Knights on Ice—Hockey Pizza Family

When I left New York City to move to Las Vegas to play blackjack professionally, I left behind four things behind that were very important to me: New York-style pizza, the New York Rangers, my family, and my brother and sister officers with whom I was proud to serve and protect; those friendships with my second family are still strong decades later.

Though listing their order of importance will severely affect my Christmas gifts, I admit that during the months of July, August, and September, my biological family is number one. That’s when hockey season is on hiatus.

So when the announcement that Las Vegas was being considered for a new expansion team, I held my breath. Hockey is a Canadian game and, because only seven out of 30 NHL teams were in Canada, I truly thought that a Canadian city would be awarded the newest franchise.

But Bill Foley was not to be denied. Though his “team” had neither a name nor a single player, he was aggressive in setting a goal of securing at least 10,000 season-ticket holders to show the NHL how serious he was and how much support he already had. Furthermore, not one of these early season-ticket holders was a casino or a corporation. It was you and your next-door neighbor and I who were willing to put down a deposit on a team that existed only in Bill Foley’s mind.

Could Mr. Foley return to me one of the things I left behind when I decided to relocate to Las Vegas? I knew it wouldn’t be the Rangers, but professional hockey was good enough for me and the rest is history: The NHL now has 31 teams, though still only seven in Canada.

However, the question remained: Could Las Vegas actually support a major sports team? We were about to find out.

I fully understood that there would be the honeymoon stage for accepting the Las Vegas Golden Knights as our team, but they won their first two games on the road, they won their first home game on an intensely emotional evening (as I wrote in my first blog), playing to a sold-out crowd, and in spite of losing their All Star goalie to a concussion two games ago, last night they won their fifth of six games.  The VGK have now tied a 100-year-old record of a new team winning five out of their first six.

“The Vegas Golden Knights continue to win and make history,” the NHL writes in an official statement. “The expansion team improved to 5-1-0 with a 5-4 overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres, becoming the first team in the NHL’s modern era (since 1943-44) to win five of its first six games in its inaugural season.

“Vegas joined the 1917-18 Montreal Canadiens as the only other franchise in the 100-year history of the League to start its first season 5-1-0. One of the victories for Montreal was a forfeit against the Montreal Wanderers as a result of a fire that burned Westmount Arena to the ground on Jan. 2, 1918.”

So in my opinion, the record is owned by the VGK—as they actually had to win five out of six.

The game that they did lose was against the Detroit Red Wings when they had a 3-to-2 lead going into the third period, but multiple giveaways led to four third-period goals. When you’re winning, it’s easy to overlook potential problems, but the VGK have a problem: They’re having a hard time playing for 60 minutes.

Like in the Detroit game, they let Buffalo back into the game last night when they surrendered a three-goal lead with only 10 minutes remaining, which forced the game into overtime. This time, they dodged a bullet when David Perron scored his second goal of the game to avoid a complete disaster, which could have had a lasting effect on the team’s mindset.

In the NHL, you can’t be successful without playing 60 minutes. The opposing teams are too good to get away with bringing your best effort for only two periods.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Alex Tuch, whom I’ve nicknamed Alex Tuck, seems to want to make it very difficult for Coach Gallant to keep him out of the lineup. In his last two games, he’s been a force to reckon with, scoring two goals and causing havoc near the net as he tucked himself right in front of the opposing goaltender, limiting his view of impending shots on one of the VGK’s five goals. Tuch also had one himself on a well-directed tip on a shot from the point by local VGK favorite Deryk Engelland.

I’d also like to mention that I’ve found at least 2 good places for New York pizza here in town: Nora’s on Flamingo and Grimaldi’s on Eastern. My mom moved out here in March and my brother is scheduled to follow, once my niece graduates from Montclair State.

So family, pizza, and hockey! Sure, it’s not Rangers hockey, but the VGK allow me forget that small problem, especially since as I’ve gone 17 years without any NHL hockey at all.

Upcoming Home Games:

Saturday Oct. 21 vs. St Louis, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday Oct. 24 vs. Chicago, 7:00 p.m.

Friday Oct. 27 vs. Colorado, 3 p.m.