Golden Knights blazed uncharted trail to playoff berth

The Vegas Golden Knights were supposed to be good for an expansion team. But this good? We've never seen anything like them before in the NHL -- maybe in all of major professional sports.
When Vegas clinched a Stanley Cup Playoff berth with a 4-1 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Monday, it became the 12th team to qualify for the postseason in its first NHL season. But the previous 11 do not compare.

Two did it in 1917-18, the NHL's first season. Three did it in the 1920s. Four did it in 1967-68, when four were guaranteed to make it from an all-expansion division. Two did it in 1979-80 after coming to the League from the World Hockey Association. Vegas started from scratch, joining 30 other teams in the NHL, with 16 making the playoffs.
Since 1961 in MLB and the NFL, and 1961-62 in the NBA, four expansion teams from the other three major North American sports leagues have made the playoffs. Each was from the NBA, and none compares, either.
The 1966-67 Chicago Bulls were part of an eight-team playoff bracket in a 10-team league. The 1976-77 Denver Nuggets and 1976-77 San Antonio Spurs came from the American Basketball Association. The 2002-03 New Orleans Hornets are considered an expansion team by the NBA, but relocated from Charlotte.

The Golden Knights are two years ahead of the schedule set by owner Bill Foley, who said he wanted to make the playoffs in three years and win the Cup in six. Among the teams that have joined the NHL in the past 27 years, three made it to the playoffs in their third season: the 1993-94 San Jose Sharks, 1995-96 Florida Panthers and 2002-03 Minnesota Wild.
Vegas (48-21-7) leads the Pacific Division with 103 points, four behind the League-leading Nashville Predators, and has been almost as good on the road (21-12-5) as at home (27-9-2). The Golden Knights have 15 more wins, 20 more points, five more home wins and two more road wins than any NHL team ever has in its inaugural season, and they still have six games to go.
Here are five reasons the Golden Knights clinched a playoff berth:

1. Unique circumstances

The NHL held an expansion draft with rules more favorable than in the past. The Golden Knights entered by themselves and were the first expansion team since the NHL Salary Cap was introduced in 2005.
In short, they didn't have to compete with another expansion team for assets and had a deeper pool of talent from which to choose. They had a clean slate with the cap, not just the roster, and entered at a time of parity.
"They had the best rules ever, as we all know," New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero said. "But that's a market you need to work, and they've done a great job taking advantage of that."

2. Wise moves

General manager George McPhee, assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon and their staff spent a year scouting and running mock drafts, looking for players who fit their no-ego, up-tempo vision.
Then McPhee exploited the expansion draft and other teams' cap situations, making picks and trades. He made moves for the long term but built a team in the short term, with stars, solid veterans and younger players with upside who fit together well.
"They identified the right mix of players," Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill said. "They identified some players that had a potential to be better than what everybody thought."

3. Coaching

McPhee hired Gerard Gallant, a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year with the Florida Panthers in 2015-16. Gallant kept an open mind and allowed players to make the most of the circumstances afforded to them. He wanted the players to have fun, but demanded they play hard, play as a team and stay focused on the next game.
The Golden Knights roll four lines and three defense pairs, use their speed and depth to keep coming at you, and play together and hungry.
"The strength of their team is in their balance," Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "There's not a significant difference between that first line and their fourth line. They just have a lot of good players, and their coaching stuff has done a great job in getting them to buy in to a style of play."

4. Leadership and chemistry

The Golden Knights do not have a captain, but they have veterans who set a standard of professionalism and a room full of people who genuinely enjoy being around each other. Though they came from other teams and had never played together before, though many were on expiring contracts, they bonded quickly.
This could have been a collection of individuals pulling in different directions, trying to stand out to get out. It wasn't.
"Guys individually put pressure on themselves," defenseman Nate Schmidt said. "But as a group, we've wanted to just go together and see where we can go together. The team success will dictate our individual success. [If] the team's playing well, guys are going to have career years."

5. Seizing opportunities

Entering training camp, Gallant was unsure if the Golden Knights had enough difference-makers and who would score. Well, they're second in goals per game (3.30) to the Tampa Bay Lightning (3.51).
Center William Karlsson has been the biggest surprise by far. He has seized the No. 1 center role and blown away everyone's expectations with 40 goals, 31 more than he has ever had in an NHL season, and 69 points, 44 more than he has ever had in the League.
But many of Karlsson's teammates have stepped up, too; of Vegas' top 15 scorers, 13 have set an NHL high in points and nine have done so in in goals. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury wanted to play more than he did in Pittsburgh, where he won 375 regular-season games and the Cup three times but lost the No. 1 job to Matt Murray. He is 28-11-4 with a 2.12 goals-against average, a personal low in the League, and a .931 save percentage, his best in 14 NHL seasons.
"We sure worked hard at this," McPhee said. "We were as well organized as a group could be, and the objective was to be as good as we could be. No one expected this."