Take a tour through NHL Twitter or tap in a Google search on the Vegas Golden Knights and the word "inexplicable" will appear again and again when describing where these self-professed misfits find themselves today.
Fair enough, although for someone lucky enough to have had a front row seat for just about the whole shebang - there's actually no mystery at all.
The formula, from owner Bill Foley on down, is based on Team.
Pop by the office on a Friday afternoon and VP of Ticketing Todd Pollock will have his staff gathered around a desk and they'll be clapping and chanting about one another's success.
Formula For Golden Knights Success Is Team Mentality On And Off The Ice
Stick your head into the lunch room and GM George McPhee will be avoiding the box of donuts and laughing with an intern and an accounting staffer about the perils (and joys!) of free Krispy Kreme.
Time for practice? There's Foley in a pair of golf shorts sitting on a stool beside McPhee and assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon peering through a window situated over the ice but smack in the middle of the communications/content and marketing teams.
Free the night of a road game? Team president Kerry Bubolz is hanging at a watch party wearing jeans and a Golden Knights jersey. He's talking with fans and staff and high fiving anyone within striking distance. We're not kidding here, keep your head on a swivel around Bubolz. The man likes to high five.
That towel on the back of your seat? Chief Sales Officer Jim Frevola may have put it there. Or Chief Marketing Officer Brian Killingsworth. Or Chance. There are no towel fairies. The club's VP of Marketing Kim Frank puts out the call to action prior to every home game and individuals from across all levels of the organization schlep down to T-Mobile in the middle of a business day to make it happen. All 17,367 of the fixed seats at the Fortress get one. And leaders like Killingsworth and Frevola join in because they won't ask anyone to do something they won't do.
How did you like the intros to the games at the arena this year? They're the product of the Production and Entertainment Team and its fearless leader Jonny Greco. And we mean fearless. Many in the NHL have looked at Vegas and its show with a raised eyebrow this season. But Greco and his crew puts the show on for Golden Knights fans and he stretches the collective imagination of his group time and again. They throw down together and they execute like an F1 pit crew.
The office suite down by the dressing room rarely has the door closed. Sitting in the middle of the room most mornings is Gerard Gallant. Bouncing ideas and gameplans off his assistants. In an age where coaches have elevated the art of faux genius, Gallant is the opposite. He spreads the credit around, fully admits he leaves the goaltending decisions to assistant Dave Prior and never makes his team's success about himself. Upon learning he'd been nominated for Coach of the Year, Gallant smiled and called it a team award and then named off every member of his staff including video coach Tommy Cruz. That just doesn't happen. But Gallant doesn't just preach team, he lives it.
Late in Friday night's Game 4 of the Western Conference Final, with the Golden Knights clinging to a 3-2 lead, Gallant kept rolling four lines and using all six defensemen. In the end, with the opposition's best players barely able to stand due to exhaustion, Gallant's team looked fresh. They were all involved and all chipping in to achieve the win. It was a moment and triumph of team. It was Golden Knights hockey and not inexplicable at all.
Yes, being one win away from the Stanley Cup Final is unexpected for a first-year franchise. And searching for answers is natural. But don't over-reach. It's really not that complicated.
Big things are often the result of a bunch of small things stacked together. Piled up by teammates working with and for one another. That's your answer.
Team.
Believe it or not.
