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Vegas Golden Knights: 4 bugaboos that proved to be the downfall in WCF

By Andrew Steele-Davis

The Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars shake hands following the Stars 3-2 overtime victory in Game Five of the Western Conference Final. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars shake hands following the Stars 3-2 overtime victory in Game Five of the Western Conference Final. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars shake hands following the Stars 3-2 overtime victory in Game Five
The Vegas Golden Knights and the Dallas Stars shake hands following the Stars 3-2 overtime victory in Game Five of the Western Conference Final. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

There were four key factors behind the Vegas Golden Knights’ elimination.

The Stanley Cup dream is over for at least another year for the Vegas Golden Knights after they were beat in five games in the Western Conference Final by the Dallas Stars.

It was a crushing end to what had been a season full of promise and high expectations for the Golden Knights, but they more than met their match in the Stars who will now play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.

This Golden Knights team was built to win right now so failing to make the Stanley Cup Final can only be seen as a huge disappointment, even though that seems a baffling statement given that they are a third-year expansion team.

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However, the front office made two huge moves during the course of the regular season, moves that made it clear they were all in to win this year.

First, they sent ripples through the hockey world by firing popular Head Coach Gerard Gallant, who had led this team to a Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural year.

To make matters worst, Pete DeBoer, the former Head Coach of Vegas’ loathed rivals the San Jose Sharks and the architect of the Knights’ postseason downfall in 2018-19, was lined up as a direct replacement.

Secondly, the Golden Knights did something they had previously vowed to stay away from by acquiring a pure rental in elite goalie Robin Lehner from the Chicago Blackhawks at the Trade Deadline.

Those two hugely significant moves made it abundantly clear that anything other than lifting Lord Stanley this year would be viewed as a bitter disappointment and, ultimately, that’s exactly what ended up happening.

There were a plethora of reasons why the Vegas Golden Knights failed to get past Dallas in the Western Conference Final, but we decided to round up the four main factors behind their demise…

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