Hill: Score one for George McPhee and the pessimists

Every successful team needs a George McPhee.

Not from a strategic standpoint, though he has proven himself unbelievable in that regard as he has now had a hand in building four Stanley Cup finalists.

No, the unmeasurable value an individual like the Golden Knights president of hockey operations brings lies in the kind of narrowly-focused determination on completing a task that can only be found in a true pessimist.

Seriously, you can keep all your happy-go-lucky nonsense about the universe working out in the end if you just smile and think positively. All of them can feel free to dream about clouds and rainbows while they watch a real one celebrate bringing a Stanley Cup to Las Vegas.

“I don’t think until Mark Stone scored the eighth goal that George thought we MIGHT actually win the Stanley Cup,” Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said of McPhee’s attitude while watching Tuesday night’s Cup-clinching 9-3 victory.

Reminder: The Knights led the best-of-seven series 3-1 entering the game and celebrations were already being planned.

That’s not McPhee’s style.

“You always worry about what could go wrong,” McPhee said Friday as he reflected about raising his first Stanley Cup. “The bigger the lead, the more of a disaster it will be if you don’t win.”

Ah, music to my ears.

“You’re thinking how great it would be if you win and Kelly was talking about all the stuff that’s going on, about who gets on the ice and everything else,” McPhee said. “I didn’t want to hear that stuff. We have to win the game. And if we don’t, we’re flying to Florida tomorrow. So for me, I guess it’s sort of what drives you. To stay in the moment and make sure you win.”

Exactly. All those positive people out there are great until things go wrong. You need folks like McPhee to make sure the task is more important than the dream.

That’s also what made it so rewarding to see McPhee take a little moment to enjoy himself on Friday as he endured our annoying questions less than 72 hours after his crowning achievement as an executive. I truly wish McPhee enjoyed holding news conferences more because he is so insightful and thoughtful even if there are moments the disdain oozes through his voice.

“It was humbling, actually. Picking up the cup, in some ways you don’t feel worthy. But the longer this goes, the better you feel about it,” said McPhee, who had to make some decisions that were very unpopular with the fan base along the way. “We were going to try to do what we thought was right to build a champion. And I guess we were right. I guess we were right.”

Do your victory lap, George. You deserve it. But don’t forget, free agency and the draft are just around the corner and what could go wrong, will go wrong.

The organization can’t party forever. Soon, they will need a reality check. McPhee will undoubtedly be there to remind him.

Those guys are necessary.

Just for kicks

Allegiant Stadium is turning into a tremendous venue for major soccer matches even if the dimensions of the surface aren’t ideal.

Fans were treated to the pleasure of a magical performance by Christian Pulisic this week and the United States Men’s National Team will look to beat Canada on Sunday in the Concacaf Nations League Final.

Yes, the game against Mexico had an unfortunate conclusion. But that’s not the stadium’s fault.

Here’s to a whole lot more high-level soccer there.

Home Sweet Home

The best part of the Knights clinching the Stanley Cup on home ice was the opportunity for the town to celebrate. Images of fans partying both inside and outside of T-Mobile Arena will be remembered forever.

But a close second, at least for us in the media, was that we didn’t have to go back to Florida for Game 6.

Look, I’m shameless in my love for Las Vegas. It’s the best place in the world to live and nowhere else even compares. But Florida really is near the bottom of the list, particularly when your point of entry is the Miami airport that may have been built before air travel even existed.

It’s almost like the planners were asked to figure out the least efficient way to design every single aspect of an airport and then try to design it even worse than that.

Oh, and once you get on the road there are bodies of water everywhere so you know there are alligators lurking around every corner.

We never saw one, but that was probably just luck. They are just right there. Lurking.

No thanks.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.