Golden Knights break through NHL’s rigid structure to win well-deserve…

Although they are the second-youngest franchise in the league, often mischaracterized as a city spoiled by precocious success and blinding excess in equal measure, the Vegas Golden Knights are replete with decorated veterans.

During a 9-3 blowout victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, the 111-point Golden Knights proved they are more than deserving champions, with the requisite experience, guile, infusion of youth and elite goaltending to thrive during the rigors of a gruesome postseason.

Vegas already proved the three maxims of playoff hockey to be true in a nearly identical 7-2 victory in Game 2. Over the course of Tuesday’s closeout game, it crushed its opponent with institutional knowledge, opportunism and superior goaltending.

But it didn’t appear to be a coronation during the opening five minutes.

Golden Knights captain Mark Stone registered two critical turnovers, while Jack Eichel fumbled a zone exit that directly led to a breakaway for Panthers forward Anton Lundell but goalie Adin Hill, as he did all postseason, closed the door. If you believe in momentum, it firmly swung in the Golden Knights’ favor and it ran over a wounded Panthers team, missing superstar Matthew Tkachuk and the underrated Eetu Luostarinen.

There’s a school of thought that the Golden Knights benefited from lax rules surrounding expansion franchises and exploited loopholes around player protections, while being too loud — both in-arena and on social media — and going against the grain of the NHL’s buttoned-down culture.

This notion is outright nonsense.

Stone, who deservedly lifted the Cup after his Game 5 hat trick, was acquired from a frugal Ottawa Senators organization that was unwilling to pay him anywhere near his eight-year, $76-million pact he eventually signed with the Golden Knights. Stone’s linemate, Chandler Stephenson, was…