The House Wins Again
The outlaws in the desert pull some crazy shit - but here they are in another Stanley Cup Final and I gotta give em their due.
I know what it feels like to be the Vegas Golden Knights organization. I really do. Me and them have something in common and I hadn’t realized it until after the horn sounded last night.
Ralph Strangis and the Vegas Golden Knights each reached the Stanley Cup Final three times in their first nine seasons in the league. That’s big stuff.
For me - it was 1991, 1999, and 2000. My first season with the club we made a most unlikely run to the Final and fell to Mario Lemieux and the Penguins. After getting the squad to Texas, I called the 99 Cup run and win in Buffalo, and the 2000 Cup final loss to New Jersey. I can still see Jason Arnott in front of the net to my left beating Ed Belfour in OT at Reunion Arena.
So I’m one for three. They’re one for two with a real chance at winning it again.
How do they do it? I mean - how’s your favorite team doing? And what does their success tell you about your own club? They seem to have a lot figured out over there.
My friend, fellow SubStacker Robert Tiffin and I were texting after the game last night. He offered that they’re more afraid of mediocrity than failure. That’s pretty good.
This isn’t a “classy organization” in the usual NHL vernacular. They pull shit other teams wouldn’t try. They sign a goalie nobody would touch, they fire their coach with eight games left in the season and replace him with a madman, they don’t use draft picks to draft players, and they don’t give a shit.
How come your team doesn’t look after you like this? Really? It’s worth a discussion isn’t it?
And I was there to see their origin story, calling their very first Western Conference Final series in 2018.
