Vegas Golden Knights Winner of NHL 2023

Professional hockey team Vegas Golden Knights has just reached a milestone and that is bagging the much coveted Stanley Cup. This is the very first major franchise that has represented Las Vegas. The 4th-seed team is a member of the NHL Western Conference’s Pacific Division.
The team qualified to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs within its first four seasons. Considering the T-Mobile Arena on the famous Las Vegas strip its home, it entered the finals during the team’s first season. Here are some of the event’s highlights plus valuable information about the Vegas Golden Knights, winner of NHL 2023.

First Stanley Cup for Vegas Golden Knights

Just recently, the Vegas Golden Knights reached their goal to win the cup after six years of joining the conference. Winning the game against the Florida Panthers means so much for this team of enthusiastic gentlemen. And why not? It was a best-of-seven series game that’s worth dying for. Although the players have gone through a lot from failures to injuries, this team seems unstoppable. The team’s offensive skills were in full blast with a loud batch of bleacher fans cheering. The Golden Knights is now the seventh team in the history of the NHL to score more than five goals within three or more in the same Finals.

The Vegas team led the way 2-0 during the first intermission. In the game’s second period, the rout started with the players scoring four times. The team then took the game to the next level with a 6-1 leading to the last 20 minutes. The Knights closed the Finals in Game 5 and won a resounding 4-1 in this series with a score of 9-3. This championship feat is the city’s second major title received in two years’ time. Last year, the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces routed the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA league to capture the crown with its 3-1 series win.

Young Franchise

Founded by Bill Foley and partners, the Maloof family in 2017, it is owned by the Black Knight & Entertainment consortium. It is actually the 31st franchise in the NHL and Foley paid a good $500 million in expansion fee. Although this franchise is still in its infancy stage, it has quite an awe-inspiring ROI. It is listed by Forbes as having an investment value of $965 million back in December 2022.

Great Team

The team has 12 centers, seven wingers,11 defenders, and 7 goalies. All of them share a common goal and that is to continue giving their best and to provide the team’s name a lustrous title. In its debut season in 2018, they worked so hard to grab the conference title. The Vegas franchise was able to carry on with its own strong play strategy within the next couple of seasons. Nevertheless, COVID-19 came and the effort was short-lived. After advancing to the conference finals, it lost to the Dallas Stars.Now, it’s a different kind of game. The team is now among the top-seeds across conferences.

The player who was vital for the victory

Wearing jersey #81, Jonathan Marchessault was all smiles as he accepted the Conn Smythe Trophy for being the playoff’s MVP. Coming from Cap-Rouge in Quebec, Marchessault ranked 2nd with 25 points to his name within the playoff run.This ever-valuable team center gave a staggering 13 goals during the playoffs which is a far cry from losing the finals five years ago.

Party in Las Vegas

After winning the championship this season, the next agenda was to gather round to celebrate their success. Where else can the party start but within the locker room right after the game. Without much ado, the players started dousing each one with champagne.Of course, it came with the traditional celebratory parade along the main thoroughfares of Las Vegas. That is how winners are celebrated in Vegas, and nothing less than that. With a 9-3 series win, what else is there to do but enjoy every minute that passes by. The magnanimous captain Mark Stone donned an Elvis wig with matching glasses. What a sight! Everybody was smiling from ear to ear, shouting in excitement, and embracing each other. After that, they went off to Caesar’s Palace along the famous Las Vegas strip to witness DJ Steve Aoki perform at the Omnia Nightclub. Aoki is an avid supporter of the Knights. He did a pregame set just outside Mandalay Bay’s Events Centre to get the fans excited for the actual game.

Conclusion

It is quite obvious that the Vegas Golden Knights is the team to beat. With so many strategies and perseverance on their sleeves, who knows what else they are capable of. It’s just a matter of time for the team to get up and go to the rink and wait to pluck next season’s trophy.