Twitter reaction: Golden Knights honour Vegas with magical home opener

Watch as the Vegas Golden Knights honour first first responders during the opening ceremony.

Hockey is certainly not top of mind for most Las Vegas residents after the horrific mass shooting that occurred at a country music festival Oct. 1, however the city’s new NHL team, the Vegas Golden Knights, played their first regular-season home game Tuesday night and did the city proud.

The expansion franchise improved to 3-0-0 on the season with a win over the Arizona Coyotes but that’s not what this night will be remembered for.

Golden Knights players got the red carpet gold carpet treatment prior to the game and fans flooded into the T-Mobile Arena eager to show their support.

Any time a new franchise has its home opener there’s bound to be some special festivities. Considering the recent events in Las Vegas, though, the Golden Knights’ pre-game ceremony is something sports fans will be talking about for years.

During player introductions, members of the Golden Knights were joined by first responders.

There was a 58-second moment of silence to honour the 58 people killed in the shooting, during which the names of the deceased were projected onto the ice.

Defenceman Deryk Engelland has been a longtime resident of Las Vegas. He addressed the crowd on behalf of his team.

When the puck finally dropped, the Golden Knights channelled the crowd’s energy and skated all over the Coyotes. It took the team less than three minutes to get on the board and for Tomas Nosek to become an answer to a trivia question.

As an encore to his touching pre-game speech, Engelland scored the second goal of the game.

James Neal continued his hot start to the year, potting a third goal for Vegas and Antti Raanta got the yank.

After 20 minutes the team was up 4-1, the fans were on their feet and the hockey world was in awe.

The second and third periods were not nearly as dramatic as the first. Vegas continued to carry the play and the final score ended up being 5-2.

Even the Coyotes couldn’t help but tip their caps to the Golden Knights.

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