Golden Knights set record by dropping puck 94,655 feet before opener
Vegas kicks off third season with out-of-this-world pregame event
ByPat Pickens @Pat_Pickens / NHL.com Staff Writer
The Vegas Golden Knights added a world record to their already-historic NHL tenure.
The Golden Knights dropped a puck 94,655 feet, the highest puck drop ever recorded, then used it for their ceremonial faceoff before the season-opening game against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday.
Vegas teamed up with Overlook Horizon to carry the puck in a weather balloon. The Golden Knights tracked the puck's progress on Twitter as the balloon sailed into space before dropping it over the Amargosa Valley, Nevada, roughly 90 miles west of Las Vegas.
It took two hours and 16 minutes for the puck to reach the ground, and three scouting groups made a four-mile hike and scoured Death Valley to find it. The puck was transported to T-Mobile Arena for the game, where Jason Buratczuk, Travis Smaka and Scott Williams, the three Nevada troopers who found it, dropped it between Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith and Logan Couture of the Sharks.
The puck drop, teased as an out-of-this-world surprise in the leadup to the game, was the main attraction in a night full of remarkable pregame events. The Golden Knights players donned their finest suits and graced the gold carpet again, which also included some Cirque Du Soleil performers, legendary "Jeopardy" performer James Holzhauer.
