The Golden Knights are the villains of the NHL

The Vegas Golden Knights find themselves one win away from the Stanley Cup Final, and unless you’re a fan of the team, there’s a very strong chance that you’re not happy about it. That’s because the Golden Knights have done a fantastic job of cementing themselves as the villain of the NHL.

There are plenty of reasons to hate Vegas. Whether it’s a current reason, like the recent drama of the team blocking Bruce Cassidy from other jobs or the controversial signing of Carter Hart; to long-standing ones, like their ruthlessness towards moving on from core players or how their fans have got off easy in the misery department; fewer teams have united front of fans hating them. But the Golden Knights don’t care.

Jeff Marek joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton on Daily Faceoff Live to talk about the Golden Knights and how they’ve become the league’s most hateable team.

Jeff Marek: Here’s the reason I like Vegas. I’ve always felt that the NHL needs a villain team. That everybody hates. And for the longest time it was the Rangers, and now it’s Vegas. Everybody can get behind hating the Vegas Golden Knights, and I think that’s really good for hockey. I think that’s great.

Every team wants to be the good guys and, “Everyone loves us, even if you don’t love us, at least you respect us, and there’s no real animosity”. People are really, really hating on the Vegas Golden Knights. I think this is such a healthy thing for the NHL.

I know it’s awkward. I know the NHL isn’t exactly on the same page with the Vegas Golden Knights for a number of reasons right now. Take your pick, and it is a laundry list. But ultimately, I really do think that hockey always needs at least one evil empire that the rest of the league can get behind hating. I think it’s healthy for the game, and especially for a game like today with a salary cap, you need a team like this. I think Vegas is the perfect example right now. Easy to hate.

Carter Hutton: I also think in a hockey world too, we’ve always been so loyal to our players and what they’ve done for the organization. So it is kind of new that it’s like, “We’re just going to move on from you. Next guy in, let’s go, let’s keep rolling”.

And they’ve done what they could. They took advantage of how they came in the league and they’ve made big moves and they’ve been very conscious of that.

You can watch the full episode here…