Game #112-Vegas Knights

Vegas Knights Vs Utah Mammoth

Mobile Arena

April 29, 2026

I’m in Las Vegas for the annual Asembia meeting for work, and the past two years I had an absolutely horrible manager so I never felt like I could explore the city after a super long day of work. Exuded this year, after three very busy days all lasting about 12-14 hours I was going to hit up a playoff hockey game and knock the Knights off my list. 

What was supposed to be grabbing a nosebleed seat turned into a unique opportunity due to an old friend Anthony Deangelis and his vendor contact Shane. Shane just happened to know the GM of the Knights through his brother in law so no only did I get a free ticket, but also they were about 10 rows from the glass. Not too shabby!

We started the night with an uber ride to T Mobile Arena. Normally I would have explored a bit more outside and took in the sights and sounds before the game but beggars can’t be choosers. The rest of the group wanted to go in and I wasn’t in to hold them up. Inside the arena was blah. I’ve been to it before but on the middle deck I didn’t see anything exciting for fans. There was a fake slot machine, a neon sign, but nothing else. I’ll likely come back at some point and check out the ground floor as well, and I know the team has only been around a few years, but they already have a Stanley Cup. Just thought there would be more. 

Inside I got some pics of the banners they already have up, the playoff banners of the teams in the first round (Kings got stomped by the Avs), the funny King and Queen seats, and finally the makeshift castle where the announcer and drummers were located. And then the shitshow before the game of the good and bad knights fighting in the one before the game was so Vegas, over the top and cheesy