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-[slow music] -[helicopter engine]
[Bill Foley] Look at this, right over here.
We have 100, 125 elks.
I like having big herds of elk.
[journalist] This is Montana. It's also the home to billionaire Bill Foley.
From West Point to a law degree, to becoming
one of the most successful businessmen in the world.
-Normally, you catch a lot of fish right here. -Yeah.
[journalist] The 70-year-old's empire is impressive,
but his portfolio lacks one thing: a sports franchise.
[Ken Boehlke] Bill Foley is a very influential businessman.
He's like a shark from that TV show, Shark Tank.
Ooh, nice fish, Bill.
-[laughs] -Yeah.
Turns out that Bill Foley's neighbor in Montana,
down the lake, is a former professional hockey player, Murray Craven.
I've known Bill for probably 20 years now. We met
in Whitefish, Montana. Bill lives down the lake.
That was my offseason home as a hockey player.
One time I was going by Murray's house and he was on his dock,
he always sits out there, and so I had pulled up--
And we talked about, small talk, I can't really even remember exactly what we talked about.
I said, "Okay, we'll see you tomorrow," and was getting ready to push the boat off the dock
so he could continue on his boat cruise.
He says, "Murray, I got this idea.
We should put a professional hockey team in Las Vegas."
I'd already launched the boat and I kind of look back and I was just kind of...
half yelled back like, you know, "You're out of your mind."
They'll never let you do that.
[man 1] An expansion, hockey team in Las Vegas
where it's 110 in the summer.
[man 2] Right now Las Vegas is the largest market
without a major sports franchise in America.
[man 3] It seems the NHL may be trying to find ice in the desert.
[man 4] I think it's a terrible move. I think it's a dumb move.
[woman] Las Vegas doesn't make sense. It's in the middle of the desert.
-[man] They have no other pro sports teams for a reason. -[woman] Why hockey?
[Foley] No one thought it would work.
From my wife to my friends,
all of my business associates,
they told me I was crazy:
"What are you doing? How can this be?
Why would you invest in a hockey team in the desert?"
[Craven] I thought it was gonna be a tough sell. We had a long way to go
before we established Las Vegas as a hockey hotbed.
And whenever it was brought up on TV, it was always frowned upon.
[journalist] Is it possible that people who grow up playing in the sand
-don't play ice hockey very much or care? -I wonder why that happens.
In the '90s, the NHL expanded in the southern region.
Lowest teams in terms of attendance. Carolina's right there.
Florida is right there. Phoenix went bankrupt.
Hockey's awesome. Bring it here. Bring it to Las Vegas.
Most people that have families that live here and stuff,
the casinos don't mean anything for them.
We want normal, we want-- a hockey team would be nice.
It'd be a good thing to go to on a Friday or a Saturday night.
Las Vegas has long been the gambling capital of America
but now it wants to be something more.
In your opinion, is there hope for Las Vegas
-getting an NHL team? -I'm not in--
I know this is the city where there's a lot of wagering.
I'm not in the prognostication business.
[man] Once upon a time Las Vegas was a sunny place for shady people.
Gangsters, mobsters, illegal gamblers,
people would come to do what was illegal elsewhere.
[Wayne] When I came here in 1959,
the people who ran the hotels,
they didn't want their patrons watching horse racing,
watching boxing. They wanted them
in the hotels and gambling.
[Boehlke] Professional sports leagues had a fear
that because people can place bets on their games
that people would get to the players
and would change the outcomes of the games.
[Michael Green] Not that long ago the NFL would not allow an advertisement
for Las Vegas on its Super Bowl telecast.
So, Las Vegas was persona non grata
to major sports leagues for a long time.
[presenter] Ladies and gentlemen, the man who is going to bring
NHL hockey to Las Vegas,
Mr. Bill Foley.
To really gauge the interest, we had to run a season ticket drive.
We're going to demonstrate that Las Vegas is a viable NHL city.
[Boehlke] They launched this ticket drive to prove that Las Vegas
can support a major professional team.
[Mike "Dog" Emrick] I heard the Commissioner say that Mr. Foley felt
that he could sell the required number of tickets in the required amount of time
to have his franchise approved.
And I thought, "Let's see if this can happen."
[Joseph Lombardo] I know Las Vegas. I've been here a long time.
I was a non-believer. And I know how fickle
our community is when it comes to sports.
[journalist] It's obviously a big tourist town. You can't run a professional
sports team just based on visitors.
You have to tap into the real city.
Selling the tickets was certainly a huge challenge.
We got out in the community, we pounded the pavement.
-We had to really work for it. -[Foley] The league said you just get in
a bunch of casinos to buy tickets. And we said no.
We're getting firefighters, policemen,
lawyers, doctors, nurses.
We had people putting down real money
on real season ticket deposits
for a team that didn't exist,
that didn't have a name that barely had a building.
And the arena was half built.
That was a leap of faith for people to do that.
But Bill was committed to going out anywhere and everywhere
to talk to members of the community, people that loved hockey.
I was the marketing coordinator at the biggest ice rink in the city.
Mr. Foley comes through the office. And Bill was determined,
Bill had a look in his eye like he was gonna do this no matter what.
At times it was daunting but we've got to the 10,000, 11,000 mark. It's for real now.
[journalist] Already they've reached 11,500 season ticket-holder commitments
which exceeds the 10,000 initially asked for by the NHL.
[Craven] And then Bill had been asked to attend that meeting in June.
[Foley] I was supposed to go see the Board of Governors at noon, or so I thought.
It's noon, 12:15, 12:30, quarter to 1:00.
Like, did they change their mind?
[Craven] There was no guarantee that they were gonna give us the franchise at that point.
Are they gonna kick us to next year? There was no guarantee that that was gonna be the year.
Good afternoon, everyone and welcome. The Board of Governors approve
the plan of expansion that will bring a National Hockey League
franchise to Las Vegas.
The expansion fee is 500 million dollars U.S.
Five hundred. If you're writing that check that doesn't roll off your tongue.
We are delighted that Las Vegas will be a part of our exciting future.
[Boehlke] Everybody agreed that five 500 million dollars
-for a professional hockey team is way too expensive. -Well, thanks, everybody.
[Gary Lawless] Nothing had ever approached half a billion dollars.
For the last round of expansion, Columbus and Minnesota paid 80 million.
Well, Las Vegas, we did it.
It wasn't easy, was it?
My obligation is to hold this team and trust for the community.
I'm the owner, but I do it on behalf of the community.
[Craven] It wasn't a regular business deal for Bill. He left the meeting.
I went down the lobby and we had a beverage over it
and kind of talked about it. But there was no high-fives.
There was no, you know, slap on the backs. There was "Now what?
Now where do we go?"
We had nothing.
The boxes and the checklists were so extensive.
-Yeah. -[Craven] Where are we gonna house our organization?
Where is the team gonna practice?
So here's the first rink.
So here's the rink we will practice on.
-[Foley] It's a gigantic facility. -Yeah, it's huge.
How many square feet is top and bottom?
-Hundred and forty-six thousand. -Hundred and forty-six thousand square feet.
[Craven] We also have to talk about what personnel you need
and who's the general manager gonna be.
We needed to have that general manager in place.
-[Foley] There's so much to do though. So much. -Yeah.
[George McPhee] I was helping my son move into Boston College.
I was in a CVS drugstore that night
getting some supplies for my son and Bill called.
And I told my son I think this one's gonna be a while.
So I sat down on the back of the store and we talked for 45 minutes.
And Bill said, "You are gonna learn to trust me.
And we're gonna work real well together."
[journalist] Owner Bill Foley has named George McPhee
as the team's general manager.
Well, I don't know, you are the-- you're the GM.
[journalist] McPhee spent 17 years as a general manager of the Washington Capitals.
[Boehlke] The Washington Capitals were built by George McPhee.
He drafted a majority of the players, he traded for some of the players.
He built that organization.
I'm proud to introduce him today.
[Boehlke] He was fired because the team
was a perennial contender but couldn't get over the hump.
Bill Foley saw experience.
He saw him as kind of that three-star general.
We're gonna build an organization and a team
that people in Nevada and Las Vegas will be very, very proud of.
And we're gonna do it quickly and we're aiming at the Stanley Cup.
And it's that simple.
[Foley] My expectations for our hockey team are very high.
I intend to create a dynasty here in Las Vegas.
[Emrick] Mr. Foley said playoffs in three years, Stanley Cup in six.
Okay, I have heard other outlandish predictions in my time
that never came true, maybe this is just another one.
[Shane Hnidy] There's teams that have been grinding away for so long.
The Toronto Maple Leafs, their drought is 50 years plus.
Everybody in the hockey world, being in it as long as I have,
to say he's crazy.
[Emrick] The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win.
The regular season is so darn hard. It's 82 games
and then it is not a short playoff system,
it's eight weeks. It's a war of attrition
and how many of your guys are left standing and are left healthy
by the time you even get to the final.
And all of that collision, speed,
and sacrifice is to get your name
on a trophy you're not allowed to keep,
but for the rest of your life
you have that adjective in front of your name,
"Stanley Cup Champion."
[presenter] Welcome everybody to the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft
for the Vegas Golden Knights. You guys are finally gonna get to learn your team.
[Boehlke] In the Expansion Draft, the Golden Knights were to select
one player off each team.
Every team in the league was allowed to protect a certain number of players.
[Boehlke] Each team had to decide which players they were willing
to lose to the Golden Knights.
[McPhee] For the Expansion Draft, Bill's mandate was get the best talent
but they have to have the right intangibles, the right character.
And that mandate was from Bill's experience at West Point.
[McPhee] The Vegas Golden Knights sign Vegas resident Deryk Engelland.
[presenter] Las Vegas, one of your own, Deryk Engelland!
[Engelland] I first moved to Las Vegas
with the Calgary Flames team of Las Vegas Wranglers.
Hi, bud.
I met my wife here on my first year.
Got two young boys. Better part of 15 years we've called this home.
As soon as they announced the team, my wife made a shirt
with number 5 and Engelland on it and hung it in our closet for months.
She wanted us to play here and hopefully finish my career here.
You know if I were to say I wasn't hoping this was gonna happen, I'd be lying.
So I was pretty excited for being part of the expansion draft and coming home.
[McPhee] From the Pittsburgh Penguins,
the Vegas Golden Knights' goaltender,
Marc-Andre Fleury.
[Fleury] It stopped being told you're not part of the plan of your team
and you're getting old and stuff, you know. So it's...
I don't know, it hurts a bit, right?
[Ryan Reaves] You look at Fleury, and he's an elite,
all-star goalie every year,
wins back-to-back cups with Pittsburgh
and then, you know, isn't kept by the team
and, obviously, that stings.
Feels a bit surreal, you know, but I'm sure--
Um-- I don't know, the next few days I'm sure I'll understand a little bit better.
The Vegas Golden Knights select Jonathan Marchessault.
I definitely was surprised not getting protected at the Expansion Draft.
Just couldn't believe it.
[broadcaster] Marchessault scores again!
[Marchessault] I had a good year, I was a big part of that team.
But it's just the toughness of the business.
[McPhee] The Vegas Golden Knights select William Karlsson.
[Karlsson] To be one of the guys who was exposed meant
we weren't that valuable to your former team.
The Vegas Golden Knights select James Neal.
[Neal] Imagine that from being in Expansion Draft
pick up and then you're in Vegas. You are a discard.
[Boehlke] Outside of Marc-Andre Fleury and James Neal,
every single player was either a player I had never heard of
or a player that was just okay.
There was not a bunch on that page that you look at and say,
"This is a great hockey team."
We know where the puck's going, the puck's going up the ice quick.
That's what we want in the game.
We're gonna play fast hockey.
It's going from our D to our forwards.
-Okay? -[player] Got it. Here we go.
[Gerard Gallant] I got fired from the Florida Panthers
and the Knights were looking for a coach.
They wanted to know what kind of person I was.
They wanted people with family background.
They wanted people that's coming to work every day,
but not a big ego, just come to work and do your job and have fun.
[Alex Tuch] The first meeting, I hadn't yet met Bill Foley, and I was a little nervous.
They introduced him to me. He came up
and the first thing he wanted to tell us
was why he picked the Golden Knights to be the symbol
of Vegas' first professional sports team.
[presenter] And there you go, the Vegas Golden Knights!
[Tuch] He was a black knight from West Point.
He wanted us to be a knight to push forward
and battle through adversity and fight each and every day.
[Foley] I went to West Point with not really understanding
the reality of the world.
The very immature pretty spoilt kid.
And, boy, you go in there and they take everything away.
[Boo Corrigan] Part of being at West Point is going through the crucible events
of a 47-month experience.
Sleeping outside, sleeping in the rain,
it doesn't matter. You know no one's feeling sorry for you.
Kind of stinks for yourself.
But it stinks for 1,200 other people.
So it's a true breakdown of everything
that you brought with you.
[Foley] It was a real maturing experience
and really changed me. Changed-- changed who I became.
[Corrigan] I think the formative years that Bill spent at West Point
is what's really led to the type of leader that he is.
We all come from different places,
we all have different backgrounds.
And if it's about you, it's not gonna work.
And the team aspect is more about
we than it is about me.
It's about the name on the front of the jersey,
not the name on the back of the jersey.
[Foley] I felt like if I could infuse that West Point culture
into this organization then we could really be a successful team.
First game at T-Mobile. You can't be more excited than this.
You know what, actually it doesn't feel like a preseason game.
You know feels like we got the season, so...
I'm excited. I'm excited to run.
[broadcaster] For 500 million dollars, which is what they paid for it,
you know what, I thought they would have a little better looking lineup.
[coach] Come on, boys, come on, boys.
After the draft, plenty of people were suggesting that George McPhee missed the mark.
Go, go, go!
[Boehlke] Most people in the press thought that the team was awful.
-The worst expansion draft of all time. -Come on boys, wake up here.
[Lil Jon] It was a bunch of guys from a bunch of different teams
that came to the desert to play hockey.
Nobody thought they was gonna do nothing.
Around the league, if you read all the preseason predictions,
it was not good.
[D'uva] There's one particular hockey pundit who picked
the Golden Knights to be 31st out of 31.
Forget about being competitive,
people were picking the Knights to be dead last.
If you have all four of your lines
being just second or third line players,
they're gonna be the worst team in this division.
[broadcaster] Dear God, they are looking to be
-pretty awful next year. -[man] It's all right.
[broadcaster] It is a beautiful late Sunday afternoon in the desert.
And inside T-Mobile Arena, the exhibition season
is just about ready to come to a close.
[announcer] It is Knight time.
This is cool.
[Jonny Greco] In previous jobs, I've worked for last place teams
and the way you keep people there, they're either gonna love the sport
or have a good time. So it was important to us to create an entertainment experience.
The idea of starting something brand new in Vegas,
something they hadn't seen before was equally invigorating and inspiring
and just so frightening.
So Bill mentioned to me in my first meeting with him,
"I've got this vision."
This Golden Knight character who's gonna come out,
and a week before we didn't have the costume
nothing was ready, because it's the first year.
That was gonna be a catalyst kind of for the show open experience.
[Boehlke] The beginning of every Golden Knights game has this medieval times
meets NHL meets Las Vegas feel to it
that is so ridiculous and so over the top
that it's awesome.
Fire!
[audience cheering]
[Carley Sisolak] So October 1, 2017, is our last preseason game.
We're all excited, you know, the season's upcoming and we can't wait.
We just know big things are ahead.
[Kim Frank] We had a fan fest set up for October 3rd.
We had everything ready. It was gonna be a huge celebration.
Lots of excitement to kick off the start of the season.
[player] No, no, no, no.
-[blows whistle] -[broadcaster] Well, that will do it.
[Greco] The thing that everyone's gonna remember
is that first home game. We got to do that right.
We were all hands on deck for something really special.
And I'm like, "Cool, next stop, October 10th, opening night."
[broadcaster] The Vegas Golden Knights.
First ever exhibition season and it ends
with a 5 to 3 loss.
[Ayron Sequeira] October 1st is the final day of the Route 91 Harvest festival
that's a country music concert right off the Strip.
You know it's massive. There's 21,000 people there.
[Frank] I know a lot of people at Route 91. I've seen pictures all weekend on social media.
I actually had tickets to the concert.
With everything going on with a big week leading up to the opening night,
I chose to go home.
[Robone] Jason Aldean's the headliner for Route 91.
And with my brother and my friends and--
we're doing the same thing as everybody else, having a couple drinks, relaxing.
All of a sudden I hear cracks.
It almost sounds like a blown speaker, maybe fireworks, maybe firecrackers.
Everybody's kind of unaware of what's going on and Jason Aldean is still playing.
And then it goes again.
That's when they realized something's wrong.
[woman] Something's happening over here.
[Robone] Jason stops playing
and I'm looking around and I see people
that are ducking, laying down. I kind of slowly turn. Then--
-[gunshots] -[screams]
[Robone] That's when I feel it in my chest.
I look down, I have a hole in my chest.
My brother grabs me. I'm running the best I can,
blood still coming out of my mouth and that's--
that's kind of when the fear kind of set in a little bit,
like, is this my last day. Like, are these my last minutes?
