The roars are louder. Goals are bigger. Saves mean more. Wins are precious. Losses are devastating. It’s the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Nothing rivals the ultimate hockey tournament.
The most revered trophy in sports waits in the distance. Four rounds away. Sixteen wins from immortality. The defending champions return to the playoffs. A little scuffed up after an arduous journey. But in the hunt all the same. A handful of surgeries. Banged up knees. Sore shoulders. Bruised everythings.
It hurts to win; repeating is torture.
Man plans and god laughs goes the saying. Eichel, Stone, Karlsson, Theodore, Pietrangelo, Hill, Carrier. All missed big chunks of time. Enough to sink a team’s playoff hopes.
Add significant injuries to Roy, Martinez, Dorofeyev, Hutton, Howden, Whitecloud. Even the hockey gods are in on the joke. Few teams could withstand such an onslaught of misfortune. The Golden Knights did. They wobbled but never fell.
And they’re a contender once again. The season started like a dream. Victories in eleven of the team’s first 12 games. The champs weren’t hungover. They were fresh and strong. Back-to-back was in the offing.
The next knock on the door, however, was hockey’s bill collector. Playing championship hockey takes its toll. Blocking shots, finishing checks and maximum effort come with a cost. Injuries play no favorites. No other team in the NHL lost players for as many games as the Golden Knights. The season was a war of attrition. A new misfortune seemed to arrive every game. The champions took to limping as much as skating. Consistency, both on the lineup card and on the ice, was elusive.
But always there was hope. There were wins over elite teams. Periods of VGK branded hockey. The dips came but always departed.
The coaching staff searched for solutions. Management stepped in and acquired reinforcements. And finally, as the regular season came to a close, health arrived. Beneath the surface, a champion still prowls. Now we’ll find out if the Golden Knights can still pounce.
The post-season is steeped in finality. Lose four in a series and it’s over. Only one team starts the summer happy. Now the pain of a trying 82 games is erased. Everything is new. Glory beckons.
Welcome back, Golden Knights. You’re in. What will you do with this opportunity?
To win is sublime; to repeat is divine.
