Golden Knights fans gearing up for Stanley Cup victory parade, rally

LAS VEGAS --Michael Atkin took his family to the Vegas Golden Knights team store, The Arsenal, at City National Arena to pick up apparel in anticipation for the Stanley Cup Championship parade and rally here Saturday.

Atkin, along with his wife, Ashley, and children Hunter, 15, and London, 11, are among the 500,000 residents expected to line the parade route down the Las Vegas Strip to celebrate the Golden Knights winning the Stanley Cup.

"It's so important; locals don't go to The Strip," Atkin said. "It's that important to be there for this. Local folks don't go to The Strip ever, except to show our tourist friends around. This is that important that we're actually going to go to this."

Vegas won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Florida Panthers in the Final, closing out the best-of-7 series in five games with a 9-3 win at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday. The championship parade and rally will be held Saturday starting at 7 p.m. PT. The parade route will begin at Flamingo Road and extend to Tropicana Boulevard and will culminate with a rally at Toshiba Plaza in the Park District in front of T-Mobile Area approximately two hours later.

"It's going to be huge," Ashley Atkin said. "We think of the New Year's tourism, and this is going to be a local parade. This going to be for our local fans, and I think it's going to be bigger than New Year's, because the locals know where to go and where to hide out. I think this is just going to be amazing."

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The Golden Knights joined the NHL as an expansion franchise for the 2017-18 season and made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, losing to the Washington Capitals in five games. Despite the loss, the team captured the imagination of the city and helped the community rally together through a difficult time.

"I grew up always playing hockey on the East Coast and being here, just seeing the sense of community that team has brought together, especially in being the first professional sports team brought to town, nobody thought hockey would be a successful sport," Las Vegas resident Brian Dietz said. "To see the whole community, and I mean everybody loves the Knights whether you were a hockey fan before, everybody is behind them. The success the first season helped, but they did everything right.

"They were always community-orientated and did so many things around town, that whether you knew hockey or not, they were involved with all kinds of things in the community."

It's the sense of community that drew Las Vegas residents to the Golden Knights and will have them gathering for the parade. The team has helped shaped the image of the city as more than just The Strip for those from out of town.

"Vegas is like a small town to locals," Nicole Dietz said. "You run into people that you just have connections with constantly. It's thought of as a transient town, but people who are locals and consider themselves local, it's just a small town. It's a small community outside of The Strip, and the tourists that you tend to think of in this town."

Much like the Atkin family, Brian and Nicole Dietz do not venture to the Las Vegas Strip too often but will be on Las Vegas Boulevard to watch the procession.

"For us, really the only time we go to The Strip is for Knights games," Brian said. "We really don't go down there unless we're going to T-Mobile or we're going to Toshiba Plaza. I would say that's probably most of the locals here."

Brian and Nicole also came to the team store to pick up championship merchandise. Fans were lined up outside The Arsenal, which was as busy as it has ever been, according to manager Tyler Kasch.

"Since about 6 a.m., the day after we won The Cup, we've been all here, all hands on deck, just getting stuff off the trucks and getting it right on the floor," Kasch said. "We don't really have time to tag anything, we're just literally putting it out. The suburbs are home to a lot of us, but I do expect a lot of locals to travel into The Strip, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

While it still seems surreal for some players and the fans the Golden Knights are Stanley Cup champions, coach Bruce Cassidy believes the parade will help it all sink in.

"I think the parade will make it really real," Cassidy said. "I went through one in Boston, and it was unbelievable. I think it will be awesome for the fans, for the players, everyone involved. It's going to be cool."