After Bill Foley agreed to pay a whopping $500 million for the right to put a hockey team in the middle of the Mojave Desert Semyon Varlamov Jersey , the NHL decided his Vegas Golden Knights deserved a chance for a swift return on that investment.If the other NHL owners had known just how huge Foley’s reward would be – and how incredibly quickly he would get it – they probably wouldn’t have been quite so nice to the new guy.It’s too late now, though. After reaping a bonanza from one of the most generous expansion drafts in sports history, the Golden Knights are two victories away from an unbelievable Stanley Cup Final berth.A brand-new team in a league that has been around for 101 years already has a Pacific Division title, two playoff series victories and a 2-1 lead on the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference finals.”I don’t think anybody saw us here,” Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. ”It’s been a lot of fun to be part of it. Really proud of this team and the way these guys have been working. We deserve to be here.”Fleury and the other players accomplishing this feat refer to themselves as the Golden Misfits, yet few of Vegas’ expansion draft selections were truly undesired by the clubs that lost them 11 months ago.Instead, general manager George McPhee took full advantage of his opportunities to compile an uncommonly talented roster, and coach Gerard Gallant turned that roster into a brilliant team in shockingly swift fashion. But it all started with the draft that allowed McPhee to build this monster in less than a year.”It had a big impact,” McPhee acknowledged. ”The (expansion draft) rules were favorable. Gave us something to work with, and gave this team an opportunity to be a good team.”The NHL allowed its teams to protect only seven forwards, three defensemen and one goalie, or eight skaters and one goalie. By way of comparison, when the NHL last expanded in 2000, teams were allowed to protect a whopping nine forwards, five defensemen and a goalie http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-sergei-boikov-jersey , or seven forwards, three defensemen and two goalies.The league also required teams to expose players with significant NHL experience who were under contract through next season, closing loopholes and helping Vegas even more. Third-line forwards and top-four defensemen were available from almost every team.The easiest acquisition was Fleury, of course. The Knights got a three-time Stanley Cup winning goalie with 375 career victories for nothing, and he has largely stayed healthy while playing at a formidable level.The Knights also landed the likes of James Neal, a proven veteran talent with nine consecutive 20-goal seasons. He scored 25 goals while providing steady veteran leadership.They plucked William Karlsson, a clearly gifted forward who had yet to reach his full potential with two NHL teams. The Swede swiftly became one of the NHL’s best players, racking up 43 goals – an NHL record for an expansion team’s first season – and 35 assists along with a plus-49 rating.And the expansion draft terms allowed McPhee to get creative in trades with teams hoping to keep players who couldn’t fit under the protection umbrella. For instance, the Knights ended up with Reilly Smith in a trade because Florida wanted them to draft Jonathan Marchessault – and the two ex-Panthers became two of the Knights’ top four scorers.The draft bounty isn’t the only reason these upstart Knights have immediately entered their Golden years.All of this talent wouldn’t have won so many games without Gallant. He built a balanced, disciplined team that has rolled four lines and played relentless two-way hockey while mining untapped talents such as Karlsson and Eric Haula, who scored 29 goals after never managing more than 15 in Minnesota.”Gerard has done a terrific job of making this a team,” McPhee said. ”He has really brought a lot of players along, and they’ve played better than they’ve played anywhere else.”Foley bought this opportunity with his $500 million expansion fee, yet nobody in the sports world expected the Golden Knights to put it all together so swiftly. That includes the 73-year-old Foley, who raised eyebrows around the league when he set a public goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to Las Vegas within six years – a goal he later revised to maybe eight years.Instead Womens Sven Andrighetto Jersey , there’s an increasingly strong chance the Golden Knights will parade the Stanley Cup down the Strip one month from now. There are 12 other NHL teams that have never won a championship, along with seven franchises that haven’t raised the Cup in at least 23 years.Potential NHL expansion owners in Seattle and Houston are probably thinking $500 million was a bargain, since the expansion fee is likely to go up when the league eventually awards its 32nd franchise. It also seems improbable that the NHL would ever make it this easy to build a team again.But nothing will erase the Golden Knights’ remarkable embrace of this unusual moment in hockey history.”It was important to the league and to Las Vegas and to Bill Foley that this franchise had a chance to work,” McPhee said. ”That people that were coming to the games could enjoy the product and become real fans, and we could grow some deep roots in this marketplace. So I didn’t mind the rules.”