The city of Las Vegas has always been known as an escape for vacation, gambling and a good time in the desert, but in a matter of just a year it has changed into a start up sports town which many fans should start to take seriously.
Chris Deremer
With the NHL playoffs finally underway, the Las Vegas Golden Knights have become a potential favorite to win the Stanley Cup, a huge opportunity for the city and the organization.
I may be a little biased in thinking this team is the best story in hockey right now, but I feel it’s for good reason.
Being born in Vegas as well as being and avid sports fan, there was a time when having a professional sports team in Las Vegas was a nationwide joke. I never understood it as a kid, but I do remember hearing the constant chatter among my family why it would never happen.
The rants would usually include how owners would never move their team to the nation’s gambling capital and risk the temptation of sports betting for players and coaches. I always thought it was a stupid argument, but with no professional teams around the entire time I lived there, I started to believe the statement.
The two closest things Las Vegas had to a “pro” sports team were the local minor league baseball team and the UNLV basketball team. Then when the NHL decided to expand and create a team in the Vegas desert, a figment of imagination finally started to become a reality.
As the season began for the Golden Knights the doubt was in everybody’s minds, but definitely not Vegas fans. How could an organization in their first inaugural season make the playoffs, or even be competitive?
The Las Vegas Golden Knights have proven everyone wrong in their inaugural season, fighting their way to a number one seed and a possible favorite to win the Stanley Cup Final. The Knights finished the regular season with a 51-24 record and finishing first place in a very tough Pacific Division.
The Golden Knights quickly evolved from a feel good story, to playoff contender and now potential Stanley Cup champions.
As great of a story this is for the NHL, this is even a better story for the city of Las Vegas. The early success of the Golden Knights has now opened the flood gates for professional teams, with now the NFL’s Oakland Raiders taking their talents to Vegas and a potential MLS soccer team in the mix.
That would leave a city that formerly had no team to call its own with three teams to cheer for on gamedays.
I’ve only lived in two places all my life, Las Vegas and Idaho, and if one of my hometowns can finally obtain a pro sports team then why not Idaho? I know it is a stretch, but if Sin City can become a sports town why can’t possibly Boise one day obtain a sports organization?
The Las Vegas Golden Knights are the best story in hockey right now, carrying the hearts of a city that desperately needed the sports it deserved.
Chris Deremer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Cderemer_VN