NHL Stanley Cup Final 2023: Celebration Highlights, More from Golden Knights' Victory (2024)

The Vegas Golden Knights are the 2023 Stanley Cup Champions following a 4-1 series win over the Florida Panthers that was never that close.

The Western Conference champions dominated the ice throughout the series, capping it off with a barrage of goals Tuesday night in front of a home crowd that watched the first world title victory in franchise history.

"I've never had so much fun in my life," forward and series star Jonathan Marchessault told Sportsnet after the game. "... It's the most proud group I've ever had."

Marchessault won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP after finishing with 13 postseason goals and 25 points.

The Golden Knights star did not take the credit for the team's success, though, telling reporters, "There's a bunch of guys that stepped up at the right time. This year's playoffs, every round, there was somebody that stepped up. You don't get here by just one or two guys. It takes the full effort of the organization. It's something that we can really be proud of."

Vegas put up nine goals in Game 5 on an overmatched Panthers squad, never really giving Florida a chance to work the magic that helped the Eastern Conference champions come from behind and eliminate favorite Boston in the first round.

Jack Eichel, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NHL draft, rediscovered his love of hockey after years of injuries and lack of success with the Buffalo Sabres.

"It's the hardest thing in the world. So many people go through their whole career without having the opportunity to hoist a Stanley Cup. I think it's only human nature to let some doubt creep in when you don't make the playoffs for an extended period of time. You're wondering if it will ever happen," he told reporters.

Eichel finished his postseason run with six goals and 20 assists for 26 points.

After years of chasing a playoff victory in Toronto, veteran Phil Kessel hoisted his third Stanley Cup on Tuesday. He had won two with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"Takes me back to my Toronto days. You guys said I couldn't win, and now I'm a three-time champ, remember that," he told The Hockey News after the game (h/t CBS News).

Zach Whitecloud became the first indigenous player from the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation to win the Stanley Cup and expressed his pride in his culture to Sportsnet after the game.

The Golden Knights began as a hodgepodge of cast-offs, a team born of an expansion draft with no real expectations. Six players remained from that first team—"misfits," as team captain Mark Stone called them.

Those players?

Reilly Smith, Shea Theodore, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, William Carrier and the aforementioned Marchessault.

On the heels of a Cup-clinching hat trick, Stone made sure it was those six Golden Knights OGs that had the opportunity to hoist the ultimate prize first.

"But once we had that big lead with a couple of minutes left, I looked at Smitty and thought it meant a lot to hand it to those six guys," he told Gene Principe of Sportsnet.

"Those guys are a big part of the reason why we're standing here today, creating the culture that is the Vegas Golden Knights."

A team of misfits, journeymen, stars only in their own locker room and grizzled veterans helped fuel the Golden Knights to their first championship.

Their victory wrapped up an unpredictable, unforgettable postseason that began with their opponents, the Panthers, ousting Boston in a seven-game series and eliminating Toronto in the second round. It included top seeds eliminated in their opening matchups, stars like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews suffering early exits, and ended with the best team celebrating the ultimate victory.