Vegas Golden Knights Hockey

Golden Knights Set Up for Success their first season

Written by: Jenn Skotnicki

Success from the Word “GO”

   I know that when some people read this, especially VGK fans, they will not like what I have to say. However, I am perfectly OK with that.

     Growing up in a hockey town, you learn the game inside and out. As I tell people I was in the womb watching hockey! But all I know is that I sure came out a HUGE hockey fan. I went to my fair share of games and loved the rivalry in the Aud. Every kid that I knew wanted to play hockey, even us little girls! I was one of the lucky ones to have a yard big enough to have our own homemade ice rink every winter, where hours were spent perfecting the game in our spare time.

    I had a great teacher as well teaching me all the ins and outs of the game as well. All the credit goes to my daddy for that! My eyes were always glued to the TV when there was a game and back in the day we were not spoiled with the NHL Network or Dish, so televised hockey games were far and few in between, but when there was a game on, you bet your bottom dollar dad and I were ready to watch our favorite team play.

 When I left Western NY, I left a huge piece of me back there, no more going to hockey games, but luckily at this time I was thankful for Dish and the NHL Network keeping me up to date on games. But I did go without it for a few years.

So when Vegas announced that they wanted an NHL team here, who knew. It was defiantly a long shot. The best part of Vegas, is you do have die hard hockey fans here from all over the country & world. So, when Bettman announced that Vegas was one of the top 3 cities that could possibly get an NHL team, he brought some hope and light finally for a Professional Team here in Vegas. Which a lot of people were concerned because of the sports books and legalized gambling here.

 So when Bettman announced that season tickets would go on sale, however it was still not a guarantee that we would even get a team, the people here jumped at the bit the moment they went on sale. When the ticket sales jumped to 15,000, I think Bettman realized that there is a large diehard, hockey fan base here in Vegas. Once the announcement was made official that we were officially getting an NHL team here in the Valley, season ticket sales jumped yet another 1,000. And they continued to grow. Tickets here now are one of the hardest tickets in this city to get. The community did show an outpour of support to get this team here. Is just to go and show we truly are Vegas Strong, in more ways than one. But for a while it was a “wait and see” game – because no one knew what was going to happen. Was this going to become a reality or just a lost cause.

And then Bettman announced how our team would be built. Something that I was not sure would work. A lot of people wondered what kind of Team would be built, who are the lucky or not so lucky players would we get. The NHL expansion draft will be held June 20, 2017. It will be the first opportunity for Las Vegas to stock its roster, and Foley wants to hold a public viewing party. So, when draft day, June 20, 2017 approached, the fans could see who our team would be.

   It was a time to see what teams were willing to let which players go. It could be a crap shoot or it could mean that we were going to get some of the high capped players that other teams were willing to let go, because they wanted to make room for new up and coming players. I will say that I was in shock when I heard about our roster and whom we acquired.

At that moment in time, I knew we would have a winning team with the chance of making the playoffs. I remember saying too that if we do make the playoffs first round will probably be a sweep. I wish I put money down on that, because I was right.

Now here is where a lot of the hatred towards me will make many people angry. But, once again I am ok with that. So let us take a step back in time when an expansion team came into the league they were not given the pick of the liter, they were not handed anything on a golden platter as the Las Vegas Gold Knights have been. And Bettman made damn sure of that. If you can name me 3 top players that the Hartford Whalers, Toronto Maple Leafs, or Buffalo Sabres got when they came into the league I will find a way to give you a million dollars. Oh wait a minute you can’t because none of the teams got anyone with a big name. These teams had to endure years of loss and working their asses off to build a decent team that was going to be competitive in this highly competitive league.

   Does anyone remember when Cleveland had a team? They ended merging with Minnesota North Stars.  I do believe that was only after 3 or 4 years in the league. They were a short lived team.

  The 1974-75 Washington Capitals went 8-67-5. Clarence Campbell was the NHL commissioner at the time. He wasn’t in the nation’s capital on the night the playoffs began, but at least they named one of the conferences after him for a spell.

Booing the longtime commissioner — Bettman is in his 24th season — has become a time-honored tradition in the realm of growing a playoff beard, or throwing dead octopuses on the ice in Detroit, or Jim Schoenfeld telling referee Don Koharski to have another doughnut.

When Las Vegas officially was awarded an NHL franchise on Nov. 22, 2016, Bettman was booed by about 5,000 fans who gathered at T-Mobile Plaza for the announcement. Who said Las Vegas hockey fans would have to be educated?

 “This is a community of two million people, and while visitors tend to focus on the Strip, this is a city that has people that have interests in the same things that people in all other major cities have,” Bettman said about betting on Las Vegas when others were skeptical or downright dismissive.

We were comfortable after we went through our thorough (expansion) process that this was going to be an exciting franchise for us.”

After receiving the $500 million ante from Knights owner Bill Foley — which seemed even more outrageous than Karlsson’s short-handed goal against the Sharks — Bettman said there would be a more liberal expansion draft for the Knights than there was for the 1974-75 Washington Capitals.