—AP freelance writer W.G. Ramirez in Las Vegas contributed to this report.— NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The San Jose Sharks cooled off the NHL’s hottest team, ending the Nashville Predators‘ five-game winning streak.Brent Burns‘ power-play goal with 2:52 remaining rallied San Jose from a two-goal deficit as the Sharks scored three straight goals during the last eight minutes to beat the Predators 5-4.“They had a two-goal lead, but you’ve got to keep playing,” said Pavelski, San Jose’s first-line center. “We’ve been on the other end of that already this year, so there’s always time. Especially (since) we’re a depth team and we’ve been rolling four lines, and guys are fresh in the third (period).”Burns’ one-timer from the left faceoff circle beat Juuse Saros high to the glove side for the winning goal.Joe Pavelski tied it at 4 when he scored with 7:44 remaining. Brenden Dillon’s shorthanded goal narrowed Nashville’s lead to 4-3 with 8:20 left as he made an end-to-end rush to ignite the rally.“Dilly makes that play and sparks us and that’s what you need on the road at times,” Pavelski said. “That goal really kind of gave us a boost.”Tomas Hertl and Timo Meier also scored for the Sharks, who won their third straight.Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson had two goals and one assist.Arvidsson and Craig Smith scored twice in a nine-minute span late in the second period to give Nashville a 4-2 lead.Filip Forsberg also scored for the reigning President’s Trophy winners.Nashville fell to 8-2-0 and San Jose improved to 5-3-1 in a matchup of Western Conference contenders.“It was a big gut-check for us,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we talked between the second and third about coming out and being a little harder around both nets Tyson Barrie Jersey , and that commitment paid off. But I like the fact that we have the ability to quick strike and create offense like that.”San Jose’s Martin Jones earned the win with 25 saves.Nashville goalie Juuse Saros, making the first back-to-back start of his young career, fell to 4-1-0 after making 27 saves.He’s filling in for last year’s Vezina Trophy winner, Pekka Rinne, out with an undisclosed injury.“We’ve been in that situation an awful lot and been able to close out games,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “I think more than anything we shot ourselves in the foot. You knew that they had a good power play, you knew they were a group that is dangerous.”San Jose’s first and last goals came on the power play.Smith increased the Predators’ lead to 4-2 when he ripped a wrist shot into the top left corner of the net with 15 seconds left in the second period. Arvidsson set him up on a 2-on-1 breakaway with a pass that found Smith alone at the bottom of the right faceoff circle.Arvidsson’s second goal put the Predators back on top 3-2 when his low snapshot went past Jones’ outstretched glove at 10:45 of the second period. Forsberg found his linemate in the low slot from behind the goal line with a perfect pass.“It was not good and it can’t happen,” Arvidsson said of the loss. “We had a 4-2 lead and lost 5-4 – and that’s too bad.”Hertl’s breakaway goal tied the score at 2 when he stuffed the puck past Saros stickside in front of the crease at 7:52 of the second period.Nashville took a 2-1 lead when Forsberg swatted a rebound past Jones from the front of the crease 21 seconds into the second period. His sixth goal of the season came after he gobbled up a rebound of Ryan Ellis‘ shot from the right point.Arvidsson tied it at 1 when he scored on a breakaway at 11:14 of the first period. He pounced on a loose puck at the Predators’ blue line, skated the length of the ice, deked Jones and beat him with a backhander to the stickside.San Jose got outshot in the early going, but still managed to strike first on Meier’s power-play goal from the low slot at 6:58 of the first period. Nashville’s Ryan Johansen was in the penalty box for tripping.NOTES: Nashville called up G Troy Grosenick from Milwaukee (AHL) and sent G Miroslav Svboda back to the minors Monday. . San Jose called up C Dylan Gambrell from its AHL affiliate in San Jose Monday. . Sharks C Joe Thornton, 39, missed his seventh straight game with a right knee infection. … Hertl led San Jose with five shots. … Nashville had its 114th consecutive sellout (17,159) at Bridgestone Arena.UP NEXTSharks: Visit Carolina on Friday night in second game of three-game road trip.Predators: Visit New Jersey on Thursday night before returning home Saturday.