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Vegas gamble
Golden Knights could win it all - in their first season
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman once called the
Stanley Cup the hardest trophy to win in sports. But thanks to a decision of
the NHL hierarchy, his statement may soon be rendered laughable. The Vegas
Golden Knights, a first-year expansion team, are in first place in their
division, 10 points ahead of the second-place Sharks at this juncture.
Yep, a first-year expansion team that, barring a complete collapse, will make
the playoffs. They might even win the championship. Doing so would make a joke
out of Bettman's statement about the Cup being the hardest trophy to win if an
organization that didn't even exist a couple years ago brings home the big
silver trophy.
Thanks to favorable expansion rules, maybe a bit too
favorable, as well as shrewd selections and likely some luck, the Knights don't
have to pay their dues. They don't have to serve as whipping boys for the rest
of the league during their first couple of seasons. When the schedule came out
last summer, I looked at the Sharks' games against Vegas as likely to be easy
wins. That's how it's supposed to be when playing first-year expansion teams.
Well, the Sharks have played Vegas twice so far and lost both times.
If Vegas wins the Cup, this is going to rub more salt in the wounds of
franchises that have been around for decades and never won. Such as the Blues,
the Canucks, the Capitals and, yes, the Sharks. (And this is different than the
Avalanche winning in their first year in Denver. That team moved from Quebec,
where it had been among the league's worst teams for a few years.)
Adding insult to injury, the NHL looks ready to add
yet another team, in Seattle, with the same favorable expansion rules.
Meanwhile, teams in Florida, Carolina, Arizona and other places play to empty
seats nightly, and Calgary and Arizona have been unable to secure new arenas.
But the league is in expansion mode, anyway. Gotta get those lucrative
expansion fees.
Let's hope teams enjoy those expansion revenue checks.
Particularly the ones displaced from the playoffs by the Knights, and maybe
soon, the new Seattle team.
Contact Paul at at
paulkrill@letsgosharks.com
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