‘Bucket list’: Golden Knights fans savor ‘electric’ feel at Stanley Cup Final

Michael Wolfe was content with driving from California to Las Vegas to watch the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final with wife Lori outside of T-Mobile Arena at a watch party at Toshiba Plaza.

Then on Wednesday, Lori had a surprise for her husband.

“She calls me, I’m at work and she said, ‘When can you get off?’” Michael Wolf recalled. “And I asked for what? She said, ‘I got tickets.’”

“Tickets for what?” Michael Wolfe asked. “(She said) the Stanley Cup.”

Michael immediately got off work and the couple made the trek to Las Vegas to watch Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes.

The couple were among thousands of Golden Knights fans that waited more than an hour outside T-Mobile Arena to get into the arena for the first game of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas.

Michael and Lori got to Toshiba Plaza around 1 p.m. and got in line around 2:30 p.m., and were among the first of the crowd of fans at T-Mobile Arena to be in line.

“We were just going to be out here just to be out here outside just to be with it because we love this team so much,” said Michael Wolfe, who added he and his wife, from the Central Coast of California, have been to regular season and playoff games, including this postseason.

“I just want to be here and experience it because I’ve never been to a Stanley Cup Final and all the other times, we’ve (watched) at home.

Outside the arena, a sea of fans gathered in gold-colored Toshiba Plaza for a pregame concert with DJ Illenium, games and activities for them to win prizes and several stations to enjoy various beverages on another scorching day in the Las Vegas heat.

But for Michael and Lori, and many other Golden Knights fans on Saturday, were not going to pass up the opportunity to see their favorite team make their third Stanley Cup Final appearance in the franchise’s ninth year of existence.

“It is (on) my bucket list,” said Michael Wolfe, who added he’s a fan of the Raiders and Athletics from his Northern California roots. “I’m 63 years old and I have been waiting to come to a Stanley Cup Final (game). I haven’t been to a Super Bowl, but I’ve been to the World Series and I have been to the NBA Finals.

“I love coming to this town.”

‘Bonding with your city’

William McLellan has been a season-ticket holder for the past four seasons and has had some form of ticket packages for the Golden Knights since their first season.

McLellan moved to Las Vegas in 2007 after being originally from Michigan where he was a Red Wings fan. He said the fan community in Las Vegas is “completely different” than in Detroit.

“It’s electric. It makes it feel like you’re bonding with your city in a way the other games don’t,” McLellan said. “Here, it doesn’t matter where you go in the city, you’re going to find someone in a VGK shirt.”

Brett Primack attended the game with his wife and two children. Primack attended Game 2 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

“There’s nothing like it,” Primack said. “Even just the sound, the hum of the crowd, it was just a different vibe, the whole part. That’s why we are so excited to come today.”

A common theme among Golden Knights fans about why they are so connected with the team stems from how the organization helped the city through the October 1 shooting in 2017, just before the start of the Golden Knights’ inaugural season.

“I’m a firm believer that everything great and beautiful begins with heartbreak and our team really flourished after the biggest heartbreak that the city had in October 1,” McLellan said. “The team was really instrumental about bonding the city and making us feel good about something when we didn’t really have a whole lot to feel good about.”

The Golden Knights made an improbable run all the way to the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, which accelerated the connection fans had with the first major league professional sports team to call Las Vegas home.

“This is what pulled the city together since October 1,” Primack said. “This is the team that made this city a sports city, a major league sports city.”

‘Got their blessing’

Among the Golden Knights fans, there were a few handfuls of Carolina Hurricanes fans. Even the Hurricanes fans were not going to pass up the chance to see their team.

Brothers Phil and Kevin Elkins flew into Las Vegas from Raleigh on Friday after attending Game 1 in North Carolina. Phil said they were planning to attend a road game of the Stanley Cup Final regardless of who the Hurricanes’ opponent was.

“This trip is extra special because it’s Vegas,” said Phil Elkins, who added he’s had “great” interactions with Golden Knights fans throughout the day. “It’s super easy to come to Vegas and have fun, but we were going to go no matter what.”

Kevin Elkins previously attended a regular-season Golden Knights game but added that the energy pregame for Saturday’s game has been “wild.”

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, bucket-list thing that probably costs a little bit too much money, but it’s worth a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Kevin Elkins said.

Added Phil Elkins: “My wife and my kids said I had to come here, so I got their blessing, so here we are.”