It’s fitting that the 2017-2018 season of the Vegas Golden Knights was the stuff of fairy tales: A first-year expansion team of “Golden Misfits,” widely dissed and dismissed, shatters expectations with win after thrilling win. Unreality, after all, is our city’s most abundant natural resource. And just as happily unreal was the team spirit that seemed to take hold overnight and keep us rapt in our seats — whether in the arena, the living room, or the neighborhood bar. In the blur of a slapshot, our reputation for being a town of rootless transients with no claim to any unifying civic ethos was suddenly outdated. The Vegas Golden Knights play some pretty incredible hockey. But maybe there’s something more going on here. The Vegas Golden Knights align with our city’s moment and mood in a way that makes a strange sense.
That’s also a way of saying you don’t have to be a hardcore hockey fan to enjoy the team or their story — or the feature in the following pages. In it, we profile defenseman Deryk Engelland, a Knight and transplant who’s truly made Las Vegas home; we supply you with all the crib notes you need to better enjoy this season; and we marvel at how hockey fandom can strike the most unlikely people — for instance, the person writing this introduction.