ZCZC
BSP-10
IHOCKEY-NHL-KNIGHTS-FANS
Vegas Strong: how tragedy unified Golden Knights, fans
LAS VEGAS, May 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Whether they are wearing replica
jerseys or outlandish fancy dress outfits, fans of the Vegas Golden Knights
ice hockey team are masking the trauma of the deadliest mass shooting in
modern US history.
Barely eight months after a gunman perched in a Las Vegas hotel shot dead
58 people and injured 500 at a music festival near the gambling haven’s
famous strip, the fairytale debut season of the Knights has provided the
grieving city with an emotional rallying point.
Resplendent in a gold lame suit and sparkling sequined basketball
sneakers, Kevin Tey is emblematic of the legions of Knights fans who have
found solace in Stanley Cup-chasing exploits of the newly formed franchise
team.
Standing on the forecourt of the Knights’ home stadium, the T-Mobile
Arena, Tey mixes merrily with other fans decked out in costumes ranging from
Elvis Presley to medieval knights and other eccentric characters.
Tey, who has lived in the glittering Nevada gaming capital for 12 years,
traces his allegiance to the Knights to October 1, when Stephen Paddock
unleashed his carnage on unsuspecting concert-goers from a room at the
Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Tey said he had never attended an ice hockey game before this season.
“After October 1 I fell in love with the team, for what they did for the
city,” Tey says.
– ‘It never goes away’ –
Fellow Knights fan Ray Sturck was supposed to attend the concert but
didn’t go after failing to obtain a ticket for his daughter.
“It never goes away, I have friends who were there and it will never go
away,” Sturck said.
The massacre occurred just days before the Knights made their debut in the
National Hockey League on October 6.
MORE/MR/ 1112 hrs
ZCZC
BSP-11
IHOCKEY-NHL-KNIGHTS-FANS-TWO-LAST
In the days following Paddock’s rampage, players from the hockey team,
drawn mostly from across the United States and Canada, demonstrated their
commitment to the city in various ways, visiting wounded victims in hospital,
the families of victims or by simply giving blood.
For Sturck, that made an impression. “Whatever it was, they were there to
help,” he said.
“They played for Vegas, they weren’t playing for them at that point.
That’s what eveybody saw in this team and here we are at the end, nobody
expected that. It’s incredible.
“I really wasn’t a hockey fan. We live in the middle of the desert. But I
said to to myself ‘Now let’s support them as they supported us, they’ve got
to see we support them.”
Trey said the team helped the city smile again. “At first it was getting
everyone’s mind off what happened, it was something to actually go out, have
fun and cheer for,” Trey said.
“After all the tragedy, everyone was down. To come and see the Golden
Knights step in and win some games, I think it got the city to back up on its
feet.”
– ‘A beautiful thing’ –
Under the slogan “Vegas Strong”, the Knights and their fans have forged a
formidable bond.
“It’s unfortunate that thing happened, and sometimes beautiful things
follow something like that, and the way that this community came together and
these people helped each other really was a beautiful thing to witness and
experience,” Knights general manager George McPhee said.
Knights winger Pierre Edouard Bellemare said the Knights roster has been
determined to repay the faith shown by their supporters.
“From the first matches we said to ourselves ‘Forget about each other. We
are doing this for our city, and we will give everything to this city’.
That’s why we are in the final,” the French international told AFP.
Reminders of the tragedy are everywhere. A banner with 58 stars was hung
from the ceiling of the T-Mobile Arena in March as a memorial to the victims,
while the slogan “Vegas Strong” welcomes players at the entrance of their
locker room at their training facility.
“We don’t talk about it a whole lot, but I think we think about it,”
Knights coach Gerard Gallant said.
“When we come in the dressing room and we go out there and we see that
banner up there in the stands, I think the guys think about it a whole lot.”
After Monday’s dramatic victory in game one of the best-of-seven series,
the Knights are three wins away from an improbable Stanley Cup triumph.
“Oh my god, if they win the Stanley Cup, this city will have the biggest
celebration this world has ever seen,” Trey said.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1112 hrs