Zucker prepares for his first NHL game in Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- Jason Zucker guessed he's made the trip from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to McCarran International Airport between 30 and 40 times.
The Vegas-raised Wild forward still maintains a home here for a bulk of the summer months. He trains here. His family lives here.
But his latest trip to his hometown brought a rush of new, unusual feelings.

This trip was a business trip.
"It didn't feel a whole lot different until we landed," Zucker said. "Landing at that airport, and not going through that terminal, hopping on the bus and knowing that at that point, my wife wasn't picking me up ... or my parents, going home. I was here for work. That's when it started to feel different."
When Minnesota plays the NHL's newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, Friday at T-Mobile Arena, just a stone's throw off the Las Vegas Strip, Zucker and the Wild will be playing in this arena for the very first time.
Zucker, born in Newport Beach, California, moved to Las Vegas when he was one month old. It's here where he began playing hockey, first on a roller skating rink before eventually moving over to ice.
When he was younger, the dreams of reaching the NHL were an everyday occurrence. But the dream of one day skating in the NHL, in his hometown?
"Never," Zucker said. "Obviously, the NHL wasn't even here, and once I made it, I still didn't think that this was going to happen. Even when the rumors started happening, it's very easy to question it because it's never been here. Being from here, and knowing that it had never been here before, it's very exciting to see how well they're doing and how well the town is rallying behind it."
Tickets to a Golden Knights game have become one of the hotter buys in town, with the first-year club leading the Pacific Division by 10 points.

Zucker said he expects around 40 friends and family at the game on Friday, many of whom are normally wearing their Golden Knights swag.
And tracking down tickets wasn't that big of a problem because most of the people coming are either season ticket holders or have had seats for months in advance.
That includes his parents, Scott and Natalie, and his brothers, Evan and Adam; all of whom are Golden Knights season ticket customers.
Zucker's wife, Carly, his daughter, Sophia, and his son, Hendrix, also made the trip from the Twin Cities to watch the game. He's also expecting his grandparents and countless friends from school to be there.
"Friends I played with when I was 10 years old," Zucker said. "Having everyone that I played with here in Vegas, it's going to be great."
Zucker has had a front row seat to the growth of hockey in Las Vegas, cutting his teeth on the rinks here, then watching as an NHL presence turned from a rumor into a vision and finally a reality.
On Friday, for the first time in his hockey career, the Vegas ice won't be friendly ice.
"For me, it's been cool to see it behind the scenes and see the practice rink being built across the street from the gym I work out at," Zucker said. "Just seeing all of it come together has been really cool, and now, to play in the game, it's going to be a lot of fun."
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