Don’t Celebrate Quite Yet; Golden Knights’ GM Says There Are More Games To Win

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Vegas Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee knows he may not pass this way again.

 

Reaching a Stanley Cup Final in a quest for hockey’s holy grail — the Stanley Cup — is an accomplishment that should never be taken for granted.

 

And McPhee, chatting with sports media at the Golden Knights’ training center in Summerlin Monday, knows that better than just about anyone because he spent many years chasing a Stanley Cup berth for two full decades after his Washington Capitals made it to the Finals in 1998.

 

“We have more games to win,” McPhee said. “You don’t get these opportunities very often.”

 

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LVSportsBiz.com has reported extensively about Golden Knights merchandise sales. Like this.

 

 

And just so you know, lots of new fans and old fans alike stood on line to pay for all types of Western Conference champion Golden Knights logo gear at retail locations across the region Monday.

 

Here’s the LVSportsBiz.com suggestion. Wait two more weeks and if the Golden Knights grab the brass ring, empty your wallet for Stanley Cup champion gear.

 

The Knights point of sale on the plaza Sunday rolled out the conference champs shirts and caps moments after the Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets, 2-1, to claim the conference title in five games.

 

“It’s been one of the neatest experiences of our lifetime,” McPhee said of the Las Vegas market embracing the Golden Knights and gobbling up the merchandise.

 

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Speaking of those Stanley Cup Finals, here is your schedule released by the NHL Monday. The locations will be set after the Lightning and Capitals play for all the marbles of the Eastern Conference championship in Game 7 in Tampa Wednesday.

 

All Finals games will start 5 p.m. local Las Vegas time.

 

Game 1: Monday, May 28

 

Game 2: Wednesday, May 30

 

Game 3: Saturday, June 2

 

Game 4: Monday, June 4

 

Game 5: Thursday, June 7

 

Game 6: Sunday, June 10

 

Game 7: Wednesday, June 13

 

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Check out this photo.

LVSportsBiz.com was the only media to snap a photo of VGK majority owner Bill Foley next to the Golden Knights jersey that was unveiled at this NHL event back on June 20, 2017.

 

That’s exactly 11 months to the day before May 20, 2018, when the Golden Knights clinched the Western Conference crown.

 

And exactly 11 months ago on June 21, 2017, the Golden Knights picked a bunch of players who became a team that claimed the first spot in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.

 

Maybe you know this Golden Knights player.  He’s Deryk Engelland, and LVSportsBiz.com went into its media vault for an interview we had with Engelland on the day of the expansion draft back in June 2017.

 

Who knew at that time that he would make the franchise’s most important public speech on Oct. 10 during an Oct. 1 tribute pregame ceremony at the team’s regular season home-opener.

(A shout out to Sage Sammons of the Knights PR staff who allowed this interview in the T-Mobile Arena hallway after Engelland’s press conference was finished back on that expansion draft day June 21, 2017.)

 

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Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com