[police siren]
[police man] We got shots fired at the Route 91,apparently a firearm.
[inaudible conversation over radio]
[police man] Can you tell me where it is coming from?
[John Pelletier] I'm the captain of the Strip, which is 6.1 square miles.
My wife's phone rings and it's one of her friends
and she says active shooter on the Strip.
[police man] We have multiple causalities. Multiple causalities.
We need to stop the shooter before we have more victims.
[Pelletier] There's reports that there could be multiple shooters.
And you also had 20-plus thousand people
that are there and they're spilling out and where are they going.
[reporter] Oh my gosh, look at this. There's got to be at least
40 Henderson police SUVs here.
[man] Sounds like it's coming from Mandalay Bay.
These are shot coming from Mandalay Bay. We need immediate medical aid.
[man] This way. This way. Go, go, go, go. That way.
[Pelletier] The actual crime scene, it's over three square miles.
We had hundreds of people that were shot.
reporter] This is the nightmare hat nobody was thinking about.
There is a huge presence of police and ambulances and medical personnel.
[phone ringing]
[Glade Tonks] Probably about 11 o'clock, I got a call.
I didn't recognize the number.
It was a co-worker of Neysha who she was at the concert with.
Neysa was the mother of my children.
She was my ex-wife. And...
he said I have got something to tell you...
"I'm standing over Neysa and she's dead."
I-- I couldn't believe it.
So, you need to tell the boys.
I didn't know really what to do. You're never prepared for that scenario.
Braxton asked what was going on and I had to tell him
that his mother was killed at-- at the concert.
He didn't process it for like the first maybe 5 to 10 seconds
and then he just started punching his door.
It's the darkest day of my life.
[officer] I don't have very much more to update you with.
One thing in particular that has changed
the number of people that have died
associated with this event has increased.
Right now we're using the number of 58.
We went to work the next day, you could have heard a pin drop in the office.
It's like you don't know what to say, you don't know who is impacted.
We wanted to--
sorry.
You'd come into work and you want to cry but you're just stunned
and you don't really know how to feel. It's gut-wrenching.
One of the things that--
that gets lost in this is there's an enormous amount of human loss here.
Fifty-eight people are dead, 58 families are torn apart.
It's irreparable.
[Engelland] That next day was crazy.
You know, I've lived here for a number of years now
and I've done a charity hockey game with firefighters every summer,
so I knew a lot of the first responders and then we knew a lot of people
that were going down to watch the concerts.
And the first thing that runs through mind is seeing if they're okay.
I remember Deryk texted us "I think we should do something"
and everybody was willing to do it."
We wanted to be there for Deryk
and the city and everybody.
Every single player was like what can I do?
I need to do something. I want to do something.
What can we do to help?
-Welcome guys. Please go on in. -Thank you.
-I'm Brendan. -Nice to meet you.
Thanks for coming out. I really appreciate it.
-Thank you so much guys for coming out. -Thank you, guys, really.
I was at police headquarters and I see two Knights players standing over there
and they're wearing their jerseys and I was a little bit taken back in the beginning.
I was like we got a lot of things going on here, I don't have time
to deal with a couple of professional athletes.
You know what it amazed me, one in particular, Deryk Engelland, introduced himself.
I asked him what was he doing here. He says, "No reason.
Just wanted you to know that we're here supporting you.
We're hoping the best for you and we're here to help."
I don't know anything about hockey but I want to thank you for coming.
Thank you for everything you guys do.
It wasn't about hockey anymore,
it was about the people that were affected by it
and doing whatever we could to, you know,
if it was just shake a hand, give a hug,
you know, maybe get them to don't think about it for a few minutes,
just try to bring a smile to someone's face.
Oh, nice.
I'll take one too, Deryk.
[Craven] We were so excited about having our home opener,
and it's the first home game in franchise history.
I mean it was something where it was gonna be a celebration.
And the rug was totally pulled out from us.
You've spent time rehearsing and planning for this three-hour window.
And now we can't do what we were planning.
You guys have been phenomenal in just reacting quickly.
Obviously, we spent months planning certain things.
We are talking about how to honor the victims.
And how do you do that? Like, how do you--
how do you not sensationalize that loss?
So it's 58 names and I've got side notes next to them, like
some of them if they were there with their daughter
or just notes of who is local and things like that.
We're gonna acknowledge the strength and resiliency
during the pregame show.
That's the way you honor them is you just--
you got those names and... yeah.
It's not about you. It's not about your show. It's not about your team.
It's about your city. It's about loss, but also
about you know what, we're still here, there's still a strength in that.
[McPhee] We are suddenly on a massive platform.
We've got a couple of games on the road.
Not knowing what to expect.
[broadcaster] Score.
The expansion Vegas Golden Knights
do what very few expansion teams do,
that is win in their debut.
We win game one,
and I'm sort of like,
"What do you know? We won game one."
And my phone just goes off.
You get a sense of the incredible...
civic pride that's welling up in Vegas
because everyone is so happy that we won.
I just can't forget that moment 'cause I wasn't expecting that.
And then we win game two and now we're coming home
and we've got to get this right.
[coach] Okay, tonight, we know it's gonna be tough open ceremony,
okay? It's gonna be tough.
First game at home, let's take care of business. Here we go.
[applause]
[McPhee] The message to the players before opening night
was this is much bigger than any of us.
I don't know how the game is gonna go,
but that's not what's most important tonight.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, the heroes of Las Vegas,
please welcome to the ice firefighter Ben Kole.
[ovation]
[announcer] Accompanied by number 3 Brayden McNabb.
Firefighter Derek Sutherland,
accompanied by number 5 Deryk Engelland.
Nurse Destiny Umbrante.
Ladies and gentlemen, Deryk Engelland.
[Engelland] I'm not a great speaker, so I was a little hesitant at first
trying to prepare to say a speech in front of 18,000-plus people.
It was three or four days of-- that's all that was going through my head
was the speech and just trying to memorize it the best I could
to not mess it up over there.
Like all of you, I am proud to call Las Vegas home.
[ovation]
I met my wife here. My kids were born here.
And I know how special this city is.
To all the brave first responders
that have worked tirelessly and courageously
throughout this whole tragedy, we thank you.
To the families and friends of the victims,
know that we'll do everything we can
to help you in our city heal.
We are Vegas Strong.
[Sheri Aldrich] When Deryk hit the ice and gave the speech,
he won my heart.
And um...
He won my heart and the Golden Knights won a city.
[ovation]
[announcer] Las Vegas,
please join us in 58 seconds of silence
for the 58 individuals who lost their lives
on 1 October.
I hope I never have to hear that kind of deafening silence in my life again.
[man] Vegas Strong!
[announcer] These individuals--
[ovation]
[announcer] NHL hockey has come home to Las Vegas!
Let's tell Vegas and the world
that we are ready for this! Go Knights go!
[D'uva] I can't imagine what it was like for the players on the ice
because now a hockey game needs to be played.
You've got to turn your attention to business, to work, scoring goals.
[broadcaster] It's all taken care of. All that's left to do is drop the puck.
And away we go.
[Boehlke] The game starts and there's a buzz in the crowd.
It's a buzz of anticipation and the team has to deliver.
-Go, go. -[Fleury] And that first game, we all knew
that'd mean a big one right from the start.
If there was a game that we needed to win was that one.
Right up, right up.
There was no chance for losing that game. We're coming out firing.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights fourth line, Tomás Nosek,
a player that I would say 95% of the crowd
-doesn't even know, shoots... -[broadcaster] Nosek scores!
...and slips one through the goalie's legs.
[broadcaster] Tomás Nosek has put the Golden Knights on the board.
And the Golden Knights have the early lead.
[Boehlke] Moments after Tomás Nosek had scored,
there was a pass back out to the point
and Deryk Engelland, a guy who 12 minutes ago
was just trying to hold back tears talking into the microphone,
-the puck and drops his stick---[broadcaster] They score!
And that was the moment of euphoria.
[ovation]
And just hearing the crowd erupt was something special.
And I'll never forget.
Go, go.
[broadcaster] Pops over the stick, perhaps an active stick,
got it. Big handle shot. Big rebound. And Neal scores!
[D'uva] But then they scored the third goal and the fourth goal.
They scored four goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
Could this truly be reality?
Defied all expectations.
It was like a dream.
On the radio I said sometimes there are tears of sadness,
sometimes there are tears of joy,
and then there are tears of the kind we've just experienced.
People were cheering and crying at the same time.
[broadcaster] The Vegas Golden Knights have made NHL history
for first expansion club ever to get to a 3-0 start.
