VEGAS HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES IN KNIGHTS’ OPENER
March on South Las Vegas Boulevard held in honour of shooting victims before game
They marched on. Two hours before the Vegas Golden Knights played their first regular-season home game, a marching band of drummers led a procession of cheerleaders, circus performers, medieval actors and hockey fans down South Las Vegas Boulevard — a couple of blocks away from where a horrific tragedy occurred nine days earlier — and toward T-Mobile Arena.
As they went, others joined in. Wearing hockey jerseys and Tshirts, they chanted, “Go Knights Go!” and held “Vegas Strong” signs. But mostly they marched.
It was a fitting way to honour a tragedy and celebrate a hockey team. You can’t erase what happened on Oct. 1. You can’t forget it either. Together, the hockey team and the city, march on.
“It’s amazing to have these guys here rallying behind the community,” said Rob Marquis, a local firefighter who was one of the first responders to arrive on the scene when a lone gunman shot and killed 58 concertgoers and wounded around 500.
“It’s been tough. It’s nice to be able to come out and have something else you can focus on, even for a brief while and kind of lift the burden off our shoulders.”
That is what the Golden Knights did Tuesday. They put smiles on faces and had people cheering again.
Marquis, who was wearing a Clark County Fire Department hat and a Golden Knights jersey, took a picture with Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and other players as they walked on a roped-off golden carpet. They thanked him for his service on their way into the arena.
As a season-ticket holder, he did the same.
“I think they’ve shown great support right from the start,” Fleury said of the fans.
“Right from the first pre-season game, they were behind us all the way. We’re the only team here in town and we want to make people proud of us and proud of the team.”
Tuesday night’s home opener against the Arizona Coyotes was a chance to honour the victims, as well as their families and the first responders.
A member of the Route 91 Harvest team — the music festival going on during the shooting — had been chosen to sing the national anthem. Players from both teams wore stickers on their helmets that said Vegas Strong.
It was an emotional day. Head coach Gerard Gallant said he “could feel myself getting teary eyed” and Fleury twice had to choke back tears when talking about visiting first responders days after the shooting. But Vegas, which does celebrations better than any other city, hit all the right notes.
On Friday night, the team was planning a bigger celebration. On Tuesday, the scene was appropriately more sombre.
“Obviously a first home game is a major event,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. “Couple that with what happened last week and it obviously changes the focus and tenor, but it also shows what a major league professional sports team can mean to a community in terms of bringing people together, uniting them, helping them heal from a tragedy and demonstrating the power of distraction.”
In that regard, the team has been succeeding. It’s early, but after starting the season with back-toback wins, Bettman joked “if the team plays too well there will be a number of teams that will be questioning how good of an expansion draft we gave the Golden Knights.”
Vegas needs that to continue. This is still a tourist city. The people who do live here tend to be transplants. That can work in the team’s favour in attracting walk-up ticket sales, but it can also be a challenge, when it comes to converting fans from one team to another.
“I stayed at the Bellagio (hotel) when I first came here and was looking for places,” Golden Knights forward James Neal said, “and the people I ran into at the hotel and just in the community while looking for homes were from different hockey towns and had lived here for so many years and were just looking forward to having a hockey team.
“You definitely see lots of people coming in to see their team and to see the Vegas Golden Knights. Everyone I’ve talked to, whether they’re from Pittsburgh or Detroit or wherever, that’s their second-favourite team now. Bringing hockey to Vegas, they have their Golden Knights jerseys and are ready to go.”
That is why building on this first season is important. No one expects a Stanley Cup or even a playoff berth, yet the team can earn a lot of goodwill if it continues to stay competitive and gives the fans something to cheer for.
On Tuesday night, they did just that — even before the puck dropped.
“Emotionally, it’s just overwhelming,” said Marquis, who tugged at his jersey before adding: “Black and gold. All the time.”
It’s been tough. It’s nice to be able to come out and have something else you can focus on, even for a brief while.