Don't look now, but the Las Vegas Golden Knights have thrown their hat in the ring to become one of the greatest stories in the history of sports, if they already aren't. The NHL's newest team swept the L.A. Kings in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday night, bouncing a franchise that has won two Stanley Cups in the last six years.
Now, the Knights have quickly shifted from fun storyline to Stanley Cup co-favorite after opening the season with 200-1 odds to raise the cup. It lines up perfectly with the theme of Vegas' entire season, one that went from "this is cute", to "they can't keep this up", to "they won't be able to do it in the playoffs." Just ask Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, who played in all four of L.A.'s matchups with the Knights in the regular season. After two losses, Doughty claimed there's no way Vegas would be better than L.A. by the end of the season, which he was right about, as the Kings went on to beat them in the final two regular season games.
But then the Kings got swept in a hard-fought series, with each game decided by one-goal. But a sweep's a sweep, and now a graphic that NBC Sports Network displayed during game one last week is making the rounds after the Kings' early exit, and it was of Doughty's bold claim, which he's going to wish he had back:
Again, if we're going by "the end of the season", Doughty is technically correct. But if we're going by the "end of the postseason" which certainly matters here, then he's very wrong. And that's not the only thing the Kings were very wrong about:
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Not ideal! Who would have thought the NHL's budding rivalry would be between the Kings and the Golden Knights? Vegas fans are certainly doing their part to make it happen:
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