[Greco] So the first just happened nine days ago, it's still fresh
then all of a sudden kind of the greatest first few minutes in hockey history happens.
[celebrating]
Big City. Big City.
[indistinct conversations]
[Foley] That was a real win last night.
The guys came out and that first 10 minutes or so
and they were on fire. They wanted to win for the town.
[broadcaster] Marc-Andre Fleury, 31 saves in the victory here Tuesday night.
He has started all the games so far for the Golden Knights. He gets the call again tonight.
[Boehlke] So it's game four, the Detroit Red Wings are in town.
[broadcaster] Smith steals it. Smith leaves the middle, they score. And it's a tie game.
And then it all went downhill.
In the second period there was a collision in front of the goal.
[broadcaster] Fleury got run into. He's down.
[Fleury] I dove for the puck and the guy,
his knee hit me in the forehead. And that was it.
[broadcaster] Another Vegas Golden Knight suffer their first loss
in franchise history after they started off
perfect three and o.
It turned out after the game that Marc-Andre Fleury
was diagnosed with a concussion.
[Boehlke] Marc-Andre Fleury, it was supposed to be the safety net,
the face of the franchise, the player
that we were all gonna rally around and he's gone.
You know, you fear the worst, is this gonna be two days,
two weeks, two months, his career?
You never know with concussions.
It's the unknown that keeps you up at night.
[broadcaster] The Golden Knights lost the game,
their first ever, in franchise history here on Friday night.
[D'uva] With Marc-Andre Fleury unavailable for game five,
entered Malcolm Subban.
This isn't ideal. We didn't want to throw him in this early.
We wanted more time. We thought on a home stand where we're home for two weeks
that Fleury could have handled all of it.
Going into the game, obviously it was a lot of pressure.
A little nerve-racking.
[McPhee] You got 18,000 people in the building.
Is he gonna get up 10 goals tonight? I don't know.
The feeling in the arena was this is when it's all gonna fall apart.
[broadcaster] Here comes Heinen throws on the attack,
shoot and a save, Subban.
-[Boehlke] And it didn't. -[broadcaster] Malcolm Subban, 20 saves tonight
in his first win in the NHL.
The Golden Knights have dropped the four and one.
[D'uva] Subban rose to the occasion and some of the best goaltending we saw all season
were those games the first handful played by Malcolm Subban
and then the Golden Knights are playing St. Louis,
the tail end of the opening home state.
[broadcaster] Marc-Andre Fleury going down for injury
was a road bump but Subban has stepped up to the task.
Subban a little slow to get up.
That is not a good sign.
[Subban] Shot missed why to my right side
and kind of stretch out and felt something.
Right away I kind of knew something's not right obviously.
You know-- you know when you get a pretty serious injury.
[McPhee] You lose your goaltender,
your backup goes in, Subban goes in, plays really well.
-And then he goes down. -[D'uva] Who's going to replace him?
Well, up from the American Hockey League was Oscar Dansk,
who had never played in an NHL game before.
[broadcaster] Now the puck in the Vegas end.
He scores just like that and the Blues have tied it.
Maybe not how he imagined his first play here in the NHL.
Wide open shot send out.
Biggest save for Oscar Dansk.
[D'uva] Dansk played the next couple of games
and, in fact, recorded the first shutout
in Golden Knights franchise history.
[broadcaster] They blow up seven and o at T-Mobile.
And then the Golden Knights go on the rope.
[broadcaster] Zips it across, shoots it there, it's his shot, save Dansk.
Take that shot. Some are a little slower here to get up.
[Lagacé] And then Oscar went down in the game against the Islanders.
That was crazy, crazy situation
where you know, you never expect that but it was my shot.
[broadcaster] Maxime Lagacé now will come into net for Vegas.
And all of a sudden you're turning to the fourth goalie in the organization
who had just arrived earlier that day from the American League team in Chicago.
[broadcaster] First ever game in the NHL for Lagacé.
Drip shot, save Lagacé.
Even though they lose that game against the Islanders, it was only their second loss
through the first month of the season.
[broadcaster] That's kick wide there by Lagacé.
Maxime Lagacé was integral part of them holding on
during that period when Fleury was out in the lineup and played excellent.
-[broadcaster] What a save, Lagacé. -[Pelletier] Yeah, the fourth
string goalie winning games. That just doesn't happen unless you've got
the entire team believing that has a team they can accomplish great things.
[broadcaster] Wait, he's closing, he scores!
William Karlsson. It's another overtime winner.
Doesn't matter who's in the lineup,
doesn't matter who, they need to score goals,
someone steps up, gets the job done.
[journalist] That for the October tragedy that claimed 58 lives,
this team is truly giving Vegas something to believe in.
There were a lot of people that I met that had never even watched a game,
had never been to a game, but they were from Las Vegas
and they were just proud that now they were a major league city.
[man] Las Vegas is latched on to the shocking early success of the Golden Knights.
Then winning early on has been nothing but positive for the hockey fans of Vegas.
It was the coolest thing to watch just win after win.
[Pelletier] Nobody thought they'd win those first games
and nobody really understands how big that was.
But for the community, for the fans, for Vegas, it was so big.
[broadcaster] Here is Smith walking in center and score.
[Engelland] The team wanted to win every single game for the city.
And it kind of just snowballed and we kept going and going.
I get on the bus after a game and the fire chief's sent me a text saying how many
spirits were lifting around the city and how everyone's so proud of us.
[broadcaster] Karlson ...right wing shot, glove save, [background noise] denied by Lagacé.
We try to watch as many games as we could. Obviously, when duty calls duty calls.
But, typically, we'll try and get done with our duties a lot sooner,
we'll try and cook dinner a lot sooner so that we're able to sit down and watch the games.
It was camaraderie within the station that gave us something to watch together.
It is a great bonding time. It's game time after dinner.
You know, game time is announced on the RPA.
Who's the bandwagon, who's a real fan here?
Put the game on the big screen and, yeah, we'll just sit there
as one big happy family and cheer on the Knights.
This ribbon right here is for support of Jenice. He's one of our firemen
here at the station on our platoon. His daughter unfortunately was shot.
Her name is Rylie. Jenice was actually on duty
at that time as well. He was actually on our Engine 11.
I called her and told her I was outside trying to get in.
And then she ended up calling me back
and said she was shot.
She was struck in the back in her spinal canal.
Pretty much instantly paralyzed from the waist down.
Luckily, she got out before...
you know, as soon as she could obviously,
but, yeah, so luckily, she got out
and I just met her at the hospital.
-[man] That's a bit rough? -Very rough.
-Very-- -Very emotional night.
[man] Yeah.
You know that's something that's gonna affect our life or her life, you know, for forever.
The Knights were kind of that that light
and, you know, one of our darkest times
and I think people latched on to that.
Every sport has its own soul,
but hockey is a very special soul.
By winning all the time, the Knights eased the pain
of what was going on in Las Vegas.
They created this emotional shield that protect
our community from pain.
[broadcaster in foreign language]
[Robone] I was pretty much in love with the Knights for sure.
It was tough not to be, especially for us,
for the Vegas locals, who've never really had
anything here to call your own.
I'm a native, so the idea of having a hockey team,
a professional hockey team for the first time has been a dream come true.
[announcer] The Golden Knights army has grown.
[broadcaster] Marc-Andre Fleury back from the concussion.
The Golden Knights keep winning but our visiting team
is coming down with a case of Vegas flu.
I think you're gonna have to be careful if you're a road team going to Vegas.
A lot of teams have spent time in Vegas and haven't had a lot of success.
[D'uva] Vegas flu became a buzzword around the NHL.
Perhaps some of the players were indulging in the finer things
that Las Vegas, aka Sin City, has to offer.
[Boehlke] Vegas is not like any other city.
When you get off the airplane, you walk into the airport
which is full of slot machines and loud noises and ringing bells,
there's an energy to the Las Vegas Strip.
Then you stay in a hotel that has no clocks,
the lobby doesn't look like the Marriott in Buffalo, it's different.
Good teams go to Las Vegas and play well while still enjoying their visit.
There's no question teams came in here and they had more than their fair share of fun.
[Tuch] Everyone knows Vegas is a party city.
Part of being a professional athlete, you have to know
how to balance that kind of lifestyle. And we'd teams,
you're going out the night before a game and stuff, maybe.
We didn't care. We just came out and played our game and in our locking room
we know that it wasn't just because of the Vegas flu, per se,
it was because we had a really good team in our locker room.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights have this feeling that we're good.
But everybody's kind of waiting for that one team
to come in and punch him in the mouth and send them back
to the oblivion that is an expansion team.
And that team was the Tampa Bay Lightning.
[broadcaster] Here is headman Stamkos, and scores!
