There’s no question the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs will be one of the oddest in recent memory. There are 24 teams, a play-in round, a round-robin for seeding in two buildings in Canada, neither of which will have fans.
There are two ways of looking at it.
The first is that this Stanley Cup is played in the world of coronavirus, where a shortened season led to an expanded playoff field where anyone might be ruled medically ineligible at any moment. That kind of ambiguity could knock the validity of this year’s championship.
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The second is the one held by all the Golden Knights asked after their first practice on Monday: that all the idiosyncrasies of this year’s Stanley Cup make it that much more valuable.
“Every team is healthy, everybody is rested from their little boo-boos and ready to go, so it’s going to be a tough Stanley Cup to win,” Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “At the end of the day, your name is on the Stanley Cup, so it’s going to be like the other ones, I think.”
He’s right, of course. The actual Cup wouldn’t have an asterisk, and should the Golden Knights win, their names will go right alongside all the past winners and those still to come.
The Golden Knights have Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Alex Tuch back, all of whom were set to miss regular season games had the season not paused. Every other team is in the same boat. Injuries and fatigue entering the postseason are as close to a nonfactor as they’ve ever been.
But there are other factors, like this imaginary scenario: The Montreal Canadiens are the 24th-ranked team in the tournament. They won 31 of their 71 games this season and under normal circumstances would have finished the year 10 points out of a playoff spot.
But they also have a goalie many players consider to be the league’s best in Carey Price. What if he gets hot, the Canadiens get some bounces and end up in the Stanley Cup Final?
What if they face the Golden Knights, and on the morning of Game 1, Mark Stone and Marc-Andre Fleury test positive for COVID-19, can’t play, and the Canadiens win the Cup?
Fans in Vegas would revolt, claiming that had their best forward and their starting goaltender not contracted the disease that allowed the Canadiens into the tournament in the first place, the Golden Knights would have won.
Granted, maybe that’s dealing too much in hypotheticals, but it underscores the realities of the situation. With more teams playing a tournament under the specter of a global pandemic, the potential for unpredictability is off the charts.
The Golden Knights say the chaos not only doesn’t detract from the prestige of winning this year, it amplifies it.
“I definitely don’t think there’s going to be an asterisk. I’ve heard some guys say it in the media before, but it’s probably going to be the hardest Stanley Cup to win,” forward Nick Cousins said. "It’s going to be probably some of the best hockey that’s been played in the playoffs, in my opinion, in the last 10 years, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Bizarre seasons are more or less lost to history, too. People don’t remember the Chicago Blackhawks’ championship in 2013 or the New Jersey Devils’ victory in 1995 as cheapened because they came in lockout-shortened regular seasons. They remember them as parts of larger dynasties.
That’s how the Golden Knights view this season. If they win the Cup, it’s unlikely that years from now the conversation around their championship will start with “Yeah, but …”
Flags, after all, do fly forever.
“I’ll tell you what, people are going to remember who won this Stanley Cup,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think it’s a spectacular format. I think it’s going to be outstanding hockey, and whoever wins it will have earned it.”
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