Golden Knights come home to help Las Vegas 'grieve, heal and persevere'

Brandon Schlager

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Golden Knights come home to help Las Vegas 'grieve, heal and persevere' image

The first day of hockey in Las Vegas wasn't really about hockey at all. It was much bigger.

Tuesday night had been tabbed for months as a celebration of the NHL's official arrival, when the Golden Knights would host their inaugural regular-season game at T-Mobile Arena against the Coyotes. Instead, it warped into a chance for the city's first major league sports franchise to help a fan base grieving with its healing process following the worst mass shooting in modern American history, which took place a few blocks down the Strip 10 days earlier.

"It's not going to be a home opener," said Vegas defenseman Deryk Engelland​, a longtime resident of the city, echoing his teammates before the game. "It's going to be for the people of Las Vegas." 

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Before puck drop, the facade of the arena greeted fans with a message: "When things get dark, Vegas shines." But the most powerful gesture came from the signs that weren't there. The Golden Knights decided in advance of the game to strip their dasher boards from all advertisements out of respect for the victims, replacing them with "Vegas Strong." Ads were also removed from behind the team benches and penalty box.

Both teams wore similar decals on the backs of their helmets. 

The Golden Knights originally planned a giant ceremony to commemorate the beginning of the hockey season. But they scrapped much of it, including a fan fest and their usual pregame ritual (which will resume for future home games), after Stephen Paddock opened fire indiscriminately on a crowd of country music fans listening to Jason Aldean perform at the Route 91 Harvest Festival Oct. 1, leaving 58 dead and nearly 500 more injured. 

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"We were trying to show that we're part of the Vegas community. That was our goal and I believe we accomplished that," team owner Bill Foley said. "We were trying to recognize first responders and really show them that we appreciate what they did because they're the ones that really risked their lives and they went out and they saved lives. We're really just trying hard to be the representation of this community. That's our goal and I believe we hit it tonight."

One by one, the Knights' public address announcer introduced some of those police officers, fire fighters, EMTs, doctors and nurses, who took the ice side-by-side with players.

The moment of silence that followed was 58 seconds long.

Keith Dotson, a member of the team which plans the Route 91 festival, was on site that night and lent a hand to victims and first responders in the chaotic aftermath. He was picked to sing the national anthem for the opener and, along with 14 of his fellow organizers and the 18,000 plus in attendance, delivered an emotional and unforgettable rendition.

Finally, fittingly, it was Engelland who took the mic. He's called Las Vegas his summer home each of the last 15 years, met his wife there, and shares a bond with its residents more intimate than any other player on the ice. He spoke candidly to the crowd.

By the time the puck dropped, whatever outcome awaited the Knights was irrelevant. But then Tomas Nosek scored 2:31 into the game, setting the crowd still abuzz from the ceremony into a deeper frenzy. Engelland fed the storybook start by making it 2-0 not two minutes later, and the red-hot James Neal tacked on two more goals — his fourth and fifth already this season — to give Vegas 4-1first-period lead and an introduction to the NHL it will never forget.

When the game was over, a moving, 5-2 win for Vegas, players from both teams pooled to center ice and saluted the crowd. The Golden Knights are 3-0, the first team in the NHL's 100-year history to begin its inagural season that way. For the city, hockey in Las Vegas couldn't have come at a more needed time.

Brandon Schlager

Brandon Schlager Photo

Brandon Schlager is an assistant managing editor at The Sporting News. A proud Buffalo, N.Y. native and graduate of SUNY Buffalo State, he joined SN as an intern in 2014 and now oversees editorial content strategy.