[Goucher] Tampa Bay came in here right before Christmas
and they were the best team in the league by far
in every category. Most wins, most points,
most goals, top scorers in the league.
And I remember Tampa Bay jumped out with two-nothing lead in the first period.
[broadcaster] Great example why they're number one in the league.
And we kind of thought to yourself, "Well, not sure this was gonna go very well."
[broadcaster] Now the Golden Knights has been rare they have trailed
early in games in their old building... Neal win a score.
They make it a 2-1 game.
Tampa Bay, it's a really good test for us.
Screwed down and managed to crawl back, tie it up.
[broadcaters] Here is with wrist shot. Score!
Then the Gold Knights take it through two lead.
[Goucher] And then Tampa Bay tied the game at about four minutes left three-three.
The atmosphere was unbelievable.
[Boehlke] The clock's ticking down ten,
nine, eight, pucks in the corner.
[broadcaster] Battle fort along the left corner.
Time continuing to tick off the clock.
Not for Theodore. Score!
[ovation]
I thought the roof was going to come off that night.
[ovation]
When that goal goes in, everybody knows this isn't just a goal to win a game,
this is a goal for legitimacy. This is a goal that will put the Golden Knights
in the conversation of the very best teams in the sport.
[Engelland] It was almost midway through the season and you're playing
the top team in the league. To get that game really turned a lot of heads
in our locker room. Guys really thought we were for real.
[broadcaster] Clear little soccer style goal tending.
[Emrick] It's actually unthinkable for a group of guys
that are the castoffs of other teams
to win the first three games in October.
And then had the setbacks injury.
And then won six straight. And then eight straight.
Never happened before.
[broadcaster] Wouldn't even say anymore about Vegas
because the miracles continue. I'm in awe.
[Pelletier] You had teams then questioning it, "Well, they're gonna go on the road now
we'll see what they're made of when they go on the road."
December was huge and it set them up.
[broadcaster] Six wins in a row for Vegas.
[Emrick] And then we're in first place in their division
before New Year's Day. Unheard of for an expansion team.
[broadcaster] The improbable journey continues. -[Hnidy] No one
could have predicted that. They're rolling through the league,
leading the Western Conference, the Pacific Division.
[broadcaster] They continue to pace the Western Conference.
The hat-trick, diving, scores!
Now they are coming off of the New Year and
they didn't lose more than three back-to-back games.
Number one of the Western Conference, two overall in the NHL.
Plenty of people felt when we're gonna go into that slump? When the wheels are gonna fall off?
[broadcaster] The Golden Knights trying to take over the number one spot
overall in the NHL. They can do it with a win tonight.
Here's Marchessault in one of the offensive zone. Marchessault scores!
That's it. And the Golden Knights
have risen to number one overall in the NHL.
[Marchessault] We're a good team, but I wasn't going to relax
until we were mathematically into playoffs.
[broadcaster] The Golden Knights have not lost a game
in this building in a month and a half.
[Marchessault] There was a team years ago that was
number one overall in the league in January, number one.
-And didn't make the playoffs. -[broadcaster] Marchessault brings in a play,
he shot it, score!
[man] I keep thinking they've got to the end of their road.
They make me look like an idiot every day.
[Pelletier] Every time that the Golden Knights took the ice,
they made it a point to remember Vegas
and to do a tribute to a Vegas Strong hero at every home game.
[announcer] Joining us at center ice today are Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department Captain John Pelletier--
Everybody in Vegas knew that this team
that said that they were a part of the community, they meant it.
[Manczuk] Our first game, we were hooked immediately.
The energy, it was just so uplifting that
we got hooked and we wanted to do it all the time.
Everyone having something to cheer for,
it was exactly what we needed.
[Tonks] The boys grabbed on to hockey.
The common denominator was the games.
It was the only time that we could enjoy and smile
and laugh and high-five
and do those things that you do without tragedy in its place.
For us, it was the only thing that we will look forward to.
And they were winning. And it's fun to win.
[Craven] What George did in assembling the team was
to identify the desirable asset of those teams
and uncover any stone that we could possibly think of to overturn.
[McPhee] Find the gems, and that's what we went into the draft
trying to unearth. Find the unknown surprises.
They felt like a lot of these players were capable of a lot more
if they were given a new opportunity here.
[Boehlke] The best example is William Karlsson.
He was buried on the Columbus Blue Jackets depth chart
playing a very defensive role.
But when he came to Vegas, he was placed in the exact opposite situation.
[broadcaster] William Karlsson looking for a second shorthanded puck
and is winning it and shot. Scored!
What a goal! Through his own line.
[Karlsson] I came here and the coach gave me the chance
to play an offensive role and score points.
It is nice to get the chance because I think I've always had it in me.
[broadcaster] Slap shot from the line... Loose puck. Score.
William Karlsson is a guy who came from his old team with a career-high
at six goals. And this season he scored 43.
He's a breakout superstar in every sense of the word.
[Broadcaster] God, William Karlsson, tried the other side and score!
[Lawless] There was some genius behind what Gerard did this year.
[broadcaster] And the Golden Knights get five fresh bodies over the boards.
[Lawless] Deploying them in such an even-handed manner
and keeping all 23 guys on the roster involved.
[broadcaster] It's hard working for it.
[Lawless] Golden Knights were the best game team in hockey
'cause there's a reason for that. They were never tired.
broadcaster] Well he goes right o the middle of the ice, good positioning
Brad helped out allowing them to start to break out, come up the ice with speed.
The speed that we brought to the game, that was our biggest asset.
Every team, every building we went to, the comment always is exactly the same:
"You guys are fast." We don't see a team that is this fast
that keeps coming at you shift after shift after shift.
[broadcaster] He shoots. He scores!
Gerard Gallant has that ability to get the best out of his players.
I was just looking for a group of guys that
wanted to work for each other. And they worked for each other.
[broadcaster] Vegas back into 1-1, Neal to the right. Karlsson scores.
[Gallant] Every time I took somebody out and put somebody else in,
they played really well. So, we had 23 guys
that were really important to our group.
[broadcaster] Knights win it four to nothing.
Vegas at 101 standings points.
If the Knights to get a win, they would clinch a playoff berth. Score!
[Craven] Close to the end of the season we're 10 points up.
[broadcaster] ...offensive end. Theodore. Scored.
It was like, you know what, we're good, we-- we could finish first even.
[broadcaster] March 26, big collection playoffs final.
They've shattered every expansion record there is
and now they are in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
You had to pinch yourselves. You know we might even win a round in the playoffs.
[McPhee] We had a great season. But it doesn't mean anything
until you make the playoffs, and we made the playoffs
and, you know, wow, we did something really special.
[broadcaster] We watched the team, we watched the city really bond together.
They fed off one other at a difficult time.
It has been a tremendous rise in their inaugural year.
[Pelletier] The last home game that the Knights had in the regular season,
they announced they were going to do a tribute
to the victims that we lost that night in the events of 1 October.
[Debbie Davis] My heart was just breaking over my own daughter
on the night that we got the phone call that she was killed.
Honestly, it really did not seem like more than a nightmare.
There was nothing real about it.
[announcer] Tonight, as we close off the regular season at home.
[Chris Davis] The Knights reached out to us and asked if we would be in a family
that would represent the 58th on the ice.
[announcer] Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley,
team general manager George McPhee
and defenseman Deryk Engelland
are joined on the ice by the parents,
husband, and sons of 1 October victim, Neysa Tonks
representing all 58 families.
[ovation]
[Pelletier] At the ceremony, the Knights chose to retire the number 58
and they created a banner and instead of having the number 58 and blazing down the banner,
they would take 58 starbursts.
The feeling of watching the 58 names, the 58 angels
being, you know, as they raised to heaven almost,
you know, up into the rafters of the arena, very emotional.
[Pelletier] You're on the ice and you're standing there with them
and people are emotional and you want to just let them know that,
you know, we did everything we could.
[Aldrich] Those 58 lives and their families will never ever be forgotten.
That's a small piece of love that the Golden Knights gave to our community
and to those families of the victims.
And there couldn't have been a more classy thing that they could have done.
Go Knights go! Go Knights go!
[woman 1] Never have the critics been so wrong predicting that hockey
wouldn't work in the desert and locals wouldn't support it.
It turns out the Vegas Golden Knights were exactly what this community needed.
[woman 2] Knights fever has taken over the city.
[woman 3] Las Vegas has become a hockey town.
[man] Our mantra has been welcome to the impossible.
And this right here is the impossible.
I've never been into hockey until this year until the Golden Knights. It's been amazing.
After everything the city's been through, it's really a good thing.
It's insane. Everybody I know are completely obsessed.
