Golden Knights proving they’re a powerhouse hiding in plain sight

In this golden era of information, many rational consumers are looking to discount what may be plainly obvious to others. Through the opening two games of the Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights are proving they are a powerhouse that was hiding in plain sight, which may seem silly when you consider they entered as the West’s top seed with 111 regular season points.

Vegas thumped Florida 7-2 in Game 2 and tied a finals record for most goals through the opening two games of a series after winning 5-2 on Saturday. Parsing through advanced stats, the eye test and prevailing narratives, the Golden Knights were overlooked. They were a sub-par shot-creation team that controlled fewer expected goals at 5-on-5 than the Ottawa Senators during the regular season. Vegas won the Pacific Division by two points, but in a form of delicious irony, it wasn’t the preferred candidate set by the oddsmakers at casinos down the street, who almost assuredly thought Edmonton would win the West. This is all moot now, you’d suppose.

The three maxims of winning a Stanley Cup as currently understood are to receive surplus scoring from your top players, rely on your depth players who have previous Cup-winning experience and for your goaltender to perform at an elite level. During Monday’s rout, Jonathan Marchessault scored his 11th and 12th goals of the playoffs, Jack Eichel continued his extraordinary playoff run with two assists, Brett Howden added a brace of his own, while Adin Hill shut the door on a Panthers’ attack that created shots relentlessly but were left flummoxed. All three maxims were upheld by the Golden Knights.

Marchessault is shooting his way into the Conn Smythe conversation by catching fire during the final weeks of the postseason, while Eichel’s playoff debut is proving to be every bit worth the wait. Mark Stone was the hero in Game 1,…