LAS VEGAS -- Bill Foley stood at center ice amid the celebration at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday, a Stanley Cup champions hat on his head.
Mission accomplished.
Even before the NHL awarded Las Vegas an expansion team June 22, 2016, the owner said he wanted to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three seasons and win the Stanley Cup in six.
Now the Vegas Golden Knights had done it.
After making the Cup Final and losing to the Washington Capitals in five games in their inaugural season of 2017-18, they returned to the Cup Final and defeated the Florida Panthers in five games in their sixth season.
"This team was put together with a thought process to win the Stanley Cup in six years," Foley said after Vegas' 9-3 victory. "I made a silly statement six and a half years ago -- playoffs in three, Cup in six -- and the boys actually remembered it, and they played for it, and they did it."
It did seem silly at the time.
Plenty of people wondered whether an NHL team could survive in Las Vegas, let alone thrive. Foley recalled hearing, "Hockey in the desert? What are you going to do, play on the sand?"
He said he set the goal of winning the Cup in six seasons as a reaction to the doubt and criticism, and it wasn't exactly scientific.
"Well," he said, "I started with seven, I went to five and I came to six."
But the statement had a purpose, and it came from his background at the United States Military Academy at West Point and his successful business career.
"Set unrealistic goals, way above everyone's expectations, and overachieve," he said.
Without Foley, Las Vegas wouldn't have an NHL team, let alone the Stanley Cup.
Foley led a season-ticket drive to demonstrate local demand for hockey to the NHL Board of Governors, which didn't want an expansion team to rely on casinos and tourists.
He paid a $500 million expansion fee for the franchise, then invested millions of dollars more to turn it into a first-class organization. After hiring George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon, he gave them the resources and support to build the team into a champion.
"Bill has been great to work for from Day One," said McPhee, who started as general manager and became president of hockey operations Sept. 1, 2019, when McCrimmon was promoted from assistant GM to GM. "He understands the command structure, and he never denied us once.
"Every time we went to him with something, he said OK. We'd explain it. He'd ask some questions. But not once in six years has he said no to us on anything. He trusted us. You take heat at different times. That's the business. But he supported us, and we delivered."
McCrimmon said he and McPhee never looked at "Cup in six" as a deadline.
"I think everybody took it tongue-in-cheek," he said. "I thought we might be lucky to make the playoffs in six years. So, you know, it wasn't something that hung over us."
McCrimmon said the Golden Knights were aggressive over the six seasons -- parting with popular players and coaches, bringing in top talent, pushing the limits of the NHL salary cap -- not because of pressure from Foley.
"We're not doing this because Bill is cracking the whip and saying, 'We've got to win. We've got to win,'" he said. "George McPhee and I want to win. We want to win.
"We obviously communicate with Bill all the time. He's around our teams lots. I love that he's involved, because he sits in our meetings, he listens to our discussion, he gets our rationale, and because of that, he supports what we're doing.
"He, I think, is confident that we're doing really good work, so that alignment with Bill, George, myself, our staff, I think is the way an organization should run."
It was fitting that after the players took turns hoisting the Cup, McCrimmon hoisted it and then handed it to Foley with a huge smile. Foley has two bad shoulders and couldn't hoist it himself, so McCrimmon helped him hold it up before the two of them handed it off to McPhee.
"I just want my name on there," Foley said.
It will be, right on schedule.
Now the question becomes whether Vegas can do it again, and when.
"Hopefully [Foley] says next year we're winning again," said forward William Carrier, one of six players who have been with the Golden Knights from the beginning. "He seems to have everything right. He must have a crystal ball or something."
Pressed by reporters, Foley asked them to give him a month or two. At another point, he said, "Well, I'm not going to make a prediction this time, but we're not done."
