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By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The pulse of Las Vegas is returning during this wicked COVID-19 pandemic and the heart is right here in T-Mobile Arena.
It’s the third Vegas Golden Knights game with fans and the fan attendance in the building has been bumped up by 868 fans from 2,605 fans to 3,473 tonight.
The extra noise, the louder “Go, Knights, Go” chant and the noisier “Knight” in the national anthem, is like a mental health barometer as Las Vegas and the country try to reject a novel coronavirus that has killed more than a half-million Americans. Even seeing fans flex their muscles underneath the red reverse retro jerseys and sparkling gold shirts during the Flex Cam break on the center Jumbotron is a welcome sight.
The San Jose Sharks are in town for two games, Monday and Wednesday. And the fans know the drill. Show up at a prescribed time so that fans enter the building in waves to maintain social distancing. They needed to also fill out an online health form to assure local health officials that they do not show any COVID symptoms. They will also leave the arena by sections to try and not have fans too close to one another when they exit the venue.
Tickets are not cheap. A Golden Knights season ticket holder said she paid $150 per ticket for two tickets for a pair of upper bowl seats. We interviewed these fans here:
Contrast that to two San Jose Sharks fans who decided to make a Las Vegas vacation out of their SJS-VGK game and spent $900 for two upper-bowl seats. Wow.
Here’s that pre-game plaza interview with the two Sharks fans:
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The Golden Knights broke out to a 1-0 lead in period one. Arena PA man Bruce Cusick didn’t even have time to announce the San Jose penalty before VGK forward Max Pacioretty fired home a power play goal, with Mark Stone collecting the primary assist, and power-play pointman Shea Theodore pitching in with the second assist. It was Pacioretty’s 14th goal of the season.
VGK face-of-the-franchise Marc-Andre Fleury was on top of his game, thwarting a breakaway and looking sharp as San Jose outshot Vegas, 11-8, after one period.
Here’s what social distancing inside the Big Ice House looks like:
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With the Golden Knights’ in-game entertainment chief Ayron Sequeira leaving Vegas and joining her previous Golden Knights co-worker Jonny Greco to run the entertainment operations for the new Seattle Kraken, it was VGK entertainment operations by committee tonight at T-Mobile Arena.
The in-game entertainment ops, considered tops in the NHL, looked over-the-top and sounded loud as usual.
Here’s a peak at the pre-game warmups.
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The Golden Knights came out flying in period two, applying pressure on Sharks netminder Devan Dubnyk, who was starting instead of Martin Jones. But Dubnyk made several nice saves, including stopping an accelerating Alex Tuch who was denied on a close-in rush.
But it didn’t take long for the Knights to strike early in period three as Pacioretty fed Stone with a pretty pocket pass and the VGK captain fired in his 10th goal of the season to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead. (Usual center Chandler Stephenson between Stone and Pacioretty was out, and Cody Glass took his spot on that line.)
No player on Vegas celebrates like Stone. He exudes a level of emotion that exceeds all other VGKers. Hair flying, arms flailing and high fives flying. He’s become the emotional heartbeat of this four-year-old team and deserves to be the franchise’s first captain.
Meanwhile, old man Fleury, 36, is enjoying a superb bounce-back season as he started his 16th game in the last 17 VGK contests. His poke check on San Jose’s Evander Kane rushing in on a breakaway to deny that Sharks’ scoring chance brought chants of “Fleury, Fleury.”
Fleury mentioned his objective was to surprise Kane by coming out of the net for the poke check.
Fleury is staying deeper in the blue ice in front of his goal and is anticipating shots and cross passes as well as ever. It’s hard to believe the Knights were shopping him after the team signed Robin Lehner after the Edmonton bubble postseason games in 2020.
Timo Meier made a pretty move around Fleury to cut the Knights’ lead to 2-1 after Dubnyk stymied Jonathan Marchessault twice on in-close, point-blank shots.
But the Knights remain undefeated this season when taking a lead into the final stanza.
Final: Vegas 2 San Jose 1
VGK coach Pete DeBoer: “I liked a lot of the things we did over the last 40 minutes other than put them away. We had multiple opportunities to extend that lead.”
Post-game interviews:
Around the NHL tonight: