LAS VEGAS – The first thing you noticed wasn’t the heat. It wasn’t even the buzz.
Hundreds of people carrying jerseys, kids, coffees and the kind of giddy anticipation usually reserved for a headliner on the Strip, lined up through the sprawling lobby of City National Arena and out the front doors.
A DJ blasted music into the desert morning, giving the whole thing the feel of a block party rather than a Monday practice.
And here’s the kicker: none of them were getting in.
The stands were already jammed, the glass packed four deep, and still they came. Vegas, man.
Inside, Golden Knights fans waved rally towels, chanted, and roared through a spirited skate that had players grinning at the absurdity of it all. A different kind of Vegas show, one that speaks to something bigger brewing in this Stanley Cup Final – something bordering on historic. It’s a series that refuses to be normal.
“We’re kind of in the entertainment business here,” said head coach John Tortorella.
“And to me it’s good to have people in the building. I think the players practise harder. They’re entertainers, they love having people around to see them play. So, I thought it was fantastic today.”
Fantastic is one word for it. Symbolic might be better.
This Stanley Cup final between the Golden Knights and Hurricanes has already delivered the kind of delicious chaos coaches hate. As Tortorella put it, the whole thing stems from hockey being “a game full of mistakes.”
Three games in, and the only thing missing is a short-handed goal.
Everything else is included as if it’s hockey’s dream parlay: Historic comebacks, historic hat tricks, overtime, double overtime, goalie controversies (or at least debates), momentum swings that defy logic, late and endless goals, and even a physicality that saw Cole Smith deliver 14 hits Saturday.
It’s chaos wrapped in skill, wrapped in theatre.
Tortorella admits he has “zero answers” for the wild lead changes.
“We’re trying to play defence, they’re trying to play defence,” he said.
“Give the credit to the players as far as some of the plays they’ve made, and just some of the bounces that have gone to each team.”
This is the kind of series that makes you shake your head one minute and hold your breath the next. The kind that gets remembered.
Players rarely admit a series is this good while still in the moment, but Rasmus Andersson came close.
“Three wild games,” he said of a series his squad leads 2-1 heading into Tuesday’s tilt at T-Mobile.
“When the floodgates open, it just keeps coming in waves. The next day you sit down and think, ‘holy crap, what just happened?’”
Something special is happening here. Something rare.
The only thing missing is hatred.
Not for long, you’d think. Not with this much on the line, and this much volatility.
If you want to understand the momentum Vegas has built since Tortorella arrived — 21-5-1, if you’re counting — just look at Monday’s practice rink scene.
Jack Eichel, who has seen plenty of big moments in this city, still shook his head at the turnout.
“It seemed like there was nowhere to sit,” he marveled.
“It’s different than what I’ve been used to,” added Andersson, who spent years in Calgary where a packed practice was a once-a-season novelty.
“You catch yourself staring up because it’s a lot of people, and then it’s your turn to go. I hope they enjoy it as much as we do.”
“That’s something you remember doing as a little kid, trying to watch NHL guys, trying to get out to practice or summer skates,” said Marner, who said he heard from a “couple legends” he used to play with, amongst others, after his 370-second hatty in Game 3.
Three shootouts in, it’s a matchup that might become one of those Finals people talk about for years.
This city has seen every kind of show imaginable.
But the one being put on right now by these two juggernauts is must-see.
And if the first three games are any indication, the best part is still ahead.