Can Vegas fans build a healthy relationship with the Golden Knights?

The dream season, the one that brought the Vegas Golden Knights three wins from the unfathomable, ended right around 11 o’clock Eastern Time Thursday night, when they fell to the Washington Capitals, 4-3.

Yet, despite the fact that Vegas came up short, you’d be hard-pressed to find many Golden Knights fans who were crushed, who were doing the “surrender cobra” or otherwise letting the outcome ruin their night.

Quite the contrary, actually. Game 5 still featured the kind of deliriously unhinged party atmosphere that made Golden Knights games must-see TV all season long. The fans were loud, they were into the game and they wanted their team to win — but most of all they were happy. Now the question is, what happens when the party is over, when the music stops?

The biggest challenge for the Golden Knights moving forward will be building a fan base that has a healthy relationship with the team. As we’ve seen with plenty of other teams, especially prominent ones, that’s often easier said than done.

Vegas does have a few things going for it, though. The Golden Knights had a wildly successful first season, one that was completely unexpected and may take the sting out of the growing pains that are likely to come. The argument that sky-high expectations will poison the well with local fans doesn’t hold water, at least to me.

A team being good immediately generates excitement. Had the Golden Knights stumbled to some sort of moribund record — say, 15-60-7, something many believed was reasonable before the season — eventually the losing would have taken its toll. The novelty would have worn off, if not for tourists excited to finally see live pro sports in Vegas, then at least for the local fans.

But winning? Winning the way Vegas did means that local fans know it is possible. They have a taste. They know what it’s like to get ever-so-close to the top of the mountain. That could be a double-edged sword, to be sure — if Vegas struggles mightily for a few years, people will get frustrated — but winning is always better than losing.

Managing fan expectations will be crucial. No one, including any pre-existing die-hard hockey fans in Vegas, thought the Golden Knights would be any good. Their roster, when stacked up against the rest of the league, doesn’t truly hold up, man for man. They are a franchise that stockpiled draft picks and cap space and almost certainly expected to deal off assets at the trade deadline.

Clearly outlining a plan for fans, explaining that the goal is to build a long-term winner, and being blunt and honest about the process will be important. George McPhee’s task will be to try and build a long-term winner, not quite from the ground up, but close — and do so without completely cratering the on-ice product.

While it will be challenging to manage expectations in an era where social media has warped perspective on matters both serious and trivial, whether they be sports-centric or not, the fact that the Golden Knights are one of only two pro teams until the Raiders arrive, something that seems like it might not happen until 2020, should help them. The WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces are in the midst of their first season after relocating from San Antonio, and that could help generate more excitement for pro sports in town.

It stands to reason that the honeymoon phase might last longer than it otherwise would. That means that the Golden Knights have a few extra precious years to build a committed fan base — crucial, because we all know that once the NFL rolls into town, the dynamic will change dramatically.