[Craven] It was full-on. Now we've got the Statue of Liberty
in New York, New York has a jersey on. You would be hard-pressed to go
anywhere in town and not see either a shirt,
a hat on somebody, a bumper sticker, it was everywhere.
[Lombardo] I even got one of those flags in my garage right now.
My wife made me put that up. But I'm proud to put it up.
Now she wants me to get a license plate ring,
go around her license plate on her car.
I can't keep up. And then she just got a little cover for her cell phone.
I'm a little worried she might be dating one of those players.
Once the playoffs starts, I know people were lining up at 5:00 a.m.
to be there for a practice that starts at 10:00 a.m.
[reporter] This team is hot and the drawback is skyrocketing ticket prices.
Going to a game is borderline unaffordable.
One solution several families have found, head to practice.
- Price tag, zero. -You get to actually meet them,
you can sign them. They're not just trying to hurry up,
get back to the game, it's more personal.
[Tuch] The first practice before playoffs,
we had over 500 people.
The building was so full that they actually
exceeded fire capacity and had to put security out there
-and not let anyone else in the building. -Go Knights go!
It was madness. Everyone was like, "Jesus, this team
just makes you feel really proud of being from Vegas."
[Karlsson] You can see the atmosphere outside
and it was like one big party. You could see that the city was pumped.
[announcer] We're in Las Vegas for the first time ever
for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Kings and the Golden Knights.
[Boehlke] The playoffs begin and all the critics come back.
This is not going to continue.
And then the opponent is the big bad mighty Kings.
[broadcaster] The Los Angeles Kings have won the Stanley Cup!
The Vegas Golden Knights weren't supposed to finish over 500,
never mind make the postseason. And here they are welcoming playoffs hockey.
Do they have what it takes when it counts the most?
[D'uva] Back in December, Drew Doughty had this to say.
Doughty] There's no way they're onna be a better team than us
-by the end of the season. -[Boehlke] The Golden Knights have projected that quote
on the ice before the game.
Everyone believes that this team is gonna flare.
It all sure it was a great story in the regular season.
But here we are in the playoffs.
[broadcaster] The Stanley Cup playoffs is underway.
Huge hit by Carrier on Doughty.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights were here to play playoff hockey
and they were going out of their way to get in the head of Drew Doughty
to make sure that he knew that he was a marked man.
[broadcaster] Checks his man Doughty on the end board.
Vegas coming back. He shoots. Blocker save on the rebound.
-...Hard collision. -[D'uva] In just a few minutes into game one,
- there's a loose puck. -[broadcaster] Nosek goes back behind
the net with the puck. Bigger than that Nosek.
Blocks that, finds Theodore shoots and scores!
Shea Theodore has scored the first post-season goal
in Golden Knights' history. He's gonna take all the shots.
[D'uva] It was back and forth thrilling hockey. And Kings could take advantage.
They have the offensive fire at the toughest...
[broadcaster] Fleury jumps on that one.
...Fleury was sensational in those pressure-packed moments.
[broadcaster] Kempe gets his shot, oh! Juggling again.
[D'uva] Juggling the puck with his stick, having fun and smiling,
you could see the smile through his goalie mask.
[Lil Jon] Some of his saves are just like how did he do that.
He's like a Jedi for a hockey puck,
like, bam. He's an amazing player.
[broadcaster] Puck to the right corner, right behind the two.
They've won. It's over! Knights win it
and history made in Vegas tonight.
It's the 11th career Stanley Cup playoff.
Shutout for Marc-Andre Fleury.
[journalist] The Vegas Golden Knights make history once again.
And my goodness, the crowd, the atmosphere, lived up to the hype.
I've never seen it like this before. It was incredible.
You still see that everybody is just celebrating and cheering.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights win game two and three
and they now have a 3-0 series lead.
[broadcaster] Game four, the Vegas Golden Knights
and the Los Angeles Kings.
[man] You could feel the energy in this watch party.
[woman] Fans have been energized by the success of this team all season
and there's no way these fans weren't going to be a part of it.
[broadcaster] Here's Karlsson, left wing, through the circle drop at Smith
to the backdoor. They score!
Here comes the horn. It's over. It's a sweep for Vegas.
And the Vegas jackpot history made by the Golden Knights!
Brayden McNabb, the game-winning goal against his former club.
[Foley] I was a little bit in disbelief.
We swept the Kings. We are zipped. Unbelievable.
[broadcaster] Four straight wins to start their inaugural Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Vegas Golden Knights advance.
player] The way we did it going n their barn and stealing too,
that's tough to do. And, you know, we leave that series
knowing we could do something.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,
are you ready for second round hockey?
San Jose came into that second round and they had swept Anaheim.
And, frankly, they made it look easy. They outscored an 18 to 4.
There's a team that had gone to the Stanley Cup final two years previous.
[D'uva] The Sharks had more offensive firepower. They were faster.
And you figured that it was not going to be a low scoring
series in the way it had been in the first round.
[indistinct cheering]
broadcaster] Drop of the puck. Round two underway.
It has only happened a couple of times in the last couple of decades
that teams with sweeps in their first round go head to head in the second.
Here comes the second unit on,
now it's McNabb at the left point. He shoots.
- [ovation] -...parked at the side of the cleats
and the Knights take a one-nothing lead.
[man] The Golden Knights followed that recipe that they used all year long:
get on teams right away wave after wave after wave.
[broadcaster] Tuch gets through the team, he shoots and scores!
[man] The Golden Knights blow them out seven-nothing.
[broadcaster] Marc-Andre Fleury, his third shutout of these playoffs.
[announcer] From Las Vegas, Nevada, game two.
[Engelland] After winning the first game against San Jose, we probably thought the series
-is gonna be easy. -Here is hurdle... scores!
Puts it up high over the glove to tie the game.
[Engelland] Everyone knew it wasn't going to be, they're extremely talented
and gifted team with a lot of weapons over there.
[broadcaster] They go back and forth. Game two goes to over tie.
San Jose was a massive challenge.
[boradcaster] Wild series.
Couture turns it over,
puck in but saved by Fleury.
Sharks will go deep with it.
He'll delay all the way-- Score!
And the San Jose Sharks defeat the Vegas Golden Knights.
The first time in these playoffs the Golden Knights have lost a game.
The Sharks have stolen home ice advantage in round two.
We knew San Jose was gonna be tough. Sure enough, they come back and made it a series.
This time the Sharks win it. So now bit of adversity.
Now comes the test.
[Engelland] That game two loss was an eye-opener for our team
that it wasn't gonna be an easy series after that game.
[announcer] Round two tied up one game apiece.
Game three underway at SAP Center.
[Boehlke] Game three is probably the most important game in franchise history
because if the Golden Knights lose game three,
they are now on the road down two to one playing
against a team that has beaten them twice in a row.
We knew going into the barn it's gonna be tough.
We just keep grinding.
[broadcaster] Here wipe of the tip. He scores
and the Vegas Golden Knights have a three-to-one lead.
The whole team played insane.
[broadcaster] Two-o-three left in regulation.
Puck shut down by Fleury. Puck along by Meier. They score!
Sharks have tied it.
San Jose tied the game with just over a minute and a half left
to enforce overtime again.
[Boehlke] Overtime starts, it is a hostile environment for a team
that has their season hanging in the balance.
[broadcaster] Here comes wild out there. Shoots.
Scores! Karlsson wins it. Vegas does it again!
[Karlsson] It's going to game-winning goal, when it matters so much,
you're so pumped up. It's a great feeling.
[broadcaster] San Jose very impressive in the fourth game of the series.
Shot taken, blocked by Fleury. They score.
San Jose has a four-nothing lead.
San Jose came back with a pretty convincing winning game
four to tie the series. Well, then Vegas comes back home
and wins game five and goes back to San Jose.
[broadcaster] Game number six.
[Emrick] These are the Sharks, and a team of experience,
of guys that have been all the way to the end before. And most of your guys have.
[broadcaster] Here come the Sharks. Off the goal post.
Get in behind their D. That's where they make mistakes.
Game six we went into San Jose and knew
it was gonna be a tough game and we tried to close them out.
[broadcaster] Loose puck, Smith finds it and Marchessault
shoots and scores.
Good job, boys.
Right back here. Better team. Let's go!
[broadcaster] Hertl pulls it away, works in--
save Fleury. Another try and the glove saves Fleury.
Rebound to the near-- Save Fleury.
[Gallant] It's not easy to win in that building. We played the best game of the series.
That's what made me proud of our guys. They just kept battling, kept working hard.
[broadcaster] Carpenter waits to the middle. Eakin scores.
This round is over. Golden Knights shutout the Sharks three-nothing.
