ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — If a gambler at Las Vegas' high-stakes tables got on a winning run as long and as impressive as the Golden Knights' first nine seasons in the NHL, the casino would probably encourage them to leave.
The rest of the NHL can't get rid of the Knights that easily, and their ridiculous roll has extended all the way into yet another Western Conference finals.
The Knights won their 14th playoff series when they finished off the upstart
Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night. No team has won more postseason series since Vegas entered the league in 2017, and the Knights are in the third round of the playoffs for a jaw-dropping fifth time in nine seasons.
This charmed club is halfway to its second Stanley Cup title, but it isn't just luck driving Sin City's team deep into seemingly every postseason while the rest of the West looks on in frustration and envy.
Vegas' win-at-all-costs philosophy has required years of expensive signings and high-profile talent acquisitions. It led to a shocking coaching change this spring. It has also depended on that talent's ability to coalesce when games mean the most — a feat that even great teams sometimes can't pull off.
So far, the Knights' pot hasn't gone empty — and their luck is holding strong.
“Just proud of the guys,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, an original member of the Knights. “I think it comes right from (owner) Bill Foley up top. That's the message going into every year, is to win Cups, and I think we've put ourselves in great positions. Guys put the work in.”
With a pair of six-game series victories over the Utah Mammoth and the Ducks, Vegas has improved to 15-4-1 since the franchise pulled the stunning move of firing Bruce Cassidy, its Stanley Cup-winning coach, and hiring John Tortorella with just eight games left in the regular season.
“Torts has been a good change coming in, just getting us the right mindset going into each game, each playoff series," Theodore said. "I feel like we have the right tools going in and guys have been executing.”
The Knights had been in an 8-15-4 slump before they took the extraordinary step of turning over the team to a 67-year-old journeyman coach in late March. Tortorella hasn't made massive changes to the Knights' structure, but his new voice must have been heard: Vegas immediately surged past Anaheim and Edmonton to win the Pacific before speeding down this division's comparatively smooth path to the conference finals.
“I think we were maybe doubting a little bit of ourselves about what we were trying to do out there, and sometimes that happens,” said Mitch Marner, who scored the opening goal in the clincher in Anaheim after getting a hat trick on the same ice in Game 3. “Torts came in and, I think, brought our swagger back to where it needed to be, and playing the way that we wanted to play. And obviously since that change, I’ve really liked our game as a team. I think we all have. We’re playing a fast-paced game. We’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes.”
Marner's first season in Vegas has been “a roller coaster ride,” according to the longtime Toronto forward who left for Vegas last summer amid fan discontent with him while the Maple Leafs failed to reach a conference finals. While the Leafs imploded this season, Marner started relatively slowly out West by his lofty standards before getting on the roll of his career in the playoffs.
Marner had a goal and an assist in the Game 6 clincher, giving him an NHL-best 18 points in the postseason so far. The Toronto fans who thought he was a playoff underachiever must look for somebody else to blame, because Marner has been aces in Vegas.
“Individually wise, it feels great to be going on to the next round with this team,” Marner said. “And the work now really just keeps getting harder, and we’re excited for it.”
Indeed, the Knights flew out of Southern California knowing that their path to the Stanley Cup Final is blocked by the Colorado Avalanche, who have been the NHL's best team for most of the season.
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have led their group to eight wins in nine playoff games against the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the conference standings. Vegas is facing long odds as it attempts to separate the Avs from their apparent destiny.
But the players who wear the Golden Knights sweater have been on a collective lucky streak since they entered the NHL, and that success breeds a confidence that money can't buy.
“We're playing a very high-talented team coming up here, so we've got to make sure we're doing all those things right,” Marner said. “And then when we get our opportunities, capitalize on them.”
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