Las Vegas Golden Knights

Las Vegas Golden Knights have done very well in their first two games of the preseason, winning both of them 9-4 and 4-1 with Tyler Wong scoring a hat trick against Vancouver and Thomas Hyka scoring three goals in two games.
Unfortunately, they then took the shine off their start with a series of tweets.

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“We won our second game last night. For those keeping track, that’s more than the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys or the Washington Pro Football Club,” wrote the Golden Knights’ official Twitter feed, employing the well-known euphemism for the Washington Redskins.
A Habs fan then tweeted at the Knights that their win total is still 22 less than the number of Stanley Cups won by the Montreal Canadiens, prompting Vegas to shoot back that they’ve won “two MORE times than the Montreal Canadiens have won the Stanley Cup since 1993.”
“Good for you! You must be very proud of this incredible preseason accomplishment,” reads the lightly sarcastic reply from the Canadiens’ own official Twitter account.

In response, the Vegas team then slammed the sanctity of the Original Six.

“We’re definitely proud! But not as proud as Montreal Canadiens are of how many championships they won when there were only 6 teams in the league,” read the Golden Knights’ reply.

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http://nationalpost.com/sports/hocke...iens-so-classy

Have to give some credit to Bill Foley and those involved with the Golden Knights so far, while I don't know if it'll last in the long term, it's good to see T Mobile Arena sold out and full of Knights jerseys and shirts in the stands.

Seattle and Houston look to be the next potential NHL markets.

The coaches and players also deserve great credit for their 4 wins in their first 5 games, quite a start for any team, let alone an expansion team.

The Knights continue to defy expectations and the historical record of expansion teams with seven wins in their first eight games.

Ed Willes discusses below what helped the Knights get off to such a great start for an expansion team.

http://vancouversun.com/sports/hocke...9-aa21e009c81d

The Las Vegas Knights continue to have almost unparalleled success as an expansion team as the following article argues, noting that no expansion team in the modern era (since 1960) has come close to making the playoffs with the exception of the NHL's 1960s expansion, where an entire division of expansion teams was created. However, the article only discusses the four "Major" sports leagues of North America, leaving out the CFL, where the Baltimore Stallions and their all American roster and the second winningest coach in CFL experience, Don Mathews, who knew what it took to win in this league made the Grey Cup in their first year, although they lost to the BC Lions.

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The Vegas Golden Knights are off to a historically great start. The NHL's newest franchise won eight consecutive games before Thursday night's loss to the St. Louis Blues, which tied it with the 1976-77 Denver Nuggets of the NBA for the longest win streak by any pro sports franchise in its inaugural season over the past 60 years.
It's important to note that the Nuggets already had an established roster for their first season in the NBA. The joined the league after its merger with the ABA, where Denver had recorded back-to-back 60-win campaigns in its final two seasons. The Golden Knights, by contrast, were built through an expansion draft in which they plucked unprotected players from the 30 existing teams. Vegas has not just been successful in its recent streak; the Golden Knights -- who lead the Western Conference with 56 points and the NHL with 17 home wins -- have proved they have staying power and are one of the NHL's best teams. ...

The Golden Knights are having unprecedented success, especially when compared with the 63 previous expansion teams across the four major sports since 1960. Here's how those previous teams stacked up:
0: Number of those 63 expansion teams that finished their first season with a winning record. The 1993-94 Florida Panthers came closest, finishing 33-34-17.

21: Number of expansion teams that had the worst record in the league in their first season. Most notable among them were the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-14, and the 1962 New York Mets, who lost an MLB-record 120 games.
5: Number of expansion teams that made the playoffs in their first season. None has done so in the 50 years since four NHL teams did so in 1967-68. That was largely because all six expansion teams were placed in the same division. ...
The goalies have been a significant reason behind the Golden Knights' success during the streak. Marc-Andre Fleury has recorded a 1.19 goals-against average and .959 save percentage since Dec. 14, both of which rank first among 29 goalies to play at least 300 minutes in that span. Malcolm Subban, Fleury's backup, has been solid in his starts, as well, going 3-0-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average since Dec. 14.

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http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/2...franchise-ever

Other reasons for the Knights success include:

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The Knights continue to get contributions throughout the lineup. Whether it’s offense or killing penalties, everyone is chipping in. The goaltending remains solid as Malcolm Subban’s play in net is complimenting starter Marc-Andre Fleury nicely.
“We need that,” Gallant said. “We talked about having 20 guys playing every night and most nights we’ve got it. When these guys are hot like they’ve been the last little while, it makes your team go.”
Center William Karlsson, who recorded the first hat trick in team history Sunday with his 18th, 19th and 20th goals of the season, said the team believes in each other. “All December, we’ve been playing really good,” Karlsson said. “We’re a very confident team and I think it shows up on the ice too. It doesn’t matter if we’re down a goal or two and we just keep going. This is a team full of confidence.”
Left wing Reilly Smith, who is Karlsson’s linemate, said winning breeds confidence. “When you’re winning, you have a little more swagger,” Smith said. “You can see it in our young guys. They’re playing looser and crisper than they were in November.”
Twenty-one year-old right wing Alex Tuch, one of the Knights’ younger players, said there’s a comfort level everyone has with playing Gallant’s system. ”Everyone knows their roles and nobody’s trying to do too much,” Tuch said. “Everyone believes in each other and trusts the system.”
Smith said don’t expect the Knights to deviate from what has gotten them to the top of the standings.

