LAS VEGAS -- Bill Foley said it as far back as February 2016.
He wasn't the owner of the Vegas Golden Knights yet. There wasn't even a team yet, let alone a name, logo, general manager, coach or roster. The NHL wouldn't award Las Vegas an expansion franchise for four more months.
But he had a timeline in mind.
"Playoffs in three, Cup in six," Foley said then, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "No excuses. That's the standard. I consider that being very patient."
Make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three seasons? Win the Stanley Cup in six?
At the time, that seemed very impatient.
But the Golden Knights almost did both in their first season, making the Cup Final and losing to the Washington Capitals in five games in 2017-18. They made the playoffs again in their second season, the Western Conference Final again in their third, the third round again in their fourth.
And now, in their sixth season, they can hoist the Stanley Cup by defeating the Florida Panthers in Game 5 of the Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS). They lead the best-of-7 series, 3-1.
"Well, after we lost in the [Final in 2018], Bill said, 'OK, now Stanley Cup in three,'" said forward Reilly Smith, one of the six players remaining from the Golden Knights' inaugural season. "So, I don't know if that got published, but we've felt like we've had the team every year to push and challenge for the Stanley Cup. We're still here today."
Yep. Here they are with a chance to win the Cup in six.
If they do it, it would be incredible.
"Bill does a lot of good things, right?" said forward Jonathan Marchessault, another one of the six players remaining from the first season. "So, I mean, maybe he saw something that we didn't see."
Foley's words weren't a prophecy or prediction. He didn't set a deadline. What he did was set a goal that would guide the Golden Knights to this point. In that sense, this is no accident.
"My goal is playoffs in three and Stanley Cup in six," Foley told NHL.com in an interview in August 2017, before Vegas had played a game. "And I believe if you set goals and you talk about goals, it becomes embedded in a culture of a group of people, you'll achieve those goals."
Go back through the early history of the Golden Knights, and you see how often Foley and others mentioned the Cup. Sometimes, they seemed tongue-in-cheek. Other times, they seemed serious. But the standard was set.
The NHL awarded Las Vegas an expansion franchise June 22, 2016. When George McPhee was introduced as general manager July 13, 2016, he didn't try to keep expectations in check.
"Our mission here is clear," McPhee said in his press conference. "We're going to build an organization and a team that people in Nevada and Las Vegas will be very, very proud of, and we're going to do it quickly, and we're aiming at the Stanley Cup. That simple."
Foley and McPhee sat on stage at Toshiba Plaza outside T-Mobile Arena on Oct. 8, 2016, before the Colorado Avalanche played the Los Angeles Kings in a preseason game. A relatively small group of fans came to hear them answer questions in the same place where thousands come for pregame parties now.
"I think it's going to be a fantastic place to play, and our objective is to win quickly and to ultimately win the Stanley Cup," McPhee told the fans. "Players will go anywhere if it's a good team to win a Cup, and they're certainly going to want to come here."
Someone asked McPhee if Foley's goal was realistic, which shows two things in hindsight: Foley's goal was well known even then, and people wondered if it was fantasy.
McPhee had assembled the core of the staff he still has today as president of hockey operations, including Kelly McCrimmon, who started as assistant general manager and is now GM.
He told the fans he was encouraged after the staff went through its first mock expansion drafts.
"I think it's going to be better for us than I anticipated," McPhee told the fans. "And so it means we're better, and we'll do really well in the entry draft. I said when I first got here, I want to win right away and win Cups."
Foley and McPhee returned to Toshiba Plaza on Nov. 22, 2016, this time with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to unveil the name, logo and colors before a crowd of about 5,000 fans.
The fans booed Bettman, who, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, told them they could boo him again one day when he returned to Las Vegas to present the Cup to Foley's team.
The Golden Knights unveiled their initial roster at the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft on June 21, 2017. McPhee and McCrimmon sat on stage with coach Gerard Gallant and four players they had selected: goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and defensemen Deryk Engelland, Jason Garrison and Brayden McNabb.
Thousands of fans sat in chairs on the floor in the very place where the ice would be laid -- where the Cup could be presented and paraded Tuesday.
McPhee listed the great experiences of his hockey career, then added this:
"The Stanley Cup is going to be up there," McPhee told the fans.
McNabb, the lone player left among the four on stage that night, said he doesn't remember McPhee saying that. It was a blur. He was more worried about making the team than winning the Cup back then.
But he remembers the Cup being discussed from the start.
"I think it was Bill who said something about it, right?" McNabb said. "That's probably where I first kind of heard about it. I mean, it was all new and exciting, right? It was definitely a goal, and it was maybe talked about a little bit here and there."
Again, it wasn't a prophecy or prediction. McPhee used the words "Stanley Cup" and "is" in the same sentence at the expansion draft, as if a championship were destined, because that was the goal Foley had set. The Golden Knights were determined to make the dream a reality.
The fans cheered. Imagine how they'll sound if Vegas wins Tuesday.
