3 reasons the Vegas Golden Knights didn't win the Stanley Cup
The Vegas Golden Knights didn't win the Stanley Cup. These are the three reasons why.
The Vegas Golden Knights had a magical run in the spring of 2023. That ultimately led to them hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. It was an incredible ride to see an expansion team get to the top so quickly.
They had a run to the final in year one but lost to the Washington Capitals. Since then, they have been a contender at pretty much all times. They also have shown no issue with manipulating the salary cap so that they can ice the best team possible in the playoffs.
Vegas doesn’t break any rules and they have an owner/front office willing to do whatever it takes to try and win every year. Everyone mad about it is just upset that their team won’t do it.
This spring, Vegas had to go against the Dallas Stars in the first round. That’s not the ideal first-round matchup as they are also super-elite. The series went to game seven which was played on Sunday night.
The Vegas Golden Knights won't be winning the Stanley Cup again
Dallas got the best of Vegas with a 2-1 victory and they will move on to face the Colorado Avalanche in the next round. The defending champions will defend no more as Vegas is out.
It was a nice run for the Golden Knights but now they have to get back to the drawing board this summer and figure out what went wrong. You know they will diagnose the problem well when the time is right. These are three reasons they didn’t win the Stanley Cup this season:
Tomas Hertl didn't make the impact that Vegas was hoping for this year
The Vegas Golden Knights put Mark Stone on LTIR which allowed them to have some cap flexibility during the regular season. A lot of people don’t like it but it worked for them last season as well.
They acquired Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl at the trade deadline which filled some big gaps for them once Hertl returned from injury. This is a move that can help them long beyond this year as well.
Noah Hanifin did his job. He had five points in the seven games which is great offensive production from the blue line. However, they didn’t get what they needed from Hertl.
Tomas Hertl scored a goal in the first game of the series but that was the end of it for him. He didn’t have a point the rest of the way. It makes you wonder if his injury was lingering.
He scored when the adrenaline of the series starting was high but he never regained that. We know he can make an impact in the playoffs because we’ve seen it before with the San Jose Sharks but he didn’t have it.
Hertl wasn’t the only Knight dealing with something this round. They need to make sure they get him and the rest of the team healthy before training camp so they can make another run at this thing next year.
The Dallas Stars were a better (hungrier) team than Vegas this season
The Dallas Stars are one of the best teams in the NHL on paper. It was tough to see them have to match up with the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round but that is the way the cookie crumbled this season.
Vegas went up 2-0 in Dallas and looked like they were going to make easy work of the Stars heading back to Vegas. Dallas rallied and won both games in Vegas to bring this thing back home tied up at two. In hindsight, they probably played better in the first two games as well but weren't able to win.
They won two of the final three games of the series which moved them onto the second round. Dallas is healthier, better, and hungrier this year. They want this thing badly.
Joe Pavelski is one of the most playoff-productive players in NHL history to never win the Stanley Cup. These guys want to get him one. They are leaving it all out there to try and do it.
With the depth they have up front, on defense, and with Jake Oettinger in the net, they are a very good team that can beat anybody when they stick to their game. Vegas wasn't good enough to take them down this year.
It is very hard to win the Stanley Cup in back-to-back NHL seasons
Winning the Stanley Cup is incredibly hard. It is even harder to win it the year after winning it. There is a reason that only a few champions have ever gone back-to-back.
Vegas won't be that team. The fatigue that they faced this season almost cost them a playoff spot let alone making another Cup run.
They got out of the gates as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. From December until the end of the season, however, they were incredibly average.
When you're the defending champion, everyone is playing you as hard as they can every single game. It wears on guys. A lot of the players who won the Cup last year battled something this year.
You can expect these Golden Knights to come into 2024-25 healthy and ready to hit that grind again. They have a lot of time off now to recharge the batteries. They have proven that they deserve the respect as an organization that will learn from this.
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