Golden Knights Wrap Up Home Preseason Schedule With 3-1 Loss To Arizona Thursday; Games Count For Real In Five Days With Season-Opener Against Seattle Kraken
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
They say 16,883 was the attendance for tonight’s Golden Knights vs Arizona exhibition game in a — let’s be polite here — underwhelming performance by the Knights at T-Mobile Arena Thursday.
The Coyotes came away with a 3-1 win in this preseason game as the VGK played their top two lines and started their top goalie, Robin Lehner.
Katie Marie Jones, the VGK game co-emcee with Mark Shunock, advised the fans to “bring the energy” for the next home game in five days when the VGK hosts the new Seattle Kraken in the season-opener. It’s a suggestion that could be suggested for the Knights players, too, after the VGK lost its third game out of six preseason games. The seventh and final preseason match is in San Jose Saturday.
A Knights original Misfit, William Karlsson, scored the team’s sole goal tonight.
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After the game, LVSportsBiz.com asked coach Pete DeBoer for his assessment on how the team in rounding into shape as the games count for real starting Tuesday.
“Tonight was a little bit of everything,” DeBoer told the media. “I’m confident we’ll get there.”
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The Golden Knights requested fans mask up for these games at T-Mobile Arena to comply with the local indoor mask requirement.
From the jumbotron videos of fans during the game, it’s clear many don’t comply with the state’s indoor mask protocol.
Many major league teams and event promoters require fans to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result to attend their events. Not the Golden Knights.
They say they’re following the local requirement of wearing masks in indoor spaces.
But many of their fans inside the arena are not complying.
An arena worker wrote a PSA to share with fans attending games at T-Mobile Arena:
The Las Vegas Raiders were the first NFL team to require their fans to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination. The team will be holding sessions at their “Alternate Screening” tent outside Allegiant Stadium from 9AM-5PM Saturday and 9AM-2PM Sunday before the Raiders-Bears game.
“We encourage fans needing Alternate Screening or a vaccination to plan ahead and complete the process on Saturday to avoid creating lines that could cause some fans to miss pregame activities, the National Anthem and kickoff,” Raiders President Dan Ventrelle said in a release.
This is the third Raiders home game at Allegiant Stadium since the organization’s announcement of the vaccine requirement for attendees pursuant to Governor’s State of Nevada Emergency Directive 049.
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The Golden Knights complete their preseason in San Jose Saturday. Then the NHL’s new expansion team, the Kraken, will play their first regular season game ever on Tuesday in Las Vegas.
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