What people are saying about the Golden Knights’ series sweep

What the media is saying about the Golden Knights after sweeping the Los Angeles Kings:

Greg Wyshynski, ESPN senior writer

I figured the Golden Knights could win the first round of the playoffs, no matter who the opponent was. That it ended up being the Kings gave me pause for a moment, before it was obvious that the way the Knights roll their lines vs. the relative lack of depth for L.A. meant we would see an expansion team in Round 2.

Can Vegas win the Stanley Cup? Sure. Every team that’s 12 wins away from hoisting the Holy Grail has a chance, and few teams exhibit the cohesive play and depth of the Knights’ lineup. Will they win the Stanley Cup? If this is craps, I’m betting the “Don’t Pass” line. The remaining potential opponents en route to the Cup — the San Jose Sharks, Predators and Jets — can match the Knights’ firepower and their speed. In the case of the Predators and Sharks, they can deploy defensive assets to slow the Jonathan Marchessault line, which has been Vegas’ primary offensive engine.

But beyond that … the house money has been spent. The Knights could go from being a carefree team with no expectations and nothing to play for to one with a realistic shot at a championship. There aren’t a ton of rings in that room, outside of Fleury. Does the mindset that got the Golden Knights here change the closer they get to the ultimate prize for any NHL player?

Kevin Allen, USA Today:

Every player, coach and member of management came from somewhere else. Everyone performed this season as if they had a chip on their shoulder because their previous team deemed them expendable. Every game, the Golden Knights had someone on the roster who previously played for that night’s opponent and had a special reason to beat that team. That attitude fueled a unified effort to play every game with passion and purpose. The feeling that everyone had something to prove has now carried into the playoffs. It is working even better.

Adam Kirshner, SB Nation:

The lone goal-scorer in Game 4 was Brayden McNabb, the Knights’ expansion draft pick from the Kings last summer. He has 12 goals in 314 career regular-season games and had none in eight playoff games entering Tuesday, but here he was, sticking a one-timer past Jonathan Quick to give the Knights the most consequential goal in their young history.

There’s no historic precedent for what they’ve done. Their 66.4 point percentage in the regular season was 17 points better than any other expansion team since the league grew to something resembling its modern membership in 1967-68. Really, Vegas has been better than any first-year expansion squad in the history of the major North American professional sports leagues, period. This was true before they took the ice in the playoffs.

At this stage, though, what’s surprising about any of this? It’s almost impossible to win an NHL division, as the Knights did in the Pacific, on nothing but smoke and mirrors. The underlying stats never suggested that they did that, anyway. Of the league’s 31 teams in the regular season, Vegas was No. 8 in share of even-strength scoring chances and No. 10 in share of total shot attempts.

Curtis Zupke, Los Angeles Times:

They took those last steps over the bench, weary with disbelief. Drew Doughty skated by himself back to the Kings end, his teammates slowly behind him in tow.

A post-playoff series handshake line as the losing team is not what the Kings planned at this stage of the season. Neither was scoring three goals in four games against a team that didn’t exist a year ago. That’s what the Kings will ponder for another lost offseason after a 1-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night that swept them out of the first round.

… Asked how long it will sting, (defenseman Alec) Martinez was short.

“All summer,” Martinez said. “Losing sucks. There’s no way around it.”

Ryan Dadoun, Rotoworld:

Marc-Andre Fleury was Vegas’ best player in the series and arguably has been the best goaltender so far in the postseason, but he had a 3.02 GAA in 2016-17 in the regular season and while he did step up during the 2017 playoffs when the Penguins needed him, he wasn’t used at all in the Stanley Cup Final. In fact, the Penguins had become so committed to the younger Matt Murray, that Pittsburgh gave Vegas a 2020 second round pick in exchange for the guarantee that the Golden Knights would take Fleury’s contract in the expansion draft.

Think about that, Pittsburgh surrendered a decent asset to Vegas just to make sure that the Golden Knights would take him. And now Fleury has provided Vegas with two shutouts in the first round.

Vegas is the first team to advance in the 2018 playoffs. They’ll get a chance to rest while we ponder the question: Just how far can this expansion team go?

Iain MacIntyre, SportsNet Canada:

Imagine putting another hockey team – an ice hockey team – in the desert and plopping it down behind the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

Imagine stocking it with players other teams didn’t want, and asking working people who had never seen hockey to pay major-league ticket prices to support the new team, called the Vegas Golden Knights.

Imagine these fans buying every ticket and screaming their lungs out at games for players they don’t know, dancing and believing and finding community in this new hockey team that became a rallying point after the mass murder of 58 people in their city.

And – stay with us now because this is the incredulous part – now imagine this team, the Golden Knights, not only competing in their first National Hockey League season, but winning. Imagine them winning 51 games and a division title and smashing virtually every expansion record.

This couldn’t happen. But it did. It’s still happening. Now imagine where else this could go.

More Golden Knights: Follow all of our Golden Knights coverage online at reviewjournal.com/GoldenKnights and @HockeyinVegas on Twitter.

Bill Bradley can be reached at bbradley@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2909. Follow @billbradleyLV on Twitter.