Ryan S. ClarkNHL Reporter Oct 11, 2023, 1:12am ET6 minutes read
LAS VEGAS – The day it was announced that Las Vegas was getting an NHL team. The way this team became a symbol of a city that was already hurting before the Golden Knights had even played a game. The big trades where they got the stars that built their win-at-all-costs mentality.
Moments like these have shaped the Vegas Golden Knights. And with Tuesday marking the sixth anniversary of their first game, those events were crucial as they raised their first Stanley Cup banner before posting a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena .
“It was cool to see the banner go up,” Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill said. “I had never seen such a detailed banner. It was pretty cool to see it put up, but we know what we did last year and we were ready to go tonight.”
Like so many Golden Knights games, the ceremony began with the team embracing the medieval theme. The video board showed images of the team winning the Stanley Cup that seemed like something out of an epic fantasy, complete with a narrative fit for a Shakespeare play.
Then came Lee Orchard, who plays the role of the “Golden Knight” by skating onto the ice and donning his golden armor before sticking his sword into a stone in the middle of the ice.
From then on, the arena’s collective attention turned back to the video board, where fans followed the Golden Knights’ history through video clips. It began with the Board of Governors meeting where it was announced that Las Vegas would be getting a team, followed by snippets of the expansion draft.
The video was then sent to the numerous memorials of the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights honored the victims and first responders before their first home game nine days later. Tuesday’s video included excerpts from the emotional speech that former Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland gave that evening, saying: “We will do everything we can to help you and our city heal.” “
The video continued to show the day the team named Mark Stone captain, followed by players the Golden Knights either signed or acquired through a trade, including Jack Eichel. It showed a clip from coach Bruce Cassidy’s introductory press conference and a series of goals from last season.
Then, as the video began playing highlights of the Stanley Cup playoff run, members of the team rolled out the banner box on the ice – a slot machine.
“I had the feeling that the three cups were coming,” said Eichel. “It’s Vegas, so it’s on theme. I loved it. It was great.”
After the video ended, the team took the ice, and Stone was the last to arrive as he lifted the Stanley Cup over his shoulders as he skated around the rink. He then placed the trophy on a table next to the slot machine and pulled the lever.
Three Stanley Cup symbols were displayed on the three LCD screens and the banner slowly came out of the box and was raised high enough for the crowd to see.
After the Golden Knights took a team photo in front of the banner, it was raised to the rafters. The PA system’s blaring speakers played “Shot at the Night” by famed Las Vegas residents The Killers as the banner made its way to the rafters.
Many of the Golden Knights looked longingly at the banner, and some appeared to get emotional, before the ceremony ended with chants of “Go Knights Go” from the sellout crowd.
“We had our ring dinner a few nights ago and went to see the Raiders last night,” Eichel said. “There are a lot of things going on in your life and you’re trying to enjoy what we’ve achieved but getting ready for a season so you’re trying to balance both. Watching a banner being raised is an amazing experience and you want to enjoy every moment. But in the back of your mind you’re also preparing for a game.”
Curiosity surrounded how the Golden Knights would celebrate the most significant moment in their history. The team’s entertainment staff immediately made T-Mobile Arena one of the most unique venues in the league by living up to the expectations that come with being in Las Vegas.
The Golden Knights have developed trademarks such as Orchard running around in gold armor, the Golden Belles showgirls team, and the Knight Line – the team’s drum line – in which one of their members abseils from the rafters onto the ice while it’s still drumming.
Andrew Abrams, vice president of the Golden Knights and executive producer of their entertainment team, said it was “both hard and easy” to meet those requirements when it came to what they would do for the banner-raising ceremony.
“We always try to outdo ourselves, and the expectation is that it can’t be another hockey team that holds up the banner again,” Abrams said. “But it was easy because some of the elements we chose, we already had ideas for the playoffs before we could even talk about a banner ceremony.”
Tyler Ferraro, senior manager of entertainment experiences for the Golden Knights, said they wanted to make the ceremony about the team. Instead of just relying on those familiar trademarks, they wanted to create what Ferraro described as a love letter from the team to the city.
That’s why they wanted items like the slot machine banner box – something that was kept secret and only a select few people in the organization knew about it.
“We wanted to have some things that when people looked at them they said, ‘Yeah, that’s Vegas,'” Abrams said.
Coming to that conclusion also meant watching what other teams in the NHL and other leagues were doing before confirming the direction the Golden Knights wanted to take.
Last year with the Colorado Avalanche, Blink-182 bassist and singer Mark Hoppus sang “All the Small Things” – the hit song from 2000 that eventually became the team’s anthem, and fans continued to sing long after it ended of the song continues to play over the arena’s sound system.
Abrams said the Golden Knights’ entertainment team has thought about various ideas, such as including a musical performance. But factors such as time constraints meant that the focus remained on the ceremony.
“Because we are such a young team, you can see specific points in our timeline over the last six years as to how this led to our championship,” Ferraro said. “Or how that trade helped us win the Stanley Cup.”
Another element the entertainment team worked with was when owner Bill Foley issued the famous “Cup in Six” edict, claiming the club would win a Stanley Cup in six seasons.
“It feels like a really nice conclusion to our first Golden Knights saga,” Ferraro said. “We’re able to close a chapter on this, literally and figuratively, and start to focus on the future, but this was also a fun creative twist.”
Although the Golden Knights had months to work on what they thought was the perfect ceremony, they only had a limited window of time to rehearse at T-Mobile Arena. The arena hosted Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday between the New York Liberty and the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. On Monday, the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers played a preseason game, reinforcing the need to make the most of rehearsals.
Abrams said they rehearsed the show for the first time on October 4th. At the first rehearsal they were able to see what the show would look like in individual sections, but they didn’t have enough time to see what the entire ceremony would look like from start to finish.
Two days later, an unforeseen gap in the schedule allowed them to rejoin T-Mobile, allowing them to rehearse four or five times.
“We came out of there in a really good place,” Abrams said. “A two-day rehearsal is not normal, but the most important thing is that we do as many repetitions as physically possible.”
A nostalgic ceremony also featured a former Golden Knights player looking back, with Kraken forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare speaking about his time with the team. Bellemare, who spoke after the morning skate, was one of the original Golden Knights who helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final, which they lost to the Washington Capitals.
“Above all, you are a little proud of having the honor of being part of it [that first team in franchise history]said Bellemare. “Secondly, people in Vegas are happy for anyone who can celebrate this.”