Fans have golden reactions to Vegas missing playoffs for first time ever

Apr 28 2022, 5:56 pm

It’s amazing how quickly the Vegas Golden Knights went from the darlings of the NHL to perhaps the league’s most hated team.

Also amazing? They’re going to miss the playoffs.

Vegas needed to beat the Chicago Blackhawks and have the Dallas Stars lose in regulation to the Arizona Coyotes last night to stay alive. Neither happened.

The Golden Knights were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, meaning the five-year-old franchise will miss the playoffs for the first time ever.

It’s truly a remarkable turn of events for Vegas, a team that entered the season as one of the top Stanley Cup contenders. The Golden Knights were hit hard by the injury bug, but perhaps they were also struck by the hockey gods.

Vegas has been criticized for how they treated Marc-Andre Fleury, who was traded to Chicago last offseason. They’ve also seemingly been able to land every big name that comes available on the trade market and free agency, including Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, and Jack Eichel.

They especially drew the ire of the rest of the league after trading for Eichel. Fans were suspicious when Stone went on injured reserve in February, just as Eichel was ready to return from injury. The move was seen by many as cap circumvention, similar to what the Tampa Bay Lightning appeared to get away with last season with Nikita Kucherov.

But instead of hoisting the Stanley Cup as Tampa did, Vegas took a nosedive.

Whatever the reason for their demise, one thing is clear: hockey fans outside of Nevada are loving every second of it. Whether it’s jealousy for a team that has had everything seemingly handed to it since it entered the NHL or just a desire to watch the world burn, fans had a lot of fun at Vegas’ expense last night.

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