‘It’s just disappointing’: Golden Knights fans readjust plans with no games to attend

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, March 18, 2020 | 2 a.m.

The drive from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., to Las Vegas isn’t exactly a short one. It’s more than 300 miles, with a mile’s worth of elevation drop. It’s between Death Valley and Yosemite national parks and five hours from the Strip. Not a typical Tuesday night activity.

Still, Kyle Casey sure wishes he was able to make that drive last night.

Casey is like thousands of others who saw their Tuesday night plans shut down because of the coronavirus outbreak: with a Golden Knights ticket in hand but nowhere to go.

“It’s a nice reason to get out of town and the games are obviously an awesome, fun time,” Casey said. “We try to go to two a year, make a bit of a trip out of it.”

Tuesday night’s Golden Knights game was, of course, canceled. None will be played for the foreseeable future after the league postponed the remainder of its season last week over fears of COVID-19. Tickets to those games are expected to be valid when the games are made up or refunded if they are not played, though an official policy has not been put in place.

That’s small consolation now, though. Casey, 31, bought tickets in December for himself and his brother-in-law Andrew, a teacher in New York City who planned to spend his spring break this week with Casey. He was going to fly into Las Vegas, they were going to go to the Golden Knights game against the Dallas Stars, and make the trek back to Mammoth Lakes. Now Andrew isn’t traveling at all.

The Golden Knights had already missed two road games, but last night’s suspended game against the Dallas Stars was the first time a professional hockey game should have happened in Las Vegas but didn’t. Missing a home game made the NHL-sized hole in Las Vegas that much more obvious, although even many fans seemed understanding.

“You can’t really be mad at preventing this illness from spreading. It is what it is about keeping people safe,” said partial season-ticket holder Andrew Choi, 31. “It’s just disappointing.”

Hockey games aren’t at the forefront of many people's day-to-day lives. Even Casey has bigger things to worry about — he manages a bar and restaurant in Mammoth Lakes where he is dealing with the bar closing and the restaurant transitioning to take-out only. Choi wrapped up our phone call and went to the grocery store to see what was still left.

But hockey is an escape. For three hours, 18,000-plus fans get to pack T-Mobile Arena and watch the first-place Golden Knights march toward a Pacific Division title. Few wanted the season to be postponed, though some were forced to start hoping for the possibility.

Maria Laramore didn’t have tickets to last night’s game but got tickets to the home finale next week for her mother as a gift. Her mother is 62, and Laramore, 42, didn’t love the idea of putting her in a packed arena, or even going to a packed arena herself and then coming home. She was fine with the NHL being the “bad guy” as the one to tell her hockey-obsessed mom that she wasn’t going to the game. 

“We kept talking to her about and talking to her about it and I think it was around the time they were canceling basketball is when the conversation came up,” Laramore said. “I think it would have been hard. I would have convinced her (not to go), or I would have just told her, ‘Hey guess what, I sold the tickets and now you don’t have a choice,’ and she would have been mad at me.”

So what are they doing now? What most of are — distancing, a big component of which is not going to sporting events. Though Casey might have the right idea. He’s putting on a jersey and sitting at home in Mammoth Lakes watching an old Golden Knights game to pass the time.

“I watched the Predators game, the one before Thanksgiving a couple of nights ago,” he said laughing. “I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll find one.”