The Stanley Cup Champions!

 Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup Championship! This is a pretty big deal, as the teams I'm rooting for usually never win the championship in any of the sports I follow.  But it's more than that, I actually am an NHL fan because of the Golden Knights! 

I'm sure I've shared this story before, but here it is again. 

Way back in 2016, when the team name and logo was announced, there was a thread on the Trading Card Database talking about the new logo, but not showing it. I remembered that I got the NHL Network so I put it on to see it, after the discussion- completely negative, as usual- mentioned that it was ancient themed, which is a major passion of mine. I had to see it. Well, I put it on sometime in the morning the next day, and On the Fly was repeating. I saw the logo, but I saw SO much more. I got hooked...it was quick, it was complete, I was an NHL and hockey fan from that day forward. I think I watched On the Fly repeating three times that day. Later that night, I found a local game on- all three of the teams that I get local broadcasts for played that night, and I don't remember which one it was that I saw. I know I didn't see the whole game. I was watching in secret at that point. Only in my room with my  headphones on. I wanted to be sure it was going to be something I was going to stick with before I told my family. I kept watching in secret for the remainder of the 2016 calender year, and the start of  2017, but I couldn't keep it a secret much longer, it was taking up more and more of the thoughts and due to my health-based schedule, I was starting to miss stuff I wanted to watch when I was eating with my family, so in mid-January, I announced I was a hockey fan right here on Cardboard History, with a post humorously titled "Cardboard History on Ice". 

The very next day, I began actively collecting hockey cards. If you've been reading my writings for a while, you may have noticed that hockey now takes up the majority of my collecting posts. I've been heavily collecting, and learning the history of the sport through cards. I still have a LOT to learn, of course, but now I feel like I actually know some things and can carry on a real conversation about the sport. I am approaching 30,000 different cards and expect to hit that mark by the time the 2023-24 season starts. (I could probably get there right now if I went through everything I have stashed away, sent to me by friends in the hobby)

Of course, I started watching before the Knights began playing, and in that half a season I watched the Rangers took top spot for me...but I will ALWAYS be a Golden Knights supporter due to their essential role in getting me into my new passion. It always works out well for me because they play in the Pacific time zone, so when the east coast games end I would usually switch to them on Center Ice. They are right there at the top for me. 

Of course, my watching of hockey and the awesomeness of the sport itself soon got my mom hooked on hockey as well, and she is also a Knights fan...even if not as much since they ditched Marc-Andre Fleury...so we are both very happy to see them hoisting the Stanley Cup last night! Just for fun, here is my favorite Knights card of each of the players who raised the Cup last night, if I have them: 

Starting with the 6 original Golden Knights that remain on the team, Jonathan Marchessault was literally a bribe by the Panthers to take Reilly Smith, something I'm sure they are regretting now!

This was the very first Golden Knights card I ever got! 

Next comes the only Captain in team history...

now the rest of the skaters in alphabetical order. I have NO cards at all for Paul Cotter, Brayden Pachal, 

No Knights card yet for several players

Several skaters played for the team earlier in the season but were not on the playoff roster: 

Pavel Dorofyev, Byron Froese, Daniil Miromanov, Sheldon Rempal and Jonas Rondjberg either do not appear in my collection yet.

 

Jake Leschyshyn played with the Knights earlier in the season before being claimed on waivers by the Rangers, making him I believe the first player to play for my two favorite teams in the same season. 

The Knights had a pretty crazy goalie situation this season. Robin Lehner, who was supposed to be the starter, missed the entire season after surgery. 

Logan Thompson started the season, even becoming an all-star in his first full season...

with Laurent Brossoit backing him up. I amazingly don't have any cards of him, or at least not scanned. After they both went down with injury, Jiri Patera was called up and he also doesn't have any cards. Then they had to make two trades at the trade deadline, bringing in...

and 

Adin Hill, who started the season as the third string goaling on the Sharks, would be in net for the majority of the playoffs, with only Laurent Brossiot appearing in any other playoff games. All but Patera did come out and take their skate with the Stanley Cup which was cool to see. 

I've actually ordered a Stanley Cup Champions T-Shirt for the Knights, which will only be my second hockey shirt. If I remember, I'll post it when it arrives. 

This is a hockey high I'm going to be riding for quite a long time!