The Vegas Golden Knights just lost in the Stanley Cup Final, advancing to the championship series for the third time in nine seasons. Many times, teams that play a lot of postseason hockey end up with the shortest summers and little to no time to prepare for the next season, win or lose in the Final.
For example, the Florida Panthers failed to make the playoffs last season after three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final. Golden Knights’ rival, the Edmonton Oilers, struggled for most of last season to string together consecutive wins and bowed out of the playoffs in the first round after back-to-back Western Conference titles.
Chasing championship glory comes with many bumps and bruises, and with limited time to recover in the summer, some teams suffer from a playoff “hangover” and stumble at the start of the next season.
Today, we look at how Vegas has performed following their previous trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
Golden Knights finally suffer through many highs and lows (2018-19)
Everyone remembers the Golden Knights’ first season, 2018-19, when the expansion team won the Pacific Division title with a 51-24-7 record before going 12-3 en route to the Final. However, that’s where the good times ended as Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals captured the Stanley Cup in five games, ending the Golden Knights’ magical season.
Vegas’s last game was on June 7, 2018, and they kicked off the 2018-19 season on Oct. 4, 2018, just 117 days apart. They dropped their opener 5-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers and were 1-4-0 before a three-game winning streak righted the ship a little. By the end of October, the Golden Knights were 5-6-1 with a goal differential of minus-7 (34-27).
Thankfully, things improved in November, thanks to a five-game win streak to finish the month. However, Vegas was treading water at 14-12-1 after 27 games. The Golden Knights rolled through December with a 9-3-3 record, finishing the calendar year at 23-15-4 through 42 games with a plus-7 goal differential of 128-115.
From Dec. 27, 2018, until Jan. 8, 2019, Vegas won a season-high seven games, outscoring opponents 23-9, but scoring a single power-play goal on 19 opportunities. Although January started with a bang, the club finished 6-4-0, barely outscoring opponents throughout the entire month, 29-25. Through 52 games, the Golden Knights were in a comfortable position with a 29-19-4 record.
Things began to fall apart in February, when Vegas went 5-7-1, their first losing month since October. They were outscored 47-38 and gave up 11 power-play goals on 42 chances. At least a 10-1-0 streak from Feb. 26 to Mar. 21 kept the Golden Knights in the hunt for the division crown once again.
Ahead of the final stretch of the campaign, Vegas had a 42-27-5 record before a dismal 1-5-2 closed out the regular season, landing the Golden Knights in third place in the Pacific Division with 93 points, eight points behind first-round opponents, the San Jose Sharks.
Of course, this series, which went to Game 7, will always be remembered for Cody Eakin's five-minute major for cross-checking Joe Pavelski, which sparked a Sharks' three-goal comeback in the third period before San Jose won in overtime.
Golden Knights stumble through Stanley Cup hangover (2024-25)
One year after failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in team history, the franchise bounced back and won it all in 2023-24, defeating the Panthers on June 13, 2023, for hockey’s grandest prize. A mere 119 days later, the champions were back at it, picking up right where they left off.
After defeating the Seattle Kraken 4-1 in the season opener on Oct. 10, 2023, Vegas won its first seven games, going 11-0-1 to begin its title defense. Moreover, they doubled up their opponents on the scoreboard, 50-24. However, reality hit in November, when they stumbled to a 6-5-3 record, and in December, when the Golden Knights compiled a 7-5-1 record, barely beating teams with a goal differential of plus-4 (49-45).
If it wasn’t for such a hot start, Vegas could have been in trouble, going just 13-10-4 in the year’s final two months. Things didn’t get any better at the start of 2024, as they dropped their first two contests of the calendar year before finishing January 7-5-1, scoring just one more goal than their opponents (36-35).
Interestingly, February was the first month in almost a full year that the Golden Knights posted a losing record, finishing 4-5-1 and bringing their season record to 33-20-7 after 60 games. At least in the 14 games in March, Vegas turned things around slightly, posting an 8-5-1 record, but for the second consecutive month, they were outscored, this time 44-42.
They finished the season with a .500 record, going 4-4-0, earning the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference and drawing the Dallas Stars in round one. In another hard-fought series, the Stars eliminated the Golden Knights in Game 7.
In the season following a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, Vegas would still go on to win at least 43 games, but come nowhere near contending for the top spot in the Pacific Division.
Considering a handful of the team’s core players are still around from the 2023-24 season, will this year’s club suffer through the same ups and downs as previous lineups, or will the injection of Rasmus Andersson and Carter Hart for a full season change the franchise’s trajectory following a significant playoff loss?
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