Everyone loves a good story of an athlete overcoming some adversity. They see a player take a literal puck to the face and see his nose get deformed six ways to Sunday, only to come back for the next game, cage and all. That story is up there with one of the greatest stories in sports history, whether it's Michael Jordan playing sick or Kirk Gibson hitting a home run with a bad leg.
The same can be said for a gang of Misfits that nobody expected to win. A community was reeling from a tragic mass shooting that killed 58 on October 1, 2017, leaving an entire city shaken. What did these underdogs do? They donated blood, honored first responders, and pulled off one of the most unlikely Western Conference champion runs in NHL history.
You can probably guess which athlete in the first paragraph is being talked about here. That would be none other than Brayden McNabb, who endured that puck to the face in Game 2. Two days later, he makes it back onto the ice and scores two assists, including one on the game-winning goal from Shea Theodore.
I don't know about you. But that made me think of Rocky Balboa, the legendary boxer from film lore who was a fighter. It didn't matter if it was a stoic Soviet or Mr. T that he was fighting. The Philadelphia icon overcame every obstacle in his way to become a champion.
That could be something that catapults the Vegas Golden Knights to another Stanley Cup. Players like Brayden McNabb will do whatever it takes to get back on the ice and win, similar to what the Misfits did in their first season with the Golden Knights. Maybe we should pitch a film idea to get McNabb's story to Hollywood.
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