He was not bashful about giving the new kids a chance to succeed.

This was the NHL’s first expansion since 2000 — the first since Twitter and Facebook and the digital era, he said, and that everybody would be watching to see how these Knights would do in a warm weather city that had never had major league sports and limited parking options.

“In that vein, we wanted to make sure the new team would have better access to players than any other of its expansion predecessors,” Bettman said. (the words of Bettman make me angry)

The 1974-75 Capitals started Ron Low in goal.

The 2017-18 Golden Knights went with Marc-Andre Fleury.

And after many heated talks on the phone with my daddy about this, he is right, this team is Bettman’s team. And he(Bettman) will be more than happy to see them go onto to win the Stanley Cup. However, I am hoping they get knocked out by Winnipeg. They are so many more deserving Teams that deserve to go onto the Stanley Cup Finals and winning the cup. That is why I am ecstatic that the Washington Capitals have made it to the second round of the playoffs this season. Yes, they have had their fair share of making it to the playoffs and getting knocked out, because they held that jinx of a trophy, The Presidents Cup.

So know let us take a closer look at some of the players that we have acquired:

1)   Marc Andre’ Fleury – whom holds 3 Cups and 2 Championships and was acquired from my least favorite team in the NHL Pittsburgh. Even though he played for Pittsburgh, he deserves all the recognition he gets, because he does have one of the fastest glove hands for a goaltender. He is smooth in the net, he is quick and agile. He is a phenomenal goalie.

2)   Clayton Stoner – who we acquired from the Ducks. He has also seen plenty of Playoff Ice time, with the Wild in 2012-2013 Season, as well as winning the Western Conference Final with the Ducks in 2015. 

3)   Braden McNabb – got his fair share of Ice time with the L.A. Kings in the 2015-16 Playoffs.

4)   Jason Garrison went to the Stanley Cup Final with the Lightning in 2015. As well as going to the Eastern Conference Final and playoffs in the 2015-16 season.

5)   Tomas Tatar – acquired from the Detroit Red Wings and averaged 23 goals in his first 4 years in the league. As well as going to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the 2013 Season.

6)   Reilly Smith Acquired from the Florida Panthers, before he was acquired by the Panthers, he played in Boston and went on to play in the playoffs with them 4 times. He also went into the playoffs with Florida as well in 2015-16 season.

7)   Ryan Reaves – went to the Playoffs with St. Louis Blues in the 2011-12 season.

8)   David Perron – Also played with the St. Louis Blues, and went to the Playoffs with them in the 2009 season.

9)   James Neal – played with Pittsburg in the 2011 Playoffs

10)Jonathon Marchessault – faced off in the Playoffs with the Lightning in the 2015-16 season as well played in 5 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

11)Oscar Lindberg – played in the playoffs with the Rangers in 2015-2016

12)Erik Haula – played in 13 playoff games with Minnesota in 2014

13)Cody Eakin – played in the playoffs with the Dallas Stars in 2015-16

14)Pierre Edouard Bellemare – played in the playoffs with the Philadelphia Flyers and played in a total of 81 games with them.

So there are 14 players on VGK who have some of the best experience a team could ask for, that was just handed to them, all because Bettman wanted to make them a competitive Team. How is this fair to any of the other teams in the NHL that have struggled for years? As far as I am concerned it is not fair to those teams, who could use some amazing talent such as this group of players. Vegas had Lady Luck on her side with this draft, while everyone else in the league pretty much got screwed. And they can thank Bettman for that.

   Not to say that I am not Proud of them and the phenomenal opening season that they have given to us all here in Vegas. Especially at such a trying and difficult time with the events of 1 October. And how each & every one of the players came forth and supported all of us that live here and those families that lost loved ones or those injured. For a brand new team coming into a new city with such a tragic event like that, they could have just turned their backs to it and focused all their time on the ice, but they chose not to. I am proud to have this team here, I just would like to have seen them pay their dues just like every other team that has come into the league. I truly do not feel like we as a first year team deserve to be in the 2^nd round of the playoffs.  It is not fair to other teams who deserved to be in that spot this year. But with that being said Bettman got what he wanted and set out to do. Make sure that we had a Playoff team.

As most people know Bettman is not well liked by the fans because of his favoritism of other teams and players, which makes us look bad because we are one of those teams. So they next time you see Bettman in Vegas be sure to tell him he is number one, (with your middle finger of course!) blow him a raspberry or 2, I heard he likes those. I think he likes them best from his all-time favorite player Crosby.

I also want to say this is not meant to attack any of the players of the Golden Vegas Knights. This is just to bring light upon as to why this team was handed such talent on a Golden Platter. I have seen so many posts on social media, either hatred towards the team or wanting to see history made. If they can go on to win the Cup, I will be ok with that however I will still be sad because I feel it belongs to a different organization that has been in this league for so many years and has struggled through and through. I cannot reiterate that enough.