Vegas on to the Western Conference Finals.
My goodness, what a story.
I've been in the league a long time and after you win that second round,
it's the furthest I've ever made it. So, to make it to that third round,
it was a pretty great accomplishment for our group.
[announcer] Electric atmosphere outside Bell MTS Place.
What effect cause game one of the NHL's Western Conference final.
[audience cheering]
Come on, now. No pucks now.
Next year's we play Winnipeg. And that's my hometown.
And they have very passionate fans there.
Winnipeg is like biggest and one of the best place to play hockey.
Really loud. It was white everywhere.
[Engelland] Going into the Conference finals against Winnipeg Jets,
obviously, we knew they were going to be extremely hard team to beat
and it was gonna be a long battle of a series.
[broadcaster] Here come the Jets with speed, the puck went shot, score.
Dustin Byfuglien where they blast from the top of the slot.
And it doesn't take the Jets long,
just 105 into the game they lead game one, one-nothing.
[Boehlke] The building is buzzing and it's one to nothing.
And then everything that could go wrong
does go wrong for the Golden Knights.
[broadcaster] Wheeler again along the right side.
Into the backdoor line, and scores.
Back and the front scores.
[Boehlke] All of a sudden, it's three to nothing.
[broadcaster] Winnipeg is the quicker team.
It looks like reality has set in for the Golden Knights.
[broadcaster] Some big adversity here, three-nothing,
and we're not even eight minutes into this game.
[man] Playoff game.
[broadcaster] Gerard Gallant can't believe it.
Game one against Winnipeg really disappointed in ourselves.
The start we had to that game was not the way you should play in the playoffs.
Winnipeg, they are on a roll, they had the most explosive fan base,
they jumped on the Golden Knights in game one
and people said the bubble had burst.
[broadcaster] Vegas has a little panic in their game here.
Winberg has lost his helmet.
And now we've really got a mess here.
[D'uva] You're thinking, have the Golden Knights met their match?
-[broadcaster]...Score! -[ovation]
[broadcaster] Exactly on the tip.
The Winnipeg Jets take game one.
Golden Knights trail in a series for the first time.
[Emrick] The Jets are too big and bold and powerful.
This is the series that I don't think Vegas can win.
Winnipeg will burst Vegas' bubble with all their offense.
[announcer] Welcome to Winnipeg, it's game two of the West Final.
[Gallant] When we first got pucks, we're committed to winning those battles.
That's when we play our best hockey, okay. Commitment. Everybody, ready to go.
Here we go. Let's go boys. Here we go.
[D'uva] Game two now is a game that Vegas has to play better and a lot better.
-[broadcaster] Puck kept alive by the Golden Knights... -[D'uva] They play tremendous.
...Golden opportunity for Tatar Now he scores!
One-nothing Vegas.
Retains it along but it's stolen. Marchessault has got a great one.
All by himself. He shoots. He scores.
Marchessault slams it home on the backhand.
There is nothing like playoff hockey. It's what you live for when you are a hockey player
and there's no excuses when it comes to playoffs.
[broadcaster] A return to Smith, left circle, center Marchessault,
he scores on the backhand. Three to one, Vegas.
Marchessault 's second goal of the game.
The Vegas Golden Knights win game two in Winnipeg.
Looked like a different team, don't they?
Completely and utterly different.
Winnipeg, they were the best team
left in the NHL, in my mind.
[announcer] Friday night in Las Vegas, game four.
Vegas Golden Knights lead the series two games to one.
[Marchessault] We always had good start in Vegas and we took advantage of it almost.
[broadcaster] Smith shoots. He scores!
The Vegas Golden Knights take a three games to one lead.
Another whiteout in Winnipeg, game five of the NHL's Western Conference Final.
[Boehlke] Game five is a very tight game.
[broadcaster] Big shot score. Josh Morrissey beats Fleury and we've got a tie game.
It spins to the lefty, shuffles left, he shoots, scores.
Ryan Reaves attempted his first Golden Knights goal
and the Knights take a two to one lead.
He couldn't be happier for a guy like Ryan Reaves,
he gets his first goal for the Knights, and guys,
we're gonna talk about this later but we've seen him work on that
all season long since he's arrived.
[Reaves] Being part of a storybook run like that, it's special.
That is something I'll never forget for sure.
[broadcaster] And that's it, it's over! The Knights are going to the Stanley Cup final!
You can try to pinch yourself. You're not going to wake up.
It's actually happening.
The Vegas Golden Knights are going to the Stanley Cup final
in their inaugural season.
[Marchessault] It was unbelievable to work hard all year
and to know that you're gonna have a chance to win the trophy
that you've been dreaming all your life.
-Tremendous accomplishment. -Thank you very much.
In your wildest dreams you didn't think about that.
-Oh, I wasn't. -Congratulations.
[broadcaster] Vegas claims the Campbell Bowl
for the Western Conference Championship.
[Foley] If we look at all of our hockey players,
they were all exposed in the expansion draft.
And so every one of them got a second chance with us.
[Tuch] George McPhee getting fired by Washington,
Tuch getting fired by Florida,
all of us getting left open for the expansion draft,
traded, it was something that we all had in common.
[broadcaster] Deryk Engelland sensing the moment will skate alongside David Perron
and Marc-Andre Fleury and skate it off the ice.
Western Conference champions.
They were all players that another organization deemed expendable.
So we're all in the same situation and really didn't have anything to lose.
Everyone said we were gonna suck.
I think every guy came in with a chip on their shoulder,
every single guy came in with something to prove and
wanted to show their old teams what they lost out on.
James Neal started a group chat called the Golden Misfits
and kind of ran all season long.
This castaway team had this edge and started calling themselves the Golden Misfits.
A phrase that actually was hatched out of the locker room,
something that they rallied behind from the start of the season.
Misfits, Golden Misfits.
To think about another franchise
that sees you left on the scrap
and perhaps a project, some sort of reclamation,
nobody else wanted you, but we'll take you.
[Reaves] That's what made this team so special.
And the fact that everybody continued to doubt us
was extra motivation.
[all scream]
Go Knights, go! Go Knights, go!
[Lil Jon] The city was crazy. The city just got more and more amped up.
We want Cup. We want Cup.
I mean I'm performing at a Stanley Cup game
and keyboards is going crazy.
I love you Las Vegas.
It took all season long and three rounds in the Stanley Cup playoffs
for Vegas to finally earn the respect from everybody.
But now I don't think anybody is underestimating the Vegas Golden Knights.
[man] They've only lost three games in these playoffs.
They got to be the favorite going into the cup final.
[man 2] I would label them that.
[Karlsson] Everyone is so pumped up, full of confidence and--
and everyone is thinking, "Okay, we're gonna win this. This is our time."
[announcer] The capitals have been in business since 1974.
And for the first time in 20 years, they are in the Stanley Cup final.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights going to the Staley Cup final is the ultimate underdog story,
and here they are playing a team that never
can seem to get over the hump in the Washington Capitals,
a team that has very close ties to the Vegas Golden Knight's
general manager George McPhee.
Washington team in the final.
Maybe it's-- I don't know how to explain that.
Who in the world would think that you'd built this team
and you'd get to the finals and you're playing your former team.
With the first selection 2004, NHL Entry Draft,
Washington Capital is please to select Alexander Ovechkin.
[ovation]
[announcer] He was projected in the first
overall at the age of 14.
[McPhee] All the players he drafted was kids, they're now grown men.
You know, some ways they're like your own kids.
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to game one.
Let's get ready to rumble!
[broadcaster] The Golden Knights trying to take advantage of this atmosphere
and get started early as they've often done.
Miller, he wants, he shoots, he scores!
Collin Miller! It's a powerplay goal.
And the Knights take a one-nothing lead in game one.
On the far boards, Evegeny gets it again and
Shoots off the pipe and in.
And it's a tie game with 519 to go in the first period.
Here is the drop of the puck. Underway of the second period.
Another tie in puck. That's Reaves! Goal.
[D'uva] With every series the Golden Knights won,
there was an excuse, there was some reason
why the Knights overcame being home.
It was a matter of what excuse could be next.
[broadcaster] Game one, the Vegas Golden Knights.
This team destroys the paradigm of how you put a hockey team together.
I don't know anybody who did not pick them for last place.
They were offered essentially second liners.
It's an insulting term in hockey. It means you're not good enough to be a first liner.
That's all they got. When their third line is out,
it's actually second line quality, it's better than the other team's third line.
The fourth one is even better than the fourth one of the other team.
And it just becomes the question of how well your first line that you've developed
does against the other first line teams. Essentially, 50, 60 percent
of the time they're stepping onto the ice with better players.
