Beginner's luck

You likely didn't hear much about this on ESPN, on account of LeBron 'n' them weren't involved. But the biggest sports story of the weekend just past was not the Cavaliers blowing out the Celtics or the Warriors blowing out the Rockets or Justify slopping to victory again in the mud and fog of the Preakness.

No, sir. The biggest sports story of the weekend happened miles north of all that, in Winnipeg.

That's where the Las Vegas Golden Knights won yet again to eliminate the hometown Jets in the NHL playoffs, which earned Vegas a spot in the Stanley Cup Final.  This is significant because the Golden Knights have never played in the Stanley Cup Final. And that's because, until this year, they didn't exist.

That's right, folks. Not only did the Golden Knights reach the playoffs in their inaugural year as an expansion franchise, they swept the Kings in the first round, then beat the Sharks in the second round, then knocked out the Jets in five games in the conference final. Now it's on to the Stanley Cup Final, and maybe, the Chalice itself.

You know what the odds of them making the Final were at the beginning of the season?

Five hundred to one.

That's because expansion franchises not only are not supposed to make the playoffs, they're generally expected to finish dead last. That's what happened to the New York Mets in their inaugural season of 1962, when they went 40-120.  It's what happened to the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints, both of whom finished 3-11 in their inaugural seasons of 1966 and 1967.

Closer to home, it's also what happened to the California Golden Seals in their inaugural NHL season of 1967-68, when they went 15-42-17.

Las Vegas, meanwhile, went 51-24-7 and won the Pacific Division in their first season.

What's astounding about that is, like most expansion franchises, Vegas put together a roster out of everyone's leftovers. This includes goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who had been decent but rarely spectacular between the pipes in 12 seasons with the Penguins. Last year, for instance, he was 18-10-7 with a goals-against of 3.02.

This season?

29-13-4 and 2.24. Oh, and 12-2-1 and 1.68 so far in the playoffs.

And so on the Golden Knights go behind their hot goalie, and if they win the Cup it will be the biggest sports story not just of one weekend but the entire year. Nothing else is going to remotely approach it. It won't quite be like Leicester winning the British Premier League in soccer a couple of years back, but it will be the most outrageous Cinderella story stateside since Team USA over Russia in the '80 Olympics, since Chaminade over Ralph Sampson and Virginia in the Maui Classic, since Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson in Tokyo.

Remember: 500-1.

Why, not even the hometown crowd in Lost Wages would have taken that action. Maybe.