By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
Photos by DANIEL CLARK
LVSportsBiz.com
The season was over and in the end Marc-Andre Fleury skated off the ice and slammed a protective glass, a rare glimpse of anger and frustration by the Golden Knights’ affable leader.
The Washington Capitals would celebrate a Stanley Cup championship on the Vegas Golden Knights’ ice this night and a large contingent of red-clad Caps fans that occupied huge chunks of the crowd of 18,529 roared and celebrated in T-Mobile Arena.
Time ran out on the Knights’ magical first season that seemed surreal at times in terms of its unprecedented success and journey to the Stanley Cup Finals. And after it was over, the comments from fans and team confirmed what we knew all along — that the relationship between first-year professional hockey club and metro Las Vegas/Southern Nevada community had grown into a love affair. It was The Beautiful Season.
On social media, a theme emerged from fans and locals: thank you Golden Knights for giving us the season we never expected while also helping us heal from the Oct. 1 hurt.
The season was a financial success for the inaugural Golden Knights, generating large revenues from ticket, merchandise and sponsorship sales.
The Golden Knights jersey? The league’s top seller.
Gate revenues? Top five in the NHL. In fact, the Knights filled T-Mobile arena to 103.9 percent of capacity and average game attendance of 18,042 for an arena that held 17,367 grew as the season went along.
Merchandise sales? People in 90 nations bought licensed Golden Knights logo gear and Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals yielded a stunning $600,000 in merch sales inside T-Mobile Arena.
Yet despite a painful 4-3 loss in Game 5 to end the inaugural season, the Golden Knights’ imprint on Southern Nevada was filling the hole in the heart of a region emotionally devastated by a shooting massacre on the Strip Oct. 1 that left 58 dead and 600 injured.
That same Fleury who let the ice in frustration after Thursday’s 4-3 loss joined his “Golden Misfits” teammates to mend so many hearts in Las Vegas and bring a bounty of joy to a heartbroken and scarred region.
“Always remember the 58 stars in the sky,” T-Mobile Arena PA announcer Bruce Cusick told the mostly Caps fan crowd at 8:30 p.m.
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LVSportsBiz.com asked VGK Coach Gerard Gallant the last question of his press session after the game.
“What did you learn about your players this season?”
He loved their resiliency all season long.
“We had a great time this year,” Gallant told the media. “Every day was fun for us.”
Minutes before Gallant spoke, I rode an escalator from the upper concourse to the main concourse.
Season ticket holder Gary DeFranco was disappointed. But certainly not broken.
“We’ll be back soon,” DeFranco told his buddies.
On the main concourse, he told me, “I’m a little disappointed. It’s rough watching Washington celebrate on our ice.”
Dan Dolby, Learfield’s GM for sports marketing at UNLV, was relaxing after the game a few feet away.
“There’s no downside to this. This season has been a positive sign for sports in Vegas and for what our city stands for,” said Dolby, whose son, Brendan, works for the Golden Knights in corporate partnerships. “After what we went through October 1, this was an opportunity for our city to rally behind a team.”
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Bruce Cusick, the friendly PA announcer, gave hugs all around.
It’s tough to leave a bunch of in-game entertainment co-workers who grew into a family.
There were the two arena fan emcees Mark “It’s Knight Time” Shunock and Wayne “Big D” Danielson. They met near the media elevator and embraced.
Danielson has to get ready for his other sports gig — doing fan announcing for the new WNBA Las Vegas Aces basketball team that plays in nearby Mandalay Bay Events Center.
He’ll be back in action Friday at 12 noon when the Aces host the Atlanta Dream.
There’s no time to get sentimental about the Golden Knights. Big D has another gig tomorrow.
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If Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley disliked the Capitals backers’ presence at Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena, he’s going to be a lot more upset Thursday for Game 5 where red-clad Capitals fans filled big chunks of the arena.
An eyeball estimate of the red presence around the arena looked as if at least 25 percent of the venue’s 18,529 fans was filled with Caps fans. Apparently, the “Knight’s Vow” postseason ticket deal by Vegas that allowed VGK season ticket holders to buy playoff tickets at lower prices if they promised not to re-sell them was not working too well Thursday for Game 5.
The building filled with cheers in the second period when Jakub Vrana scored, while the Caps contingent issued a cheer mocking Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
In other words, the place was crawling with Caps fans. They wanted to see the Cup tonight.
In fact, Golden Knights fans commented on social media about Caps fans inside the big ice house off the Strip before the game began.
Typically at Golden Knights games, visiting fans come early, so the early crowd can sometimes show clusters of fans around the venue dressed in opposition colors. But I have not seen so many opposition fans in T-Mobile Arena during the postseason as tonight at Game 5.
But this is no ordinary hockey match. It’s Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals and the Caps are looking to celebrate on VGK ice.
A young Capitals fan driving to Vancouver named Cameron said he made a pitstop in Las Vegas while driving from Austin, Texas in hopes to witnessing history. If the Caps win tonight, this would be the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship. The franchise does have a dubious playoff record when holding a 3-1 games lead in playoff series.
The Golden Knights management receives secondary market ticket sales info from its partner, StubHub, so the red presence Thursday came as no surprise to team President Kerry Bubolz.
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LVSportsBiz.com photographer Daniel Clark was credentialed to roam T-Mobile Arena and I applaud his hustle, eye for terrific images and photos that captured the fan experience and arena atmosphere.
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Your Game 5 poster player is forward Reilly Smith
A pre-game hockey tradition — NHL players juggling a soccer ball to warm up.
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