Foul Mood Friday: Three Things That Could Go Wrong for the Golden Knights Next Season

Life is great! The Vegas Golden Knights became Stanley Cup Champions in just their sixth year of existence. William Karlsson gave the greatest championship speech of all time. Adin Hill became a hero and Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe.

What could possibly go wrong for the Golden Knights next season?

Goaltending: The Golden Knights used five different goaltenders in the 2022-23 season. Show of hands, who had Jonathan Quick getting the Stanley Cup handed to him by Alec Martinez on their 2023 bingo card? The Golden Knights became the first team in history to have four goaltenders’ names etched into the Stanley Cup.

Looking ahead to the 2023-24 season, Logan Thompson and Hill are expected to share the net with Jiri Patera next up should there be an injury. Hill and Thompson are a great tandem to have and if healthy, they could be one of the best tandems in the league. That is the key, if healthy.

In the regular season, Thompson appeared in 37 games and Hill appeared in 27 games. Laurent Brossoit, Quick, and Patera chopped up the remaining regular season games. Quick and Brossoit are gone. The Golden Knights are one goaltending injury away from turning the net to someone with two career starts. This is a concern.

Stanley Cup Vegas Flu Hangover: That is what you get when you combine the Stanley Cup hangover with the Vegas flu. There is no known cure. Coach Bruce Cassidy, general manager Kelly McCrimmon, and any player from the 2022-23 Stanley Cup-winning team will never have to pay for a meal or a drink in this town again.

The Golden Knights played more games than any team in the National Hockey League last season. It will be a short summer to heal. A short summer filled with long days of drinking at beach clubs, long nights of drinking at night clubs, and a month of Stanley Cup parties.

The Golden Knights players, coaches, and management earned the right to let loose and celebrate their Stanley Cup victory. Will the Golden Knights be able to get back in game shape by the start of the 2023-24 season? Depends if doctors have found a cure for the Stanley Cup Vegas Flu Hangover by September.

The Golden Knights luck will run out: Everyone has to acknowledge that luck plays a part in a team’s championship in any sport. The Golden Knights experienced both sides of the luck variance. Bad luck in the sense that the injury bug hit hard in the last half of the season. Good luck that the team returned to nearly full health, and stayed that way, throughout the playoffs.

The Golden Knights were lucky that Mark Stone’s back injury occurred at the right time that gave him enough time to rehab and return for game one of the playoffs.

The goaltenders also hit both sides of the luck variance. Good luck that it did not seem to matter who they put in the net during the second half of the season as they won the Pacific Division. Bad luck that five different starting goalies has to be used.