Sport 31
The Oxford Student | Friday 10th November 2017
Vegas Golden Knights showing early promise
The NHL’s newest franchise surpasses expactations with winning start Vincent Richardson Sport Editor
It’s not very often that a major professional sports team appears out of nowhere. In most sports leagues around the world, teams are promoted and relegated over the years, making it impossible for any new team to start at a noteworthy level. However, in some sports leagues around the world, most notably in the US, leagues are instead a closed oligarchy of ‘franchises’, and so new teams, when they occur, go straight into the highest level of the sport. While it had been a while since any new teams were created in the four major US sports leagues; the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, the last being the Charlotte Hornets in 2004; the 2017 NHL season has seen the inclusion of a new team; the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The idea of an ice hockey team playing in the desert might seem a little strange to say the least, but given the absence of any other major sports franchises in the city, the Golden Knights could not have hoped to find a bigger market to have to themselves. While the transient nature of the Las Vegas population will potentially make it difficult to build up an enormous number of resident fans, the huge number of gamblers in the city at any one time and the desire for hotels to attract the guests will likely help get customers into seats early on. While the Golden Knights kickedoff the season with a 2-0 away win, they played their first home game
this season on October 10th, just over a week after the Las Vegas shooting. While no sports team is even vaguely equipped to deal with such an event in anything more than cursory terms; the Golden Knights tribute to the fallen seemed to be one of the better attempts at community rehabilitation through sport in recent years. While it was certainly not something that anybody expected the team to have to start their existence dealing with, it will certainly be seen as a significant part of the teams early existence going forwards. When a new team in created in the US sports leagues, their team is built from free agents, young players turning professional and players selected via the Expansion Draft. This is when the new team is able to select one player from each team they would like to add to their squad. Teams are allowed to set a certain number of players as being off-limits and are able to put their first-round draft selection in place of any player selected. Through this, the Golden Knights’ roster is largely comprised of a mixture of upper-tier journeymen, older veteran players and younger players getting their first real shots at major playing time. This perceived lack of star talent had many expecting the Golden Knights to falter in the early going, but much to their surprise the Golden Knights are currently sitting second in their division; and fourth in the NFL overall, with sixteen points. This has been made possible by a league-leading defensive efficiency rating. While many expected Marc-
Andre Fleury to be one of the team’s highlights at goaltender, the real surprise came when youngster Oscar Dansk was forced to step-in due to injury. In just four games, Dansk is currently leading the NHL in both goals-allowed-per-game and save-percentage. Extrapolating this performance any much-larger sample size is hard, but it is certainly a promising find for the young franchise. Offensively the Golden Knights have been good but not great, wingers James Neal and Reilly Smith have both contributed their
fair share of points, but this is likely where the team will need to get better going forwards. Luckily, the Golden Knights draft picks should help them in this regard after having time to develop in the team’s farm system. The highlight of the bunch is forward Cody Glass, taken sixth overall in the past draft. Glass is currently leading the Golden Knights’ development team (the Portland Winterhawks) with twenty-one points and fifteen assists and could well be part of the Golden Knights’ attack by the end of the
season. But with six total players taken in the first one-hundred picks of the 2017 draft, and twelve overall, the Golden Knights should have hope in a number of young players coming through the ranks in the near future. The Golden Knights have got off to a hot start, but even if it doesn’t last through the season the Golden Knights have made for one of the most interesting and endearing stories in recent NHL history. If they can hit on a couple of their many 2017 draft picks then this story might get even better.
Tomas Del Coro
Anthony Joshua ends a successful 2017 with win Continued from page 32 Takam, who had sustained a cut to the left eye too by this point, connected with a couple of shots in round seven, but did little damage to the champion, as Joshua set about trying to secure his 20th knockout in his 20th fight. The referee checked Takam’s eyes again before round nine, and allowed the fight to continue, but when, in round ten, Joshua hurt Takam with a couple of shots and had him against the ropes, the referee felt that it was time to step in. This was much to the disdain and anger of the Cardiff crowd, who could not see the blood pouring from Takam’s face, and felt the stoppage to be soft. A chorus of boos met the decision. This was perhaps the first time that Joshua has had his hands in the air celebrating victory but has been met with a none-toowelcome response. Takam, on the
other hand, received a massive cheer, and Joshua seemed
Wilder, Joseph Parker, Tyson Fury”. These were the words
“I think the fans wanted to see Takam lying on the floor. We get the win and now we look forward to 2018.” to take all of this personally. He used his post-fight interview to make sure that those boos were for the referee, and not for him. He made it very clear that he is concerned with what goes on inside the ring, and has no say over the decisions of the referee or the doctors outside of it. “Unfortunately, the referee stopped the fight”, he said, “I think the fans wanted to see Takam lying on the floor. We get the win and now we look forward to 2018.” What a 2018 it could be. “We’ll give you the fights that you want. I promise you that. Deontay
of Eddie Hearn, perhaps also trying to rescue his reception in Cardiff (Hearn was also greeted by a chorus of boos), but making a commitment to the big fights that we all want to see happening in 2018. Let us hope that he keeps to his word. Earlier on in the night, Dillian Whyte had emerged victorious after a frankly quite boring encounter with Robert Helenius. Whyte put in some good work, but the Finn seemed disinterested and rarely attacked, making this a dry fight for the fans in the stadium. Kal Yafai defended his WBA Super-Flyweight title against
Sho Ishida, showing a sustained a aggression that his Japanese challenger just could not match. It took until the sixth round for Ishida to land any real punches, and Yafai responded with big punches in the seventh and the eighth. Ishida’s rally in the twelfth came too late, and Yafai came out 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 ahead on the judges scorecards. Frank Buglioni retained his British light-heavyweight title in a great fight with Craig Richard, after Callum Johnson pulled out through injury, and, in contrast to the Helenius fight, both fighters seemed ready and willing to trade shots. Buglioni eventually won out on the judges scorecards. Perhaps the most exciting fight of the night was Katie Taylor’s challenge for the WBA Female Lightweight title against Anahi Esther Sanchez. Taylor floored Sanchez in the second with a powerful shot to the ribs, but Sanchez, who had already
surrendered the title after failing to make weight, showed determination to make it through the whole ten rounds. The judges each scored the fight at 99-90 to Taylor, who then claimed the vacant title. The 2012 Olympic champion’s aggressive and relentless boxing style is thrilling to watch, and she had the full backing of the fans out in Cardiff, in just her seventh fight, as she set about breaking down Sanchez’s defence and resilience. Lawrence Okolie, Joshua Buatsi and Joe Cordina also secured victories on the night. Cordina, born and raised in Cardiff, was given a spot later on in the undercard, fighting just before Joshua in front of a passionate home-crowd of over 70,000 and giving them the victory that they all wanted to see. The Principality Stadium was host to an exciting night of boxing October 28th, and 2018 looks to play host to even more.