"The games are insane," forward Erik Haula said. "I haven't been to a building that's consistently that loud. It's a great atmosphere. I didn't see that coming at all, and everybody loves coming here and playing. It's probably the biggest 'wow' moment."
Then there's practice. Yes, practice. It's open to the public at City National Arena, the Golden Knights' new facility in Summerlin, a community about 20 minutes west of the Strip. There are about 600 fixed seats and room to stand at one end of the rink.
Since about mid-December, practice has drawn capacity crowds routinely. On Friday, when the Golden Knights returned from their five-day break, the seats and standing room were full, so fans hopped atop benches in the vestibule to peer through the windows.
A few fans used to stand outside and ask for autographs as the players drove out of their parking lot. Then more and more fans showed up, until there were as many as 200 at a time. Players were stopping to sign, plugging the exit, and fans were unsafe in the street. So the Golden Knights set up an area inside for fans 14 and younger to catch players as they come off the ice.
There has been so much demand for jerseys that the Golden Knights have had to reorder multiple times, chief marketing officer Brian Killingsworth said. They've surpassed their revenue projections at the Armory and the Arsenal, the team stores at T-Mobile and City National, respectively. Not their projections for revenue to this point. For the entire season.
"It really is incredible," Killingsworth said. "And you see it. You see it out in the community. You see it everywhere."
You see Vegas gear all over town. You see it at watch parties when the Golden Knights are on the road, like the one at City National on Dec. 9. The Golden Knights held a public skate and showed their 5-3 victory against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on a drop-down video screen. It sold out.
"Kids and families were skating, and then we'd score and the whole place would go crazy," Killingsworth said. "It was a lot of fun. So we're going to look to do more of that."
The Golden Knights are just beginning what they plan to be a significant investment in youth hockey, but their Learn to Skate Program has already exploded. It had 92 skaters for its first five-week session from Sept. 12-Oct. 14, Killingsworth said. The current one from Jan. 2-Feb. 24 has 600.
One day, Peter Neal, the father of forward James Neal, was so inspired that he went into the team's dressing room, put on his son's skates and went out to teach the kids. He coached his kids when they were growing up in Toronto and still coaches today.