Vegas Born and Vegas Raised: Golden Knights Open Season 10 Against Chicago; VGK Handle Blackhawks, 5-2, Tuesday
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — This old horse town always had sports — the incredible boxing matches, a Runnin’ Rebels national championship, NASCAR’s big boys of the stock cars and the cowboys of the National Finals Rodeo.
Then came the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017. MGM Resorts International and LA-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) built T-Mobile Arena after the Maloof Brothers visited NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to talk up Las Vegas as a big-league hockey town. The Maloofs joined forces with a 1967 West Point graduate by the name of Bill Foley to launch sports’ greatest expansion team.
The Golden Knights went to the Stanley Cup Final in Year 1, won the Cup championship in Year 6 and finished two wins shy of another NHL championship three months go. In the other six seasons, the VGK qualified for the playoffs five times. In the one season the Knights failed to make the postseason, the tem finished a single point in the final standings out of the playoffs.
In season ten, the Knights roster includes three original misfits — defensemen duo Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb, with William (43 goals in Year 1) Karlsson anchoring Vegas’ second line between star Mitch Marner and Brett Howden. Carter Hart started the season-opener, with Adin Hill trying to return to the between-the-pipes form that helped VGK win the Cup in 2023.
One of the NHL Western Conference’s worst teams — the Chicago Blackhawks — visit Las Vegas for the VGK season-opener. The team will be without its star, Connor Bedard, in the first VGK regular season game for new head coach Ryan Craig.
Vegas is 7-1-1 in its nine previous season-openers.
The Knights are no longer just #VegasBorn but you can consider them #VegasRaised.
Tonight there’s a palpable buzz in the arena with the speed of the game picked up a notch or two over the VGK’s four exhibition games. Arena game emcee Mark Shunock is pumped before the game on the plaza and also inside the arena.
VGK winger Victor Olofsson scored a power play goal by firing a wrister past Chicago goalie Spencer Knight after taking a pass from Mr. Assist Jack Eichel and the Knights notched their first goal of the 2026-2027 season.
Trevor Connelly, the 20-year-old, then found some loose change to the left of Knight and stuffed the puck into the back of the net for a VGK 2-0 lead in the first. Theodore assisted on the first two goals.
Chicago struck on a goal in the second period when fourth-liner Jordan Greenway lit the lamp and Vegas led, 2-1.
But Ivan Barbshev responded with a nice board battle to secure the puck and slide it to Eichel, who beat Knight from the left of the net and VGK skated off the ice with a 3-1 lead after two periods.
In the third period after VGK sleepwalked (sleepskated?) through a power play, Chicago’s crafty 38-year-old veteran Patrick Kane scored on a breakaway by patiently skating away from VGK goalie Carter Hart to open an angle and firing the puck behind him.
But Noah Hanifin responded with a goal to restore the 4-2 lead for Vegas in the third.
VGK padded the 4-2 lead with a final tally and opened Year 10 with a 5-2 win.
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