-That's one. Three more. -[D'uva] Not until the Golden Knights won
the first game of the Stanley Cup final did I have the opinion
that this could actually happen, they could actually win the Stanley Cup.
Vegas, welcome to our fortress.
Who's ready for game two?
-[Emrick] As we enter game two... -...short-handed from Wilson.
I didn't know what was going to happen because we usually expect
that the Golden Knights are gonna score the first goal.
[broadcaster] And it comes to Neal, he shoots, he scores!
James Neal scores and now you're thinking, all right, they are three wins away
from a Stanley Cup and they've got the lead in game two.
[broadcaster] Up the right side it's Nate Schmidt.
Puck comes back up for a feed. Score!
Eller. He's tied it up.
[Boehlke] Despite being somewhat silent in game one,
Ovechkin started to come out to play.
[broadcaster] Down to the goal line. Backdoor feed. Score.
And Washington takes the lead.
[Boehlke] Then the player that has the longest current active goal
scoring drought in the entire NHL fires a shot.
[broadcaster] Puck has right side and shot. On the pipe, it's in.
Brooks Orpik, who had gone 220 games without scoring a goal, scored.
[broadcaster] Brooks Orpik, and it's three to one.
It was his first goal since February of 2016.
[broadcaster] Theodore dumps it in, puck right in front. Theodore in front.
Goal. What a step! Holtby denies Tuch at point blank range.
[Emrick] Braden Holtby is able to get his stick on the puck and everyone sinks.
And it is a moment that some immediately thought was series changing.
And that was a game-changer. All the good bounce that we had in the three previous rounds
-just didn't happen. -[broadcaster] Miller shooting. Blocked away.
This is a [bleep] joke.
[broadcaster] And the game is over. Capitals win it three to two.
And the series is tied one and one.
[announcer] And now game three.
Everybody's mind was in the right place, they all know what we're playing for.
We grew up dreaming about the Stanley Cup.
So, we are trying to get ready for the next thing.
[broadcaster] Ovechkin got into it. Oh, and a remarkable save.
And he shoots. Wide left. Well, we haven't had
a scoreless first period until now in this series.
[Gallant] We got to get pucks by them, okay. Keep moving your feet,
keep working hard, we'll have a great second period.
Here we go, go to work. Now let's go.
Kuznetsov holds the shot hits Fleury.
rebounds behind him and it's Fleury and makes a save,
get out the side of the pipe, another shot, another safe, Fleury. This time they score.
The Capitals take the lead. It's Alexander Ovechkin.
[D'uva] Alexander Ovechkin, he's blocking shots.
He's hitting guys. He's playing strong in the defensive zone.
For Alexander Ovechkin to put the team on his shoulders,
it seemed to be too much for the Golden Knights to handle.
[broadcaster] And the Capitals are gonna take it two to one lead
winning it. The Vegas Golden Knights
have suffered back to back losses for the first time
in this amazing playoff season.
They're finding ways to win. They are beating us.
[broadcaster] Game four through 40 minutes it is four-zip.
The home team. Tucks it in, on the pipe.
Holtby never saw it. Here's how the right side back and puck,
wide open net, the shot. No! And it didn't go.
[player] There's a randomness to the game sometimes, there's a little puck luck.
[broadcaster] Puck luck is part of this game. Just unfortunate.
Puck lock has been referred to as the unseen hand
that can cause things to shift.
[broadcaster] Off the pipe on a deflection.
[McPhee] I could feel it as the series was progressing
and Washington finally got the puck luck
that they hadn't had in previous years.
[broadcaster] On over here in game four. Washington Capitals
defeat the Golden Knights six to two.
[journalist] So the Knights are down three-one in the Cup final.
They're coming back to Las Vegas for game five.
The team has never had a four-game losing streak
-in franchise history. -Game five on that ice could be
-the last game to this series. -It appears like it should be.
But what is the one thing that Vegas has done all year long? Prove people wrong.
From the moment this franchise started, this team was not supposed to be good.
I think they're gonna come out and play their best game of the series.
We play whistle to whistle. Hey, nothing but our best tonight, okay?
Dominating performance from everybody, work hard, complete, compete.
It's okay, let's go to work. Let's have some fun. Play the game. Here we go.
[broadcaster] Playing on the ponds firing pucks at garage doors.
This is what you dream of.
[Boehlke] The Golden Knights had a chance
and their chance came there in game five.
[broadcaster] Tuch to the left and a shot, they score.
And the Knights take the lead three to two.
Golden Knights get a three to two lead in game five at home
after two periods with a chance to extend the series back to a game six.
[broadcaster] Toward the right circle, now left wing, and he shoots. He scores!
Capitals come out and score twice in the third period of game five and that was all.
[broadcaster] And it's all for Washington Capitals. Stanley Cup Champions.
All the players from the Washington Capitals swarm Braden Holtby.
They played their hearts out it was a tough fought battle.
But I was just happy that I was able to be a part of this.
[Bettman] Thank you Golden Knights and thank you Las Vegas
for the best first year any team has ever had.
[Marchessault] We just lost our swag, we just lost our confidence.
For me, personally, I think we blew it.
[broadcaster] Fifty-one wins in the regular season.
No expansion team ever even came close to that.
After the game I think everybody was just quiet. I don't think there was one word said.
It was just pretty disappointing, very-- very tough, you know, once--
all your life you try to get there as a hockey player.
Then by the end of the game you see the other team celebrating
with the cup in their hand, I think it's a tough thing to watch.
It didn't sink in until the next day that we had gotten that far
and that we were not going to win the Stanley Cup.
And then I realized we didn't have a plan for a final event to thank the community.
And I said, "You know we've got to do something."
What's it like to be fan to the best expansion team in the history of the sport?
I've been here 22 years and I've always felt like it wasn't a real city,
it was a place in the desert. They have done so much to bring our community together.
Give it up for your Vegas Golden Knights!
[Greco] This was a hard year. This year took so much out of us.
It was hard on every single level. And you'd like to win
but define success, define winning, like connections, relationships, love,
making something that is way bigger than you, being a part of something
that will live on for so long, we did that.
Bill Foley built a professional sports team in the desert
in Las Vegas when people told him he was crazy.
This changed people's lives.
It goes so beyond the guys playing hockey.
It truly transformed the city.
[Aldrich] We came here in 1968. I was raised here on the southeast side of town.
I think there was an ice rink here when I was growing up but I couldn't told you where it was.
When you're younger and it's hot, it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal
but when you get older, heat is the worst.
And when I know that I'm gonna go skate, I'm excited.
I don't think there's too many people that are female that are 50 years old
that have two knee surgeries on each knee under their belt
that have decided to play hockey.
I grabbed my bag, I stuffed it in my car
and every time I go skate, I'm doing about 80 miles an hour
probably to get to the rink because I love it.
Once I get past the double doors and into that cool air
and then once I go on to the rink, that first blast
you feel that icy coldness, it's the most awesome feeling.
It's kind of like walking into a Slurpee.
It just kind of envelops you
I swear if I could live at City National Arena
inside the ice rink area, I would 'cause it's just awesome.
One time I was having a hamburger with my wife and my daughter
and this young man, 11, 12 years old, walked by
and kind of came back and looked at me and he said,
"Mr. Foley." I said, "Yeah."
He said, "I want to thank you for working so hard to get a team here."
Boy, that was meaningful.
[Pelletier] This is not just the feel-good story of sports,
it really transcends so much more than that.
It's lives you're dealing with, it's your community,
people trying to pick up the pieces.
And when you look at the symbol for the Vegas Golden Knights,
now in that V emblazoned on that helmet,
it has so much more of a meaning for the community.
I don't think really people understand
because it doesn't just represent the team.
The symbol to a lot of people here means Vegas Strong.
[Aldrich] Being a Knight represents bravery, honor, courage,
but most of all it means that you're a hero to somebody
and that you're valiant.
Not everybody can be valiant.
["Sunrise" plays]
♪ Breaking through ♪
♪ This city I wanna wake up to ♪
Gonna beat that steady drum ♪
♪ Moving you to Keep marching on ♪
♪ It's coming from the pulse in our hearts ♪
♪ You brought back To life with love ♪
♪ You've been so bright ♪
♪ So keep shining that light ♪
♪ Tomorrow is never promised ♪
♪ But you are the promise Of a dawn ♪
♪ Breaking through ♪
♪ This city I wanna wake up to ♪
♪ Let that sunrise To open my eyes ♪
♪ Let your lights shine To open my eyes ♪
♪ Tomorrow is never promised ♪
♪ But you are the promise Of a dawn ♪
♪ Breaking through ♪
♪ This city we get To wake up to ♪