YORKTON -
In terms of hockey right now the Las Vegas Golden Knights are undoubtedly the shining stars of the sport.
There are several reasons for that, starting with the National Hockey League being the first major pro league to head to a city where all had feared to tread for decades largely – I believe – because of gambling and a fear that being able to bet on games might lead to games being influenced by the betting.
Of course now you can bet on games from your laptop so that has become a non-factor.
Still, given NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s folly in the desert the Arizona Coyotes going into another sunshine city didn’t seem wise at the time.
Bettman was at least wise enough to reconfigure the expansion draft process to ensure the Golden Knights were competitive from the get go – fans of the Kansas City Scouts, Oakland Seals and other expansion teams which were stocked with zero talent and quickly failed I suspect still feel betrayed.
But in Vegas the Golden Knights have been a success culminating with the Stanley Cup win in the spring of 2023.
That big win was certainly an impetus for getting this book done, said Bob Lawson who co-wrote it with Richard Gubbe.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said, adding he and his co-author have always been hockey guys and they realized there were stories on the early days of hockey in Las Vegas to tell.
But what of the Golden Knights? Did Bob Lawson see the success they would have?
“I absolutely did from day one,” he said, adding he was keenly aware that hockey had roots in the city which would mean fans for the NHL. “... I never thought for a second it wouldn’t make it.”
The Golden Knights however were not the first hockey in Las Vegas – far from it as it turns out.
It is the far deeper history of hockey in the Nevada city which is covered in a new book.
The duo cover the past 55 years of hockey – it was in 1968 when the Las Vegas Gamblers began to play as a senior amateur team playing in the International Ice Palace – in their book Vegas Hockey, Vegas Strong.
From the book’s forward; “The Knights were the first Big Four pro sports team in Vegas, but the beginning of the sport came 50 years prior. Although the first endeavors of hockey never lasted, they laid the foundation for the Knights to flourish. The Golden Knights would leave an indelible mark on both; the sport of hockey and the city of Las Vegas just five years later. It would go on to show that sometimes sports can provide more than just entertainment; they can serve as a beacon of strength and a symbol of hope.”
What the book does do is go back in time to shed light on Vegas teams that came and went through the decades, slowly laying a foundation that would become the Golden Knights one day.
“These early teams – the Aces, Flash, Thunder and Wranglers – left their mark despite the challenges they faced. They contributed to the overall progression of hockey in Las Vegas and set the stage for future endeavors. Their passion and dedication to the game helped pave the way for the emergence of more structured and professional hockey organizations in the city in subsequent years,” related a release on the book.
That is the strength of the book, its historical aspect of a sport you wouldn’t have thought of as having roots in a city stuck in the middle of a desert.
Now that might limit the audience for Vegas Hockey, Vegas Strong to hockey historians and Vegas hockey fans, but this is also a very quick read – more a chapbook of type and under 60-pages – so one can grab it as something of a novelty hockey read and be entertained by some of the stores and anecdotes included here.
While Dawson had noted this book was a long time coming to fruition, he suggested a follow-up might not be so long in coming. He said in making contacts and talking to hockey people for the current book they have gathered many stories that are very likely going to be the basis for a second book.
In the meantime, the current book is being released in soft cover, e-book and later in hard cover and a
