Golden Knights Set Record Attendance of 18,702, But VGK Fall To Capitals, 3-2, In Cup Finals Game 2

 

 

 

 

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

 

The Golden Knights set a team game attendance record Wednesday with a mammoth crowd of 18,702.

 

But VGK fans left T-Mobile Arena disappointed as the Washington Capitals beat the Knights, 3-2.

 

The Golden Knights’ opened Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals in pure Vegas pregame fashion — the hometown Imagine Dragons performing, a flyover by Nellis Air Force jets, born-and-bred Las Vegan Carnell Johnson singing the national anthem and UFC legend Randy Couture cranking up the siren to launch the game.

 

For a look at the Imagine Dragons’ performance, you can check this out.

 

 

 

 

An area on level 3A used for standing room only fans near the fortress stage during the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs is being used for media, so there could have been potentially even more fans in the big ice house on the Strip today.

 

A tap of the stick to LVSportsBiz.com Daniel Clark, who has a terrific nose for news and a photographer’s subtle touch and eye for nuance. He saw the pilots and airmen from Nellis Air Force Base who conducted the flyby above T-Mobile Arena during the pregame. Job well done, men.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the 18,702 fans in the building today.

 

 

And fans were outside, too.

 

 

 

 

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Lee Orchard, who plays the team’s knight character, leads the parade through the arena.

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It was three hours before face-off at Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals at T-Mobile Arena Monday and it was quiet inside the Vegas Golden Knights’ home arena when a young-looking woman with a stack of game rally towels draped over her arm was strolling along the upper concourse.

 

She handed me a towel and I figured someone with a pile of battle rally towels might be an intern or an arena worker.

 

Never assume anything because I was way off.

 

The woman walking around the concourse with a bunch of towels three hours before a single fan was inside the venue was none other than Tamara Daniels, who just happens to be the Vegas Golden Knights’ general counsel.

 

When she informed me she was owner Bill Foley’s lawyer who also worked on Foley’s wineries in California, I told her she looked so young that I thought she was an intern.

 

That was the best I could do for being so way off.

 

She laughed.

 

But the fact that the team’s general counsel was out walking an empty arena with rally towels speaks to the work culture at the Vegas Golden Knights.

 

It’s a culture that starts at the top with Foley, the 1967 West Point graduate who enjoys tending to his wineries in California and extends to team President Kerry Bubolz, who makes himself accessible to fans to hear their concerns.

 

And it’s a culture of selflessness, team-before-individual and character above everything else that spreads into the Golden Knights locker room. It’s not unusual for coach Gerard Gallant to refer to the character topic in his press conferences.

 

I re-told the story to Foley during a Tuesday interview and he was pleased to hear the story about the team lawyer carrying rally towels in the arena hours before the puck dropped to start Game 1. It’s part of the selfless work culture he supports in the organization — from business office to locker room.

 

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Henry Poranda is a bellman who works at the Aria not too far from T-Mobile Arena and he was carrying a beer to his upper bowl seat that cost $664 for Game 2 Wednesday.

 

He bought the ticket on the Golden Knights’ web site and his journey to his upper bowl seat near center ice began Oct. 10 when the Golden Knights played their first regular season game.

 

Porada said he was not a hockey fan before the birth of the Golden Knights.

 

“I was born here and it was my first ever pro game,” Porada said of the Oct. 10 home opener. “I didn’t know anything about hockey.”

 

So, what hooked Porada? How did a bellman who never went to a pro hockey game went from Oct. 10 to a $664 upper bowl seat at a Stanley Cup Finals game at T-Mobile Arena?

 

“It was the way they handled the ceremony before the first game and their tribute to the victims,” Porada said.

 

 

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The crowd on Toshiba Plaza was so large Monday that there was new policy instituted Wednesday with the announcement that the Toshiba Plaza would be open at 2:30 p.m. — 2 1/2 hours before the 5 p.m. start.

 

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Players complained about the ice quality after Game 1. When LVSportsBiz.com was down near the ice before Game 2, a crew worker said the ice for Game 2 is much better than for Game 1.

 

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