Vegas as NHL villain is contrived and inaccurate

Vegas leads Florida 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals but while some NHL fans would prefer not to see the Golden Knights become champions in just their sixth season, it's unfair to paint them as the league's bad guys.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: How do you guys feel about the fact that the Vegas Golden Knights could win a Stanley Cup and-- are they like a villain? Are we using that in this final? I know the Cinderella story applies for the Florida Panthers? But like, do we feel any way about Vegas? We feel in a bad way about them. Remember they were--

SAM CHANG: [INAUDIBLE] still wearing a Vegas--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You have.

SAM CHANG: --shirt before.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You have.

SAM CHANG: I feel great.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: I just don't think they have a long enough history to be considered like a villain. Or they haven't, in that short history, done anything to sort of earn any contempt. Like, I don't know. Like, I think people want them to make them into this villain story because the city of Vegas itself. Oh my God, it's a land of frat boys, and bachelor parties, and all this stuff. I guess, sure. I've never been to Vegas.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: How many of those frat boys are from Vegas, though? Vegas, it seems like-- it seems like a town where if you're a frat boy, you go there.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Right, I think all the arguments against like Vegas being a villain are sort of contrived or it's about like they're--

SAM CHANG: They're too new and they haven't suffered enough to win, which is--

OMAR: I don't think so. To be honest, I think-- I think the them being too new they haven't suffered enough is definitely up there. I think the main reason why I see a lot of people clown on Vegas is so dumb because everyone can do it, is the same screenshot gets moved, gets shown. Oh, they're circumventing the cap. Oh, your $96 million. I'm like,

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Mark Stone.

OMAR: That's why people don't want them to win because they're cheating, just like Tampa was cheating, and just like all the teams that go over the cap are cheating. Even though everyone else can do it. You can do it too. I feel like that's a song. You can do it too.

Right every team has-- every team has done it. They're benefiting from it, whatever. It's like, oh, this is Gary's-- this is Gary's NHL, where the team that's $14 million over the cap can make it in the Stanley Cup Final, yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Shout out--

OMAR: The new rules.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Shout out the Vegas Golden Knights, too, who also have 16 Canadians on their team.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Do they really?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: They're truly-- they're Canada's team.

SAM CHANG: I think they have the highest number of Canadians in the league.

OMAR: Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, I'm not really cheering for teams. I'm just cheering for players. So I'm only cheering for Vegas because I want Phil to get another cup ring.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I slept-- I slept on Vegas all playoffs long. And I know I kind of did that with Florida, too. But kinda want to see Vegas do it. Like, that would be really fun to see them win the Stanley Cup so soon. That's a cool story. I don't mind that at all. I'm OK with that. They had all these different goalies that were going through. And Aiden Hill ends up being the guy that leads them to the promised land? That's a pretty big story.

OMAR: Save of the playoffs.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That final save. What a save.

OMAR: Unreal, unreal stuff.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Also, Jack Eichel gets a cup before Connor McDavid does?

OMAR: Yo, yo. I didn't even think--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Jack Eichel has never lost a playoff series.

OMAR: Yo, I didn't even think about that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Spicy.

SAM CHANG: I also just I-- I have like a genuine sore spot from Mark Stone. I think that would be--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, it's cool to see. I'm with you guys, too. I've said on the show, like OK, who cares? It's a loophole that's available to everybody. The fact that he's able to play, he's able to contribute at a high level, good for Mark Stone. Are we making the Vegas Golden Knights the good guys?

SAM CHANG: Not guys [INAUDIBLE]. I said to you all along, I think there are multiple episodes where I've been like, why is everyone saying they're the underdogs? They were the number one seed in the West. This makes no sense to me.

OMAR: Yeah, Sam. Sam's been cooking all year for that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sam been cooking.