Golden Knights, fans celebrate 1st NHL Championship with parade on Las Vegas Strip

Thousands of Vegas Golden Knights fans lined the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday for a Stanley Cup victory parade and rally in front of the team’s home arena to mark the city’s first NHL championship.

For the team that played its first game as an expansion franchise in October 2017, and for tourists in hotel rooms with windows overlooking the route of the 2023 parade, the event was reminiscent of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history five years ago. Guests in high-rises overlooking the strip were awakened by guards asking to look around the windows for guns or other weapons.

The motorcade route went from an area near Flamingo Road, about a mile to Tropicana Avenue, for a fan gathering at Toshiba Plaza and the Park District in front of the T-Mobile Arena.

The Las Vegas Police Department said they had prepared for more than 100,000 people to cram street-level viewing areas along Las Vegas Boulevard for the celebration that planners compared to annual New Year’s Eve fireworks displays that have drawn an estimated 400,000 people in recent years.

At one point, people set up barricades and climbed fences, but otherwise the crowd remained orderly.

LOOK | Golden Knights win 1st Stanley Cup in franchise history:

Mark Stone of the Golden Knights presented the Stanley Cup by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman

Vegas captain Mark Stone hoists the Stanley Cup in honor of his team’s first NHL championship.

Above the arena stage where the hockey players gathered with the trophy, a banner read the names of the victims of the October 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured more than 850.

A lone gunman rained bullets from the 32nd floor windows of the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 20,000 at an outdoor country music festival across the street. Fifty-eight people died that night and two later died of their wounds. More than 850 people were injured, according to authorities. The gunman killed himself before police reached him. His motive for the attack was never firmly established.

People in the crowd Saturday remembered the shooting and the role the Golden Knights played in helping to restore the spirit of the community.

Players who dubbed themselves the Golden Misfits after being drafted from other NHL teams embraced survivors, first responders, and volunteers, and the team has become a staple of “Vegas Strong” events over the years focused on healing community trauma.

6 years in the making

That first year, team owner Bill Foley famously predicted that the Golden Knights would make the playoffs within three years and win the Stanley Cup within six years. The franchise surprised many by making the playoffs the first year and advancing to the championship before losing to the Washington Capitals in five games.

This year, the Golden Knights cruised through the playoffs, never facing an elimination game, and defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 on Tuesday. Team captain Mark Stone scored a three-goal “hat-trick”. Jonathan Marchessault was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

LOOK | Steen leads by example, pots hat-trick in cup win:

Stone’s hat trick helps Golden Knights defeat Panthers and claim 1st Stanley Cup

The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 to capture the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in its sixth season. Captain Mark Stone scored a hat-trick to finish the playoffs with 11 goals and 24 points.

Throughout the week, players have been seen celebrating at some of the same glittering resorts the procession passed by. The casinos have well-known names: Caesars Palace, Flamingo, Bellagio, Horseshoe, Paris Las Vegas, Cosmopolitan, Planet Hollywood, New York-New York, Aria, MGM Grand.

The parade route, arena and plaza also hosted a championship victory celebration last September, after the Las Vegas Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun to win the WNBA championship. The women’s basketball team also plays at the T-Mobile Arena.