NHL: Never bet bet against the house!

As an expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights are the story at the beginning of the NHL season. Launched with little expectation, the new team stirs up the league. The franchise initially wanted to avoid precisely this.

Hockey can’t heal wounds, but it can make you forget. The first day. On October 1, one of the worst attacks in recent American history shook the capital of Nevada. 58 people lost their lives and hundreds were injured, some of them seriously.

This is where the euphoria about the first professional sports team in the city of sin, the gamblers’ paradise around which the four major leagues (NHL, NFL, NBA, MLB) had to bow for decades.

Only four days after the attack, the Vegas Golden Knights played their first game with the Dallas Stars. Knights players had just set up their homes in Las Vegas when the assassination attempt took place. It was difficult,”defender Deryk Engelland wrote in an article for the Player’s Tribune,” We wanted to go back and help the people right away,”but they helped in a different way, with a surprising 2-1 win.

“I got a text from a fireman after the game. He wrote:’ You won’t believe what’s going on here. All have seen you win. Keep up the good work.” And they did. #VegasStrong was also omnipresent in the Knights’ home games. The home premiere was against the Arizona Coyotes was emotional, full of respect and cohesion and also successful (5:2).

The Knights won eight of the first nine games. A record for an expansion team and completely unexpected. In most games, opponents shot at the goal much more often, but Vegas proved to be very efficient and surprised the opponents several times with quick and straightforward counter-attacks. Certainly, the NHL wanted a competitive Vegas from the outset and so the 30 other teams were able to protect fewer players, but after Vegas had gathered its troops, many experts didn’t expect much from the Golden Knights.

General Manager George McPhee repeatedly asked for patience, knowing that something should develop slowly in the gamblers’ paradise. Because: Vegas wanted a lot of things this season, but winning didn’t necessarily count as one of them. This was evident in Expansion Draft when McPhee failed to win some good players and instead made deals with teams to avoid selecting certain players. Numerous picks were collected. In the next three years, the Golden Knights will have 28 (!) selection rights,”We want to be competitive, but we must also think in the long term,”McPhee said after the expansion draft.

So it’s no wonder that with Winger Reilly Smith, only one player is tied for more than three years. Others such as James Neal, who scored goal after goal at the start of the season, or Center Jonathan Marchessault could leave the Knights after the season.

All the more astonishing the results on the ice. Of course, there were also two victories against the Arizona Coyotes, who had their first success only at the end of October, but also heavyweights of the Western Conference like the St. Guggenheim. Louis Blues or Chicago Blackhawks had to leave the T-Mobile Arena empty-handed.

Page 1: #VegasStrong and a surprising start

Page 2: Playoff hopes and setbacks