Golden Knights expect wide range of emotions for home opener

It’s impossible to predict what the prevailing mood will be inside T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night as the Golden Knights make their long-awaited regular-season home debut.

Certainly, there will be great joy as Las Vegas and all of Southern Nevada celebrates the christening of its first major league professional sports franchise. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will attend, as will a number of political and civic dignitaries to mark the occasion.

There will be sadness as well, as the team and the league pay tribute to the 58 victims and the close to 500 wounded from the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip.

But there’s another emotional factor in play.

The fans will be watching a first-place team on its home ice. The Knights are off to a 2-0 start, and only two other expansion teams — the 1967 Los Angeles Kings and 1967 Oakland Seals — started 2-0. Neither of those teams made it to 3-0.

That may provide a little extra energy as the Knights look to sweep the home-and-home series with the Arizona Coyotes after they defeated them 2-1 in overtime Saturday at Gila River Arena.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of different emotions,” Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland said. “Obviously, the city is still healing from the tragedy, and as players we’re aware of that. But hopefully we can go out and perform and take everyone’s mind off of what happened for a couple of hours.”

The team did not reveal its pregame ceremony plans. However, it is scheduled for 15 minutes, and fans who are planning to attend are urged to arrive well ahead of the 7:30 p.m. scheduled puck drop. There were still tickets available as of late Monday afternoon, mostly the expensive seats down by the glass.

“It will be a respectful and dignified ceremony,” general manager George McPhee said Monday.

For coach Gerard Gallant, the challenge Tuesday is to keep the players’ focus on what happens on the ice.

“No question it’s going to be difficult,” Gallant said after Monday’s practice. “It’s going to be an incredible ceremony. But they’re professional athletes. I have no doubt they’ll be ready to play.”

Engelland said: “We’ve never had an experience like this. We’ve got to get ready to go. We’ve got a very good team coming in. But we’ll try help the community and make them proud again with a win on home ice.”

Tuesday begins a seven-game homestand, and it’s a chance for the Knights to not only pick up some points but establish their home ice as a tough place to play.

Forward Jonathan Marchessault said: “I think we’re ready. It’s going to be emotional for us, but we know they’re going to do a great job memorializing those people and helping everyone move forward.

“Everyone is excited about the start. We want to build on that.”

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who will start Tuesday, said of the unique circumstances surrounding the home opener: “I think we’re all excited to be home and have the chance to play in front of our fans. We talked on the ice a little bit about it.

“It’s going to be a crazy day for everybody with friends and family in town for the first game. But at the end of the day we still have to try and get those two points.”

It was Bettman who pushed hard to approve granting Knights owner Bill Foley his franchise. The commissioner is usually roundly booed at every NHL city he visits, but he probably deserves to be applauded rather than scorned.

If the fans boo him, it might a sign that things are returning to normal in a community still trying to heal. He can probably live with that, at least for one night.

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.