Vegas Golden Knights Fans Have It Better Than Any Fan Base in the NHL

It’s not about the Golden Knights sitting at 5-1 to start their inaugural season, the team on a pace for 137 points and James Neal headed toward an 82-goal campaign that will result in his equipment being bronzed and placed in the lobby of the MGM Grand; everything that has transpired so far is just icing on a cake that will eventually go bad, but it doesn’t even matter that the cake will go bad.

Yeah, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but this winning you’re enjoying will eventually stop. It would be great if the Knights could play half their games against the Buffalo Sabres and Arizona Coyotes all season but eventually the schedule will have fewer freebies and the losses will mount. The start to this season is like a great blackjack run, only the NHL won’t let you leave the table with your winnings and a new dealer will eviscerate your chip stack and laugh while doing it.

That’s the incredible beauty of being a Golden Knights fan in Las Vegas—even when you lose, you win. Losing all your chips now is no big deal.

There’s no other franchise in sports that can boast that guarantee. You’re an expansion team. You’re supposed to lose. You want to lose. You want to pick as high as possible in the next few drafts so you can stockpile players that will represent the foundation for the future of the franchise when the games matter. The Knights can lose 15 of 16 and there’s no reason to despair.

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You’re George Costanza doing the opposite. You’re free. You have no real attachments yet. Neal has 36 goals at the trade deadline and is shipped to Montreal? Great! He was a temporary asset anyway! Oh no, you fell behind the Coyotes in the standings? Super! That means better odds in the draft lottery!

Imagine the life of a Washington Capitals fan the past two seasons. There was no more miserable existence in hockey. They ran away with consecutive Presidents’ Trophies and any fan that tells you they enjoyed those seasons to their fullest is lying, because they all knew the playoff letdown was inevitable. They were in a position where wins and losses didn’t matter because they had years of postseason baggage weighing down every moment of what should have been pure joy.

You’re a Knights fan? You lost 8-0 to Nashville? Who cares! If you win, great, enjoy it; if you lose, great, enjoy it more! You can carry this attitude into next season, too. You don’t have a care in the world right now. You just want to bank a few nice memories here and there to tide you over until it’s time to show signs of consistency and improvement.

That time isn’t now. Ignore your owner’s declaration of playoffs in three years and championship in five years. Don’t saddle yourself with expectations. Bill Foley is like that societal pressure to have your life figured out by 25, be married by 30, a homeowner by 35. That may have been a reasonable goal in the 1940s much the way a championship was more reasonable in 1940 because there were only six teams, but this is the modern world where everyone has a different timeline for getting to where they want to be. There’s no need to start feeling bad about things because the Knights aren’t where someone says they should be in five years.

Besides, is there a better city in the world to have a fledgling hockey team than Vegas?

If you’re a Jets fan, you’re in Winnipeg. If you’re a Sabres fan, you’re in Buffalo. If you’re a Devils fan, you’re in New Jersey. If you’re a Coyotes fan, you’re in Arizona, which is like Vegas with all the barren desert and none of the fun.

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But you’re in Vegas, or at least a short drive from Vegas. You walk outside after a Knights loss and you have warm weather, legalized sports gambling, free drinks, the ability to walk with and consume said drinks outdoors, casinos, and live performances from the biggest entertainers in the world.

You walk outside after a loss in Winnipeg, and you have bears roaming the streets looking to feast on human flesh, winters so harsh that only bears can flourish and… I don’t know, ski bandits? Like the plot of Point Break, only it’s local skiers funding their trips up the mountain by robbing locals leaving the arena while wearing masks of previous prime ministers? I’m willing to write that script for the right price.

There will come a time, however, when the honeymoon period ends and you will become the same miserable, tortured, perpetually disappointed hockey fans like everyone else. You will cringe when you see a great young player on another team because your GM passed on him to take a player that retired to paint in Slovakia. You will tremble when NHL Network shows an old clip of Vegas losing an elimination game in overtime during a year the Knights should have made a deep run. You will call for the blood of a player that severely injured your player with a dirty hit (probably Dustin Brown now that Shane Doan has retired).

But that’s a couple years away. For now, you are pure, unsullied by the worst-run league in the world and naive to all that awaits you. You are a child unaware that your parents will be divorced in a few years and Santa Claus isn’t real. You think your grandparents will live forever and your stuffed animals enjoy your tea parties. Any sadness you feel is fleeting and temporary.

These are the best days of your life. Soak them in while you can and maybe place a few parlay bets with the Knights’ money line, too.

Presented by Canada Sports Betting