By ALAN SNEL
LVsportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights whitewashed the Los Angeles Kings, 2-0, in a preseason game and VGK goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had done it again Friday evening — his shutout gave VGK fans at the game a free pass to claim a dozen free donuts from Krispy Kreme.
So, LVSportsBiz.com just had to ask Fleury at his postgame locker: Why are you making the whole city fat winning them free donuts?
And Fleury, as usual, had his quick quip ready to go: “You don’t have to eat the whole box.”
Ken Boehlke of SinBin.Vegas used his quick fingers to fire off this tweet.
I also asked Fleury whether he could get a free dozen donuts himself if he doesn’t have a ticket. Perhaps, the goalie can bring in his pads as proof to snag the Krispy Kreme Donuts, which also had the free donut deal when the VGK pitches a shutout last season. Here’s Fleury’s response.
LVSportsBiz.com was not done with Flower. I asked the star goaltender whether defenseman Brayden McNabb could have passed the puck to him in the game’s waning seconds so that Fleury could have taken another shot at the empty net. Fleury said he has not scored a goal in the NHL. McNabb scored an empty-netter from nearly his own’s goal with two seconds left in the preseason match.
Hockey writer Sheng Peng of Hockeybuzz chimed in, “How selfish is that? It’s just preseason!”
And Fleury had a great response: “I was thinking that too. Give me one! I gotta redeem myself.”
Such is life in the NHL preseason as the regular season is now less than a week away. It might be exhibition games, but this is Las Vegas and that means the crowd attendance exceeds T-Mobile Arena capacity for hockey. For the third straight home preseason game, the VGK crowd size was larger than the 17,367 capacity. In Friday’s case, it was 17,928.
There’s only one more game to be played in the preseason for the Vegas Golden Knights (Sunday, 5 p.m., San Jose Sharks at The T) and you get the sense they can’t wait to officially start Season 2 Thursday, when the Philadelphia Flyers and their rowdy fans come to the Strip.
Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz didn’t want to give anything away about the regular season opener when he chatted with LVSportsBiz.com before Friday’s VGK-Kings faceoff. But I would expect the sword ceremony with perhaps a slight twist and an emotional Oct. 1 tribute to kickstart the Knights’ second season in the league Oct. 4.
The Golden Knights are weaving more traditional hockey organ music into the game ops, while deploying their famed Knight Line Drumbots into the in-game entertainment line-up.
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LVSportsBiz.com asked coach Gerard Gallant about the players’ two-day trip to owner Bill Foley’s Montana ranch. Here’s Gallant’s response.
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