Vegas faithful glimpse NHL’S ‘other’ Karlsson

Getting ‘Erik’ has Sharks coach ‘really pleased’

Many Golden Knights fans spent the summer dreaming of watching star defenseman Erik Karlsson play at T-mobile Arena.

They got a close-up look at what could have been in Sunday night’s final preseason game.

Karlsson, the former Ottawa Senator who was linked with the Knights in trade rumors for months before landing with the San Jose Sharks in the offseason, scored a power-play goal in the second period of the Knights’ 5-2 win.

“Really pleased,” San Jose coach Pete Deboer said when asked how he felt about his front office landing the prize of the offseason while keeping him away from the Knights. “That would be a scary group over there (had the Knights landed Karlsson). We’re glad we’ve got him and we’re glad we got him now so we can have him all season.”

“I thought he was outstanding tonight. I thought he really ramped it up. He was our best player for sure.”

The addition of Karlsson has made San Jose a trendy pick to follow the Knights as Pacific Division champions.

Sharks forward Logan Couture downplayed any notion of the Pacific being a two-team race.

“There’s a lot of good teams in our positions and every team starts with zero points,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you have on paper. You still have to go out and play.”

Still, he’s happy to have Karlsson on his side.

“The way he sees the ice is almost second to none in this league,” Couture said. “He just finds seams and he can look people off in the offensive zone so well. He makes some tremendous plays.”

Day of remembrance

The Knights won’t practice Monday as the team participates in a series of events around the valley to commemorate last year’s Oct. 1 shooting.

Players will attend a blood drive at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in the morning followed by a visit to Community Ambulance in Henderson, where they will present “The 21” with medals. “The 21” are team members who were already on-site at the Route 91 Harvest Festival grounds when the shooting began and immediately began providing critical care.

Select players will also visit with dispatchers, first responders, police officers and Mandalay Bay employees.

“It’s going to be real tough,” Gallant said of the anniversary of the tragedy. “Our players are all going out in the community and doing their thing with the first responders. We want to help our community. It’s a day off, but we’ll be out there doing the best we can.

“It’s definitely a tough day.”

Packing them in

An announced crowd of 17,958 fans attended Sunday night’s preseason finale, bringing the total number to 71,333 for four exhibition games at T-mobile Arena.

That’s an average of 17,833.

Last season, an average of 16,306 fans attended the three Knights home preseason games.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@ reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @Adamhilllvrj on Twitter.