Call me a hater, fine. But the goddamn Las Vegas Golden Knights, going all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in its expansion year after beating The Bastard Atlanta Thrashers is fucking blasphemy. There is no goddamn way a first-year squad should be entitled to the Stanley Cup Finals.
We all know how this club was rigged to be this good immediately. The Expansion Draft was set up to allow that team to grab a player from every other team in the NHL. I don't remember the Mild getting those many good players. The Knights were born on third base, and people are thinking they hit a triple and are headed toward home.
We also know why they were set up for instant success. This is the first pro team in Las Vegas, a till-now untested sports market. Furthermore, I think it's safe to say that Las Vegas is not a hockey city. To ensure popularity, the NHL believed that the Knights needed to be good fast, quickly, if not instantly. And that's why they were given this shitload of talent from Day One. Now they are the hottest ticket in town and the biggest (though not best) story in the NHL. All to ensure survival in Vegas. When I first heard about this team, I gave it 15 years in that city, tops. But it's a hell of a lot harder to move this team now that they've reached the Stanley Cup Finals ... and it'll be next to impossible to relocate it if they win it. Very clever, Gary Bettman.
One other thing: Doesn't the rigged success of the Las Vegas Knights delegitimize the NHL, if not hockey. How can a first-year team play for a title? And should it? I'm not watching the Stanley Cup Finals because of this. That these guys can win it in its first year is kind of a joke, tbh.
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