Vegas Golden Knights prepare to kick off long-awaited NHL dream against a backdrop of tragedy

This evening was supposed to be one of celebration in Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world where the next raucous party is never more than a stone’s throw away. At 5.30pm local time, the city’s first major sports franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights, will play their first ever NHL game, away to the Dallas Stars. It is an ice hockey match some 26 years in the making and a landmark moment for the sport.

But late last week, everything changed. On Sunday evening, not long after thousands of fans had poured out of the T-Mobile Arena and onto the Strip after watching their new team narrowly lose their final game of the pre-season, a gunman named Stephen Paddock opened fire on a concert from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. People initially mistook the loud, crackling noise for fireworks. 59 people died. 527 more were injured.

And, suddenly, the Golden Knights’ hastily-assembled squad of players, many of whom were eating dinner at the nearby Cosmopolitan as the tragedy unfolded, found themselves with a job far bigger than what they had been brought to the city to do. No longer hockey players but something else entirely, they visited the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, United Blood Services, and the Las Vegas Convention Center, bringing some moral support to a city struggling to cope with the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.

“Sports are a great thing, it can help take people's minds off of things,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said during a media day on Wednesday, after stopping off at the city’s blood drive. “As much as the city has embraced us, we're a part of Las Vegas and want to help through the grieving process.”

open image in gallery

His team-mate, Deryk Engelland, was meanwhile still attempting to process the tragic events of Sunday night. “My wife is shaken up and she’s scared to go to the games, or to take the kids to the home opener,” he said. “You see these things happen all over the world and no one ever thinks it's going to happen in their backyard. For it to happen here, it's horrific.”

Horror, tragedy, grieving: these were not the circumstances under which Gerard Gallant imagined taking charge of his first regular game with his new team. A softly-spoken Canadian who was driving home after picking up his daughter from McCarran International Airport when the atrocity began to unfold, he told The Independent only a month previously how he expected the Golden Knights to be a force for good within the community.

“Teams are going to love coming here,” he said at the franchise’s headquarters, located away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip at the nearby planned community of Summerlin, Nevada. “We have a brand new arena and it will be cool for other teams to come here and play hockey. It’s exciting, there is a buzz around the place and there’s an amazing atmosphere here at the minute.”

It takes less than 20 minutes to drive from the Strip to Summerlin and yet it feels like a world away. Leafy, affluent and quiet, in stark contrast to the effervescent heart of Sin City, it is here that Gallant sat and discussed his plans for the season to ahead, having found some time out of preparing his new side for their very first season in the NHL.

That in itself is something of an accomplishment, as Gallant has had much to get ready before the NHL’s first expansion team since 2000 take to the ice in Dallas, Texas. An entire squad of new players must learn how to play alongside one another in a brand new system. Opposition teams must be scouted and prepared for. Not to mention the raft of off-the-rink, administrative duties.

Which rather begs the question: just why did he take the job?

open image in gallery

Gallant smiled when the question was put to him. “The opportunity came up for me not long after I got fired from the Florida Panthers last November,” he explained. And when I was let go in Florida, it hurt. It’s never fun to lose your job. But when the opportunities come up, every coach is the same – you don’t want to just sit out and do nothing. I was on the list of the guys that the Golden Knights wanted to interview for the job and after I left my first interview I told my wife that I had a very good feeling about things. And after a long process, I was offered the position.”

The 54-year-old, who has prior experience working with a franchise team having previously coached the Columbus Blue Jackets, admitted to being drawn in by the prospect of leading the Golden Knights through a historic campaign, at a historic time for the city.

“There were a combination of factors that appealed to me about moving here,” added Gallant. “Of course I knew the people but then there was also the experience of being the first ever team in Las Vegas. I’d been here five or six times before, with my buddies on golf trips and on vacation with my wife, and I really enjoyed those experiences. And now I have the chance to help build something very special here.”

open image in gallery

For so long Vegas was viewed with suspicion by professional sports leagues because of its ties to gambling. But its obvious allure is now proving impossible to resist. A strong season ticket drive convinced the NHL to approve a Vegas franchise team in 2016, while earlier this year NFL owners approved the Oakland Raiders' controversial move to the city. And MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred recently admitted that if relocating an existing team were to be discussed, “Las Vegas would be on the list.”

Vegas, a city whose very foundations are built on the thrill that comes with winning, has been enjoying a sustained period of prosperity, which makes the events of last weekend all the more difficult to take. When pushed for a prediction on how the Golden Knights would fare in their debut season in the NHL, Gallant was reluctant to answer, instead stressing that the important thing was for his players to “keep fighting” out on the ice to give the city something to be proud of.

And, as the city begins the painful process of rebuilding after an atrocity, that fighting spirit will prove key. “I’m not setting a points total,” he said. “Of course we want to win every single game, but the key thing is that we compete and battle and make sure that we turn up every night and send the fans home satisfied every night. We all have the same goal and we know there are going to be some tough nights ahead, but the ambition is to build this organisation up over the long-term.”

open image in gallery

This evening’s match-up in Dallas will be followed by a further away game in Arizona, before the Coyotes head to Vegas for the return fixture. The NHL’s first game in the city will be a memorable evening, albeit one on which the events on the rink will be completely overshadowed by the grieving process off it, with tributes planned to honour the victims and first responders ahead of the action.

On Wednesday, during a visit to the police department headquarters to boost morale as the on-going investigation into Paddock continued, defenceman Jon Merrill took up the instructions of his new coach and promised his new city that the team will bring some cheer to a battered city. “We're going to be out there fighting for this city,” he said, in between handing out signed hats and posing for pictures. “It will be tough to find a dry eye in that building.”