The Athletic has live coverage of Stanley Cup Final Game 2 featuring the Golden Knights vs. Panthers
LAS VEGAS — It started with a group text in 2017 between all of the players that Vegas selected in that year’s expansion draft. Initially, the group chat was headlined by a collection of phone numbers with varying area codes, until then-Golden Knights winger James Neal gave it a title.
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“Golden Misfits”
In the beginning, the moniker was nothing more than a joke, which is what that group chat was created for in the first place. As hockey players do, they would all chirp each other mercilessly via text, and the new chat title poked fun at how they were all discarded by their former teams during expansion.
More than half a decade later, the nickname is still going strong. During Stanley Cup Final media day on Friday, in advance of Game 1 against Florida on Saturday, Vegas forward William Karlsson began to say “the original team” but then stopped himself. He smiled and continued, “the Misfits, that’s what we like to call ourselves, hold a special place in my heart, for sure.”
Karlsson is one of six players remaining from the inaugural season roster, along with Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb and William Carrier.
Mention the words “Golden Misfits” to any of them, and it’s sure to draw a grin. They remember that season fondly — the way a team full of strangers bonded instantly and shocked the hockey world. So many players elevated their games and took on entirely new roles that they’ve continued since. It was one of the most miraculous starts to any franchise in major pro sports history.
The only memory from that season that they don’t hold dear is the ending.
They can all vividly remember skating off the ice at T-Mobile Arena on June 7, 2018, as Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals paraded the Stanley Cup around their rink. Five years later, they’ve returned to the Cup Final with a heightened appreciation for the moment, and for what it will take to earn the ending they all desire.
“That first year was kind of a whirlwind,” Karlsson said. “We’d never been there before. Everything was just kind of flowing. I don’t know, maybe you took it for granted a little bit back then. Now, five years later, there have been ups and downs and you realize this opportunity doesn’t come around too often.”
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Marchessault said the conversations about finishing the job started while the players were still hugging on the ice at American Airlines Center in Dallas at the end of the Western Conference final, and the league officials were rolling the red carpet out for the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl.
“We’ve been through it,” he said. “Over the years you go through ups and downs. To be back, battling with those guys, and getting back here, that’s an opportunity of a lifetime. We have to take full advantage of it.”
In 2017-18, everything went the Golden Knights’ way, until it didn’t. It all happened so quickly that the players almost didn’t have time to think. No one expected them to be there in the first place, and when they lost in the Cup Final, they didn’t fully understand the gravity of the opportunity they had squandered.
Over the five years since, their failure to climb back to that peak has changed their perspective. They’ve entered every season with a roster more talented than the previous one, and with the expectation of returning, only to fall short. The two deep runs that ended in the conference finals in 2020 and 2021 both stung, but not nearly as much as missing the playoffs entirely in 2022.
They’ve taken lessons from it all and applied the experience this postseason in order to reach this point again.
“It just shows in our game how composed we are,” Marchessault said. “Being down or being up. Playing the right way. We have a veteran group here. We’ve been put in a lot of different situations over the past years, and we’ve responded pretty well.”
That’s a credit to the experienced winners the organization has brought in, like Alex Pietrangelo, Alec Martinez and Chandler Stephenson. It also shows how far the original players have come. They’re all in very different places in their lives and careers.
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Karlsson, Smith and Marchessault, in particular, have grown incredibly close. Since 2017, the members of the “Misfit Line” have shared the ice for more than 77 hours, and they’ve spent far more than that together off it. They’ve attended each other’s weddings, combined for charity softball games in the offseason to help the Las Vegas community, and opened a restaurant together. Marchessault built a home in Las Vegas and added two children to his family, while Karlsson added his first.
“I think those two guys are pretty special people,” Smith said. “You join a new team where you really don’t know too many people, and then six years later, they’re your best friends. It’s great to be able to play with these guys. We enjoy every minute we have with each other at the rink and away from the rink.”
What’s the best part about being Marchessault’s friend for six years?
“He sets up the tee times,” Smith responded without hesitation.
What’s the worst part?
“He’s always late for those tee times,” he quipped.
The three are inseparable, whether they’re combining for a gorgeous goal on an odd-man rush, or tackling each other against the boards as practice winds down.
A lot of key players on that first Cup Final run have departed the organization over the years. Neal, Marc-Andre Fleury, Nate Schmidt, Erik Haula, Alex Tuch and others have all moved on to other teams.
“That’s something that every hockey player has to go through in their life,” Marchessault said. “They have such good friends through the years, who get traded or retire. Everybody goes through it.”
That reality makes them appreciate the time they’ve all spent together even more.
“One hundred percent,” Marchessault said. “We all came in together and it’s been a great journey with them. If we can win it this year, it would be a cherry on top.”
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They’ve each done their part to get this far. Karlsson leads the team with a franchise-record 10 goals this postseason. Smith hasn’t been as hot offensively, but he’s combined with Karlsson to shut down opposing top lines on a nightly basis. Marchessault is second on the team with 17 points and has already scored three game-winning goals and a hat trick in these playoffs.
“It’s been fun, for sure,” Karlsson said of watching Marchessault’s success. “It’s nice to see a guy that you love play really well and contribute. You think about his back story and how he fought his way to get where he is today — that just makes it even better. I’m very happy for him and super glad that he’s on my team still.”
The three of them have a stranglehold on the Golden Knights’ franchise record books. Marchessault, Karlsson and Smith are all top-three all-time in goals and points in Vegas. In their shared 4,633 minutes of ice time over the regular season and playoffs, the Golden Knights have scored 288 goals.
“It’s pretty special that we’re still here, and we don’t take it for granted,” Smith said. “We’re pretty excited that we get another crack at this.”
In 2018, Vegas lost to an experienced Capitals squad that had come close for years but had yet to close the deal on a title, and desperately wanted one before it was too late. Those descriptors are oddly fitting for this version of the Golden Knights.
“We’re a veteran group and the fact is, there’s less hockey left (in our careers) than what we’ve played,” Marchessault said. “These opportunities don’t come often and you have to make the most of it.”
The perspective and desperation that the last five years have imparted on these players doesn’t guarantee a victory this time, and they’re well aware of that. For nearly every answer the three of them gave during Friday’s media day, they quickly followed up with “but we know Florida is hungry, too.”
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“The hardest games are yet to come,” Marchessault said. “So yeah, it’s definitely a different approach this time.”
That is the biggest difference between the 2018 and 2023 Golden Knights. They’re acutely aware of how difficult their next task will be, and equally mindful of what it will mean if they can pull it off.
Asked what winning a Cup would mean to him, Marchessault said, “The fact that if you’re a winner once in your life, no one can take that away from you. That’s what I’m searching for. I want to be a winner. Whatever people think of me, or say about me, they’ll never take away the fact that I could be a winner. That’s what drives me.”
(Photo of Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith and William Karlsson: Rich Graessle / NHLI via Getty Images)
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