Las Vegas Golden Knights- VEGAS STRONG

It is around 9:45 PM central time as I write this. For those that don't know, the Las Vegas Golden Knights are the newest franchise in the NHL. Tonight is their inaugural home opener.

Usually pre-game is pretty hyped, especially for a new franchise just starting out. However, due to the recent shooting that happened on October 1st, it is a more subdued occasion. Never the less, this is pretty cool.

All around the rink where there is usually local advertising, are the words VEGAS STRONG over and over. Each players' intro was proceeded by the intro of a local first responder, and they walked together to center ice. There were firefighters, EMS, emergency room doctors and nurses, a K-9 unit, and even members of the SWAT team that were introduced.

There were met at center ice by the owner of the Knights and some of the survivors of the October 1st shooting which drew even bigger cheers. After the puck drop(or more accurate the kid set the puck on the ice, hey he looked all of 5 years old) there was 58 seconds of silence for the 58 victims, the lights dimmed and on the ice you could not only read VEGAS STRONG, but they had the names of the 58 on the ice. What made the moments more chilling was that it was completely SILENT, you didn't hear a sound unlike some moments of silence that are broken by some moron yelling at the top of his or her lungs, TALK ABOUT RESPECT!!

The anthem was sung by the 91 Foundation, which I am guessing is the foundation set up for the families of the victims, which was cool. The captain of the Golden Knights came out and thanked the fans, the first responders, but most of all he praised the city of Las Vegas for coming together at this time. Very cool!!

It was a pretty cool intro to the newest NHL franchises' home opener. By the way, the Knights are off to a 2-0 start in the early season and they just took the lead 1-0 with a goal at 1:58 of the first period.

Barbershopman

Update: The Coyotes just pulled their goalie after he just allowed the Knights third goal in a matter of eight minutes.

Barbershopman

While not comparable in the slightest to the authentic heinousness of the Route 91 mass shooting, it's a shame that this brand new franchise will be forever tainted by the historic tragedy occurring only a few days before it played its first official game, especially given the excitement over the establishment of the Golden Knights on the part of its ownership, the league and the city, now home to its first major sports team beating the peripatetic Oakland/Los Angeles/back-to-Oakland Raiders there by a couple of years.

On one positive note, cool to see that Vegas forward Alex Tuch, who hails from my region, scored his first NHL goal earlier this week. Who knows, maybe a while down the road (or sooner, judging from how well the team has begun its inaugural season), Tuch will be one of the few U.S.-born captains ever to hoist the Stanley Cup, just like Dustin Brown, another Central N.Y. product, did for the Knights' newfound division rivals the Los Angeles Kings--twice, actually. (Fun fact: I played hockey in both the rinks these two future NHLers first skated on as little tots, one of which is partly outdoors. They were probably better at age 5 than I ever was.)