural season – with 32 games remaining in their 2017-18 campaign. #NHLStats #VGKvsWPG pic.twitter.com/aT91gwLaWW
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 2, 2018
This feat can't be called amazing anymore, becuase its inevitability has been obvious for some time.
It should and will be called historic. and this is the gme that officially put Vegas in the books:
Knights' coach Gerard Gallant deserves a bitta face time, too:
Remember, this is the dude who coached Florida's Panthers to the Atlantic Division title two seasons ago and was unceremoniously kicked to the curb in the midst of a road trip -- literally -- after only two months into last year's campaign.
Vegas GM George McPhee's been around the NHL block and knows a thing or two about how mercurial the coaching biz can be. He tapped Gallant and looks like much more of a genius than Florida's alleged brain trust.
Wherever expansion happens next in North America -- odds seem to favor Seattle for the NHL -- the principals involved will definitely review Knights' owner Bill Foley's blueprint.
For all the skepticism around placing a hockey team in a mid-sized city and paying half-a-billion smackaroonies to do it, dude made certain the league wasn't gonna give him another 1974-1975 Washington Capitals gong show.
Foley took advantage of the league being desperate to balance out its divisions by placing two teams in the West.
He also knew the NHL couldn't risk failure in a non-traditional hockey market. As a result, the Knights received the deepest expansion draft pool that any sport had ever offered.
Still, McPhee and Gallant had to choose wisely. Clearly, they did.