Reilly Smith getting the first Stanley Cup pass was perfectly fitting

The Vegas assistant captain is one of the six original Golden Knights.

Reilly Smith got the Stanley Cup second.

After Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone took the silverware from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, took a small lap, he passed it to the Vegas assistant captain that had been there from the beginning.

Smith is one of the original Golden Knights, the golden misfits, and was one of just six remaining from the inaugural team to make it this long and see out Bill Foley’s grand wish of a “cup in six.”

There will be, and has already been, lots of commentary on that group and their impact in Vegas. Jonathan Marchessault deservingly won the Conn Smythe, William Karlsson was great this postseason, Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy knowingly started five original Golden Knights for the opening face-off of Game 5.

But I want to focus on Smith, his impact, the post-game celebration, and the reality that Vegas wasn’t master built, but rather lucked into an initial foundation they then built upon.

I covered the first game in Vegas history. It was Oct. 6, 2017 in Dallas. It was an emotional game, played just five days after a mass shooting rocked the Las Vegas community, and during the national anthem the Stars stood behind the Golden Knights on the blue line in an act of solidarity.

Then Dallas came out and dominated play. Alexander Radulov planted Cody Eakin in the neutral zone with a crushing hit, the Stars were buzzing, and Marc-Andre Fleury’s play was the only reason Dallas wasn’t up by at least a couple at the end of the first period.

Smith changed the course of history with slap shot on the rush in the third period. His shot drilled Ben Bishop squared in the face, the Stars goalie had to leave the game and was pulled by the concussion spotter, and Kari Lehtonen entered the game cold and made himself small on a pair of goals by James Neal that gave Vegas a 2-1 victory.

Vegas had won, but I remember driving home from the rink thinking it was an expansion team that would have extremely rough sledding on nights Fleury didn’t make close to 50 saves.

You may remember that Vadim Shipachyov hadn’t played in that game for Vegas. The Golden Knights hadn’t made room for him on the roster, and the KHL-import who was supposed to be their first star was technically still with the Chicago Wolves for cap reasons.

Smith knocking Bishop out of the game allowed Vegas to kick the Shipachyov decision down the line, they kept winning, and eventually the Russian forward and Vegas mutually decided he wasn’t a fit after just three NHL games with the franchise.

If Vegas had lost the first game, and been out-shot the way they were by Dallas, George McPhee would have found a way to get Shipachyov into the lineup sooner. It would be have been a necessity before the home opener, and who knows if Vegas would have had the same chemistry it built and eventually rolled into a surprising Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2018.

For me it’s why the Twitter remarks that the, “NHL gifted Vegas a great team,” are faulty and frustrating. It wasn’t a great team at the start, Vegas left meat on the bone at the expansion draft, many of us made fun of what they did, and both McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon have admitted then and now that the early days were supposed to come with some struggles. Everyone makes a big deal about Foley’s “playoffs in three, cup in six” declaration, but they often miss that he expected the team to miss the playoffs the first two seasons with that line of thinking.

It’s why Smith getting the Stanley Cup second in 2023 is so fitting.

From the very first game, Vegas’ success has been built on capitalizing after the roll of the dice goes their way. Give McPhee and McCrimmon credit for aggressively making moves in recent years, but those moves only worked because the puck and game bounced a certain way in a chaotic sport beforehand — like a slapshot off Ben Bishop’s mask.

Smith’s post-game demeanor was also fitting. Smith is more of an introvert, he’s comfortable with those in his circle in small media settings, but he’s visibly uncomfortable in scrums large groups. At Stanley Cup media day, Smith kindly answered questions, but he was also shaking at the podium, uncomfortable with the attention and circus around him.

On the ice after Game 5, as he was joined on the ice by his family, holding his daughter Isla, he didn’t want the media attention. Reporters came near, multiple times, and multiple times he asked politely for media members to talk to someone else.

Smith, ending up giving some interviews, but the polite decline, which most media members respected, spoke more to the moment. Smith and Vegas were never supposed to be in the spotlight, he was a throw-in at the expansion draft, he was supposed to be expandable, part of the roster churn as the franchise built for real success. But here, six years later, here he was getting the Cup right after the captain.

Smith and Vegas are a success story, what they did this season is well deserved, but it’s also important to remember that great stories often need a lucky break whether it’s in the first game of franchise history or somewhere else along the ride.