On a day when the biggest news regarding the NHL expansion team was supposed to be working toward a conclusion that is the obvious swing and miss in signing forward Vadim Shipachyov, the Knights saw a dire situation in net become even more grim.
Sports Columns
The Knights are 7-1 to begin their inaugural season, having continued their historic beginning with a 4-2 victory against Chicago.
Henderson bar owner, former minor league enforcer Bob “The Hammer” Fleming, says hockey concussion protocol has changed a lot since he played.
Vadim Shipachyov scored his first NHL goal in a win against Boston on Sunday and played nearly 11 minutes of a 5-4 overtime victory against Buffalo on Tuesday night before 17,617 at T-Mobile Arena.
Marc-Andre Fleury on Sunday was placed on injured reserve by the Knights, the face of the expansion franchise lost for the time being with a concussion suffered in the second period of a 6-3 loss to Detroit on Friday.
The first expansion team in NHL history to win its first three games couldn’t make it four Friday night, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Knights 6-3 before 17,645 at T-Mobile Arena.
The Astros are a minus-175 series favorite over the Yankees (plus-155) and a minus-160 favorite in Friday’s Game 1, which pits Dallas Keuchel against Masahiro Tanaka (plus-150).
No one could have imagined that the first home game in the history of the NHL expansion team would be defined by such a mournful cause, but as it has so many times in the worst of moments, sports proved to be a powerful remedy.
There are myriad reasons the first regular-season home game in Golden Knights history, played Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena before a sellout crowd torn between reflection and acclamation, still will be considered monumental years from now.
In 1999, then-Las Vegas Mayor Goodman went to New York City to meet with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to discuss the possibility of Las Vegas getting a team one day. Some day. When hell, or Henderson, froze over. But some day.
In a week when fear and death and incomparable sorrow tested the faith and resolve of Las Vegas like never before, major league professional sports officially joined its ranks.
NHL preseason games, two minor league franchises indoctrinate local fans, pave way for arrival of Vegas Golden Knights.
Bill Foley had never before swam in this part of the ocean, near its floor or otherwise, before emerging as the man who would bring Las Vegas its first major league professional sports team in the form of an NHL expansion franchise.
Who would have believed even a decade ago that any of the professional leagues would land in Nevada for more than just an experiment in occasional scheduling?
Stanford opened as a 6½-point favorite over No. 2o Utah, but sharp money on the home underdog has since moved the line to 4½.
