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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
There are not quiet nights at Vegas Golden Knights games.
How can there be?
The sound system at T-Mobile Arena is a powerful one and the team’s in-game entertainment with DJ Joe Green, PA voice Bruce Cusick and new Jumbotron features like “Hoist the Cup” will try and keep the crowd’s juices flowing during VGK contests — even preseason ones against the likes of the Arizona Coyotes.
But the Las Vegas Aces were on national TV defeating the Dallas Wings, 64-61, to move into the WNBA Finals starting Oct. 8 here in Las Vegas.
And at the other end of the Strip, the much-hyped Sphere, the 17,500-seat building shaped like a giant ball behind the Palazzo and Venetian, was making its debut tonight with a performance by mega group, U2. (For the record, the Golden Knights announced attendance was 17,501 at T-Mobile Arena tonight).
So, you’ll have to pardon the good citizens of Las Vegas if they were not all focused on a preseason game between the Arizona squad and the defending NHL champion Golden Knights.
But for VGK coach Bruce Cassidy, it was good to see goalie Logan Thompson — an NHL All-Star last season — between the pipes kicking away some Coyotes shots even if there were not a lot of shots coming his way Friday.
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Cassidy has no problem with his players speaking explicitly about winning a second consecutive Stanley Cup.
You might recall it was Cassidy who started the “back-to-back” chant at the VGK Stanley Cup championship rally in front of the big arena in June.
And defenseman Nic Hague said it’s the team’s goal to use the preseason to build back to where the Knights were at the end of last season.
Hague did score a goal tonight, along with 21-year-old Brendan Brisson, who is competing with wingers Pavel Dorofeyev and Paul Cotter for VGK roster spots and a potential position to replace original Misfit Reilly Smith. Smith was shipped off to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a cost-cutting move.
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The score was 2-1 in favor of Vegas when that man with a nose for open-net goals — William “Wild Bill” Karlsson found the puck on his stick at the end of the game and whipped a backhanded goal into a goalie-less Arizona net.
That was your final: VGK 3 Coyotes 1.