Golden Knights’ Season Seven On Home Ice Starts Wednesday With Preseason Game Vs LA Kings; Attendance Announced At 17,247 For VGK OT Loss To Kings
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Story by Alan Snel Photos by Tyge O’Donnell
The sunlight was filling the T-Mobile Arena lobby when the doors opened at 5:45PM for the Vegas Golden Knights’ first home exhibition game of the 2023-24 NHL season.
It’s the first week of autumn on the Strip and LVSportsBiz.com was stationed at the top of the arena’s main escalator to size up the crowd of Vegas fans who received a free mini-banner after passing through the doors. There’s a buzz in the lobby where the fans jumbled in to get the freebie, but it’s a controlled murmur.
For an exhibition game, the attendance was announced at 17,427.
The big celebration is to come in two weeks.
The big title banner is going up Oct. 10, the day the VGK faithful will rejoice in a 2022-23 Stanley Cup championship during the season’s curtain-raiser when the Golden Knights host the upstart Seattle Kraken.
*
In an era of “super teams” dotted with superstar players, the Golden Knights showed the sports world that they won a league title and generated millions of dollars in ticket and merchandise revenue thanks to a roster filled with lots of above-average players and perhaps the best six-man defensive corps in the NHL.
The NHL celebrates the points piled up by superstar Connor McDavid of Edmonton, but it was a team with a player who led with squad in scoring last season with 66 points that won the Stanley Cup. The player was Jack Eichel, who began his Vegas career a season earlier with surgery after a big trade with the Buffalo Sabres. McDavid piled up 153 points, including 64 goals, last season.
The Knights didn’t even have a 30-goal scorer last season. Eichel’s linemate, Jonathan Marchessault, led the team with 28 goals.
Marchessault scored a power play goal tonight off a nice pass from Mark Stone. Brendan Brisson, who played with Eichel and Marchy on the VGK’s top line Wednesday, scored the game’s first goal on a sweet feed from Eichel.
*
The Golden Knights fill the Big Ice House by the Strip to about 105 percent of capacity every year because there are plenty of standing room only tickets sold on top of the fixed-seat capacity of 17,367 in the venue.
The Knights used the exhibition game to hawk two seats at an upper bowl top row. The selling never ends for Bill Foley, a businessman with a diverse portfolio of wineries, hotels, soccer teams and restaurants.
*
The Kings decided to give a hard check to VGK captain Mark Stone.
Let’s just say that didn’t go over well with Stone.
“You worry about hits like that,” VGK coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. Cassidy said it’s a balancing act during the preseason of trying to prep veteran players for the rigors of the regular season, while not wanting to see players get injured from physical play during exhibition games.
The Kings pulled out a 4-3 win in OT tonight. During the game, the Kings’ Akil Thomas, a 23-year-old from Toronto, scored three goals.
“We let a lead away,” Cassidy said after the Knights had a 3-1 lead entering the third period.
