Vegas Golden Knights' opening ceremony will be a 'celebration of healing and moving forward'
LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights will be sensitive to the mass shooting that transpired just over a week ago when the expansion team plays its first game at home on Tuesday.
“Plans that were on the drawing board to celebrate the first regular-season game have been modified (out of) respect to the terrible tragedy,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “What will take place will be in the spirit of what I believe sports teams mean to a community — bringing people together in a sense of unity.”
Stephen Paddock opened fire from his Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino hotel room during an outdoor concert on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 and injuring 489 in what is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
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Vegas, which is 2-0-0, will play the Arizona Coyotes (10 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
“It’s not going to be a typical opener – we will save that for Friday,” Golden Knights general manager George McPhee said. “(Tuesday) night is not about us. It’s about honoring and remembering the victims, supporting their families and recognizing the first responders who did tremendous work.”
Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland has spent his offseasons in Las Vegas for 14 years and said he expects Tuesday’s pre-game ceremony to touch everyone in the city.
“There are going to be a lot of emotions,” Engelland said. “Because of the tragedy, I don’t know if words can describe how emotional it will be. … We have to do our part to help this city past this whole ordeal."
The Golden Knights are Las Vegas’ first team from one of the four major sports, and people have been telling the players how uplifting it has been that the team rallied to win two road games to start the season.
“It’s bigger than hockey — a lot bigger,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said.
Engelland said he has received numerous texts from firefighters saying that the Golden Knights have brought “some excitement” to the firehouse again after all the sadness created by the mass shooting.
“That’s what we have to do – is to get everyone’s mind off it, to let them get some normalcy back in their lives,” Engelland said.
Team president and CEO Kerry Bubolz said the Golden Knights’ opening night festivities will center on “a celebration of healing and moving forward.”
Bettman said the Golden Knights have been in the community "visiting with families, going to see first responders and being a positive presence."
Above all else, Bubolz said the Golden Knights want to be respectful of the tragedy.
“Now it’s about what happened with the first responders, the victims, and all of the heroes that came out of the tragedy,” Bubolz said.
But once the game starts, Bubolz said the hope is that the Golden Knights can provide “what amounts to a three-hour break from the tragedy the community has faced.”