LAS VEGAS -- The sun shone in the desert on the first day of June, and the fans streamed toward City National Arena, the Vegas Golden Knights' practice facility about 25 minutes west of the Strip.
The parking lot was jammed. The music was jamming. Chance, the mascot, and the Vegas Vivas, the cheerleaders, posed for pictures with people. Out of school for the summer, kids played street hockey and grabbed slices of free pizza.
Fans packed the stands inside the ice rink, with huge handmade signs stuck against the glass in each end zone rooting on the Golden Knights ahead of the Stanley Cup Final.
"GOOD LUCK Golden KNIGHTS."
"GO Knights GO."
"It's Knight Time! Good Luck!"
Then the coaches and players took the ice for practice, and the fans cheered and cheered and cheered.
It was two days before the Golden Knights were to play the Florida Panthers in Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS), but coach Bruce Cassidy said he didn't consider closing practice.
He wasn't worried about keeping secrets. He wasn't worried about preventing distractions. Or if he was, he saw the bigger picture.
"No," he said. "I go along with how they want to market the team here."
This is what the Golden Knights have done since they joined the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18, and the fact that they're still doing it, and the fans are still responding this way, says a lot.
"Not much has changed, which is great," said forward Reilly Smith, who has been here from the beginning. "I think a big part of that has been a good product on the ice, and I think we've done that over the last six years."
Not long ago, people thought the idea of an NHL team in Las Vegas was crazy.
But the Golden Knights were the city's first major-league professional sports team and geared toward locals, not tourists. They helped the city heal after a mass shooting on the Strip on Oct. 1, 2017, with the way they supported the community off the ice and represented it on the ice.
The Las Vegas area mixes natives and transplants. Now everyone could root for the same team.
The Golden Knights made a magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, losing to the Washington Capitals in five games.
T-Mobile Arena became one of the most electric venues in the League, while City National Arena held open practices, open skates and learn-to-play programs. Fans could watch the players and then go out on the same ice.
The best part, perhaps, for the growth of the game? The Golden Knights weren't a flash in the pan, a one-season Cinderella story. They sustained their success and support.
Since joining the NHL, they rank fifth in wins (267) and points (575) in the regular season. They're second in wins (50) to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Four times in six seasons, they have made at least the third round. Last season was the only time they missed the playoffs.
James and Marie Hughes came to practice Thursday with their 1-year-old daughter, Leila. James had grown up a Hartford Whalers fan in Connecticut. Marie had not been a hockey fan growing up in New York. They moved here nine years ago and eventually became Golden Knights fans.
"In the beginning, I had a lot of colleagues kind of following them," Marie said. "I was like, 'Hockey in the desert? How good could they really be?'
"But the first year, it was almost like a movie how everything kind of turned out, and they made it to the Final. Finally, their second season, I got to see them for myself, and just seeing the energy that they feed off when we go to a game, there was nothing like it."
As she watched practice, Marie held Leila.
"We're getting her into it, and we'll get her some apparel too, so we can all match," she said.
James and Marie also have a 4-year-old daughter, Mia, but she was at preschool. Smiling, Marie said they'd have to keep their trip to practice a secret from her.
"We have it on every night, so she's asking all the time, 'Are we watching hockey today?'" Marie said. "That actually happened this morning while my husband had ESPN on."
Opening practice allows fans to see the players not just on TV but in person, even if they can't make it to T-Mobile Arena. The fans cheered even routine drills.
"This just shows how much the community is behind them, how much we're rooting them on, how much we want to see them do well and how much we know they're going to do well," James said. "It's exciting to be back in the Cup Final."
Vegas, baby.
"The fans have been unbelievable since Year One, and it has not stopped," said forward Jonathan Marchessault, who has been here from the beginning. "Even last year, we got a lot of support, and we weren't even a playoff team. That's probably why it's one of the best places to play in, right?"
