Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is at T-Mobile Arena on Friday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, ATTSN-RM, PRIME).
"It's been like this the whole year long," forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. "But now they somehow find, like, another few levels that they rise. It's unbelievable, and it's fun to play in front of the crowd."
It might seem like these fans haven't suffered, haven't felt frustration, haven't earned this.
The NHL made the expansion draft more favorable to Vegas than to previous expansion teams. The League has a salary cap now. The Golden Knights started strong and never looked back, shattering records for first-year teams and winning the Pacific Division. It's not supposed to happen this fast. You're supposed to have to pay your dues, right?
But these fans have suffered, have felt frustration, have earned this in their own way.
Las Vegas was a city with a major-league population of more than 2 million but no major-league professional sports team. It never had a big-league team to help give it an identity beyond the Strip, to unite natives and transplants behind the same logo. Lots of outsiders said this wouldn't work.
These fans badly wanted a team to call their own, and finally they have it, and it's winning and winning and winning and in the playoffs.
That's why fans lined up for free tattoos of Golden Knights logos in Toshiba Plaza outside T-Mobile Arena before the game -- lined up to have someone stick needles into their skin, inject ink and brand them as Golden Knights fans forever.