The Las Vegas Golden Knights had a historic regular season in their first ever NHL season, but more history could be made in the coming weeks, as the Golden Knights find themselves three wins away from the Stanley Cup.
Rick Wood, a Golden Knights fan from Reno, says he was shocked when Las Vegas was awarded the expansion team.
"Stunned more or less," Wood says. "I mean Vegas never gets any major sports, so it's just nice to see pro sports coming."
As for the success of the franchise in its inaugural season? Even more unreal.
"Nobody saw this coming," Wood says. "It's been great to see them gel to see a great coach with guys that other teams didn't want. They gelled together and proved everyone wrong."
To put the success in perspective, in the last 40 years there have been more than 50 expansion teams added to the four major American sports leagues, the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. None of those teams won half of their regular season games in their first year. The Golden Knights won 51 of their 82 regular season games.
Winning the Stanley Cup in the first year would be an even greater achievement. Marc Nelson, manager of the Atlantis sportsbook, says the odds for the Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup before the season were very high, especially considering they ended the favorites over the Washington Capitals headed into the Final.
"You could've gotten as high as 500 to 1," Nelson says. "Here at the Atlantis the highest odds that were placed here was 100 to 1."
Nelson says even professional betters took a little time to recognize the strength of the team.
"Whoever [the Golden Knights] were playing [against] was the team that was attracting most of the money" Nelson says. "And that really stayed the same for the first month, six weeks of the season. Until that so-called "sharp" money realized this team was for real."
History will show the Golden Knights first season was a special one whether the win the Stanley Cup or not. Wood believes the support will grow no matter the outcome as well.
"If you ever get to go to a game in Vegas it's amazing," Wood says. "The crowd's into it, the city's into it, it's spreading man, it's just spreading."
