By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Washington, D.C. — There was the flamingo couple, Drew and Sarah Johnson. And Christopher Green, the fun-loving fan with the fluffy playoff beard even before the playoffs began, and his lovely wife Glenda. John Baratta, the guy who looks like Hulk Hogan and who tears his red T-shirt when the Knights score was at the rink in D.C., too. And so was fan Joey Ramjeeawon, the look-alike for VGK center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

 

The travelling Vegas Golden Knights fans came to downtown Washington D.C.’s Capital One Arena to follow their beloved first-year team as a hockey-loving tribe, a big ol’ family of fun characters with branches extending to every corner of the Las Vegas metro area.

 

Back home at the watch party in Las Vegas was another superfan Jason Griego, the Wolverine character profiled by LVSportsBiz.com when the Knights were playing the San Jose Sharks in the playoffs’ second round.  And so many others in metro Las Vegas. Bark-Andre Furry, the VGK celebrity canine, was undoubtedly watching, too.

 

They were all hurting after the Vegas Golden Knights dropped a 6-2 decision to the Washington Capitals in Game 4 and now teeter on the edge of being eliminated by the Caps, which seized a stranglehold on the Stanley Cup Finals, three games to one. The Golden Knights, which played with so much grit and poise through the Stanley Cup playoffs, unravelled in the last few minutes and looked like what the team — a first-year expansion club.

 

The loss’ pain stretched from downtown Washington, D.C. to the indoor watch party in T-Mobile Arena to the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center in downtown to the Henderson Pavilion.

 

But it’s not over.

 

Game 5 is back in southern Nevada. And it will be back on home ice where the Knights have scored so many dramatic and passionate wins.

 

*

 

Previous Headline

 

Las Vegas’ Flamingo Couple Buy Capitals Season Tix To Secure Stanley Cup Final Face-Value Tickets At Capital One Arena

 

You might know Vegas Golden Knights superfans and season ticket holders Drew and Sarah Johnson as the couple showing up at VGK playoff games on the road with plastic pink flamingos in hand and celebrating road wins with the lawn ornaments sliding along the ice.

 

In fact, the pink flamingos are so popular they have become stuffed retail items for sale at the VGK team stores and points of sale in T-Mobile Arena.

 

LVSportsBiz.com gives a stick tap to ESPN hockey writer, Greg Wyshynski who reported about the Las Vegas couple buying Washington Capitals season tickets in order to buy Stanley Cup Final game tickets in Capital One Arena because the team would not sell Cup Finals tickets unless your credit card address was based in Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland. LVSportsBiz.com reported on the Capitals’ ticket-selling ways for the Stanley Cup Final.

 

Interestingly enough, Drew Johnson had two tours of duty working in the metro D.C. area as a public policy researcher, so he and wife Sarah have attended Caps games in D.C. in the past.

 

The couple deployed this strategy .The Johnsons said they spent between $3,000 and $4,000 for Capitals season tickets for seats way up in the upper bowl and then spent less than $800 to buy a pair of face-value tickets for Games 3 and 4 at Capital One Arena.

 

And the couple, as newly-minted Caps season ticket holders, were in the position to buy two extra tickets each for Games 3 and 4 in D.C. And they did, sitting in the fourth row off the ice behind the penalty box Saturday and Monday nights.

 

The Johnsons also sold their other Caps upper bowl playoff tickets to Golden Knights fans to keep their away D.C. playoff tickets in the Golden Knights family, so to speak.

 

Their lower bowl seats provide an ideal perch to toss their flamingos on the ice if the Golden Knights win Game 4 and knot the SCF at two games a piece.

 

The flamingos saw ice time in San Jose and Winnipeg.

 

The Johnsons are hoping for the same Monday evening.

 

ADVERTISEMENT

 

*

 

Gerard Gallant met the media Tuessday and here are some of his quotes.

 

Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com