Nhl, ice in the desert: the Stanley Cup goes to Las Vegas

It was a historic moment for North American professional sports and especially for hockey: the Vegas Golden Knights won the NHL championship and captured their first Stanley Cup. The team coached by Bruce Cassidy beat the Florida Panthers 4- 1 in the best-of-seven-game series. In Game 5, Las Vegas won 9-3 thanks to a hat trick from captain Mark Stone, three assists from center Jack Eichel and 31 saves from goaltender Adin Hill. A decidedly `no´ evening for the Panthers goalie, the Russian Sergei Bobrovsky, 34, who has already been with the Nhl for over ten years and is considered one of the best in his role.

The one in Las Vegas is a record: the Nevada club lifted the Stanley Cup just six years after joining the league. Created in 2017, it is the team to have reached the NHL title fastest. The precocity record belonged to the Philadelphia Flyers, champions after only seven seasons.

It is the first title for a team from the Nevada city which until a few years ago was considered off-limits because it was seen as a city of gambling and vice, and therefore unattractive for professional sports. But following the example of the Nhl, even NFL football now has a team in Las Vegas: while the Golden Knights were created from scratch, football instead arrived in the city in 2020 thanks to the transfer of the Raiders, a historic franchise that in the past she had been to Oakland and Los Angeles. And soon an NBA team could also arrive, if the league decides to expand further. In recent months it was LeBron James who said that he would have liked to create his own company in Las Vegas.

Returning to hockey, especially celebrated were six players who were on the original 2017 team. Head coach Bruce Cassidy, who had been coaching the Golden Knights for just a year, fielded five of the original Knights and brought on the sixth in the second period. . “They’re the original guys, right?” Cassidy said. “They are the foundation of this hockey team. The first building blocks started from them. I’ve been here since the beginning. In 2018 they lost in the final like me the following year. I know how it feels, so I’m very happy for them.” Cassidy lost in Game 7 of the 2019 Grand Finals to the St. Louis Blues when he coached the Boston Bruins. The half-dozen Knights were part of the 2017-18 team, which was nicknamed the Golden Misfits because it was made up of players from across the NHL. The Six Horsemen were the first to pass the cup to each other during the festivities after Captain Mark Stone, in keeping with tradition, was the first to lift the Stanley Cup. Stone, who arrived in Las Vegas in 2018, then passed it to the six survivors of the original team, starting with Reilly Smith who in turn gave it to Jonathan Marchessault, then to William Karlsson, to Brayden McNabb, to Shea Theodore and finally to William Carrier.