Golden Knights playoff success 'a little' surprising to owner

RUTHERFORD, Calif. --Bill Foley's goal was to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three years and win the Cup in six.

Well, not only did his Vegas Golden Knights make the playoffs in one year, they won the Pacific Division and finished fifth in the NHL standings.
Now they're leading the San Jose Sharks 2-1 in the Western Conference Second Round with Game 4 of the best-of-7 series at SAP Center on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS).
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"I mean, it's fantastic," the owner said Monday before the Golden Knights' 4-3 overtime victory, while hosting fans at his Foley Johnson Winery in Napa Valley. "We're a little surprised by how well we're doing."
Foley has many businesses, including wineries in California and New Zealand. But the Golden Knights, Las Vegas' first major league sports team, billed as "Vegas Born," have become his baby.
He has an office next to general manager George McPhee's at City National Arena, the Golden Knights' practice facility, and can be found working with the business, marketing and hockey operations staffs.
"I really believe we're taking the time and we're doing it right," Foley said. "We have a great GM. I have great coaches, great players, and you know, I'm active. I'm not like a lot of owners that maybe view it as an investment. This is my job."
Foley doesn't meddle in hockey decisions.
"I don't talk to [coach Gerard Gallant] about who should play, who shouldn't play," Foley said. "That's not my job. I'm not a hockey guy. My job is to give them the resources to put together the best team possible."

But he wants to know what's going on and why. He attended pro scouting meetings Thursday and Friday in which the Golden Knights analyzed their season and looked toward the future.
Vegas benefitted from NHL Expansion Draft rules more favorable than in the past, was the first team to enter the League since the NHL Salary Cap was introduced in 2005 and entered the League alone.
So it had a deeper pool of talent from which to choose; had a clean slate not just in terms of the roster, but in terms of the cap; and didn't have to compete with another new team for assets.
But the Golden Knights made smart selections and trades at the expansion draft, building a team in the short term while stockpiling assets for the long term. Gallant and the players clicked, and success snowballed. Vegas overcame numerous injuries, going through five goaltenders.
"We were very careful about how we drafted," Foley said. "I remember one criteria was character, and if you look at our team, they're not a bunch of elitists on that team. They're all common guys. They're bonded. They play well together. They like each other. So I can kind of see how it's evolved. …
"The history is, where we were at Thanksgiving, we had a 85 percent chance of making the playoffs. I started believing in it February, because we had so many injuries, I felt like, boy, it's fragile. It could just flip on us. We could lose seven or eight in a row and take ourselves way down. And the guys never did that. They always worked it out and they always came back."
The Golden Knights have been as successful off the ice as they have been on it.

After the mass shooting on the Strip on Oct. 1, they held a ceremony honoring the victims, their families and the first responders before their home opener Oct. 10. They drew 10,000 to the Fan Fest downtown on Jan. 14. They have drawn hundreds to send off the players to the airport in the playoffs.
T-Mobile Arena has been full and loud. Golden Knights gear is everywhere.
"Our guys have done the job, the players have, and we've made sure that we do a lot of outreach, that we're really engaged in the community," Foley said. "It's important to us, because that's how we develop our fan base. Now we're really working on youth hockey. We're trying to get the youth hockey piece really put together, and that's our next big step. [We want to] build a couple more sheets of ice. Those are our primary goals right now."
Well, and going as far as possible in the playoffs.
"I'm having a lot of fun," Foley said. "I'm having a great time. But it is stressful. It's frickin' stressful."
He laughed.
"Now as an owner, my first year, I understand the difference between regular season and playoffs," he said. "It is a different animal. What we did, we positioned ourselves during the regular season, and now it's serious."
He laughed again.
"I love it," he said. "I love the team. I love the town. I love what we're doing in the town. There's no substitute for victory, period."