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https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports...ead-into-2018/

Jim Matheson adds more on why the Knights have been so successful as an expansion team, even though they have only one player among the top 30 in NHL scoring - Jonathan Marchessault.

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Teams are playing us harder now,” cautioned GM George McPhee.
Yeah, maybe. But it might not matter. This a four line, six D-men deep team with no egos, no superstars, a team that plays every game like it’s a playoff game. A bunch of guys who were told they weren’t good enough to keep on their old teams.
“What gives us success is we play the game fast. We don’t want to keep the puck too long, we like to put pressure on the opposing defence,” said Marchessault, who signed a five-year $30-million deal after making $750,000 as an anonymous player away from the rink in south Florida. What we wanted was fast players and competitive players,” said McPhee. ...
“Those guys work so hard up and down the ice, with four lines, 18 players, they skate so well. That’s their strong point,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who stayed in Vegas after the game to celebrate his 21st birthday.
“Lines don’t change,” said Perron. “I’ve played with the same guys all year except for one shift against Chicago. Guys on the fourth line are getting 11-12 minutes. The coach trusts everybody, brings them into the action and we’re starting to control games, get a good grip on them along with winning them.”
They got lucky, too. Columbus left centre William Karlsson available. Florida left Marchessault available even after 30 goals last year.
Minnesota, desperate to protect Matt Dumba, they got their former first-round pick winger Alex Tuch in a deal, and also took fourth-liner Erik Haula in the expansion draft. Tuch has 21 points and Haula has 15 goals.
They’ve started four different goalies — Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban, Oskar Dansk and Max Lagasse — and still won.
McPhee, his right-hand man Kelly McCrimmon, head of player personnel Vaughn Karpan and their legion of pro scouts, did a masterful job of watching games last year and picking the right people.

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http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/ho...d-b0e4421e0eef

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Here is an approximation of the monthly reaction from NHL observers about the Vegas Golden Knights:
October: Aw, that’s cute, Vegas has won some games.
November: Look at those little scamps go!
December: Still a small sample size, everyone.
January: Just wait until they get caved in for the whole second half.
February: WTF.
March: Seriously, WTF. ...


Vegas has just nine games left over which it will lock down the final numbers for the collection of records it will set for an NHL expansion franchise. It long ago broke all the previous marks, and with 99 points already and eight points up on San Jose, Vegas is a lock to shatter the 100-point mark and almost certainly will win the Pacific Division. All with a collection of players that the rest of the league collectively deemed expendable. ...

There is much evidence that the Knights are not a fluke, at least in terms of how we typically think of one. They have not won an absurd number of close games, their underlying fancy stats are decent, and they don’t have lights-out special teams that would swing an inordinate number of games.
They are second in goals scored and seventh in goals allowed, giving them a goal differential of +48, right in line with their place in the standings. And while they have an excellent home record, the suggestion that the team has benefitted particularly from visiting teams that stay out all night in casinos and, ahem, other establishments, is undercut by the fact that Vegas has won more road games than every team in the league other than Tampa and Nashville. ...

The NHL, for all the effort and time spent on roster assembly, coaching, and the actual playing of games, functions like a results generator that routinely spits out some outliers. The L.A. Kings won two Stanley Cups in three years and then missed the playoffs. Chicago finished first in the West with 109 points last year and is last in their division this year. Montreal’s last four seasons, from 2014-15 to now: good, bad, good, bad. ...


Consider William Karlsson, plucked from the roster of the Columbus Blue Jackets because McPhee agreed to take the anchor of David Clarkson’s contract (and two draft picks; it was a big anchor) if the Jackets would make Karlsson available. He has now scored 39 goals for Vegas. Columbus: Sorry, that’s our bad. Karlsson, though, played 162 games for Columbus over the previous two seasons and scored 15 goals, netting about seven per cent of his shots, which is about the league average. This season he is shooting 23.5 per cent, by far the best rate in the league. ...

The best evidence of whether McPhee is a genius or was blessed with good fortune this season will probably come from the GM himself this summer. Will he be aggressive in trying to win again, or cautious, in the expectation that his collection of non-stars will regress next season?

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http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey...3-1aff018414bb

With the Stanley Cup Finals tied at 1-1, Steve Simmons calls what the Las Vegas Golden Knights have done in their first year as an expansion team "unfathomable".

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/e...81805694602687

Although Las Vegas failed to win the Stanley Cup, they still had an incredible season.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...wrap-1.4699264