The Vegas Golden Knights have made quite a name for themselves since joining the league as an expansion team in the 2017–2018 season. The team, consisting of self-proclaimed outcasts, has been criticized multiple times for abusing the LTIR rule. In the second game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Minnesota Wild, Vegas’ Pavel Dorofeyev once again upset NHL fans with a cheap shot.
The Vegas Golden Knights have not only been a consistent playoff team—with a Stanley Cup win in 2023—since their debut in 2017–2018, but their controversial use of the LTIR rule to circumvent the NHL salary cap during the regular season, combined with their physical style of play, has made them one of the most disliked teams in the league. And after last night, NHL fans are once again calling them dirty.
Vegas called ”dirtiest team in the league”
Facing off against the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs, the Golden Knights won their first home game 4–2. In the second game, the Wild took an early lead by scoring three goals in the first period, eventually winning 5–2. However, none of the goals were the main talking point afterward. Instead, all eyes were on a controversial hit from Vegas’ young Russian, Pavel Dorofeyev, on the Wild’s Joel Eriksson Ek.
In the Vegas defensive zone, Dorofeyev and Eriksson Ek were battling for the puck when Dorofeyev used his leg to take Ek down. Fans are now calling the hit a slew foot.
“Holy sh*t, I hate you, Vegas!” one person wrote on Reddit.
“Brutal. Head almost bounced,” another one wrote.
You can watch the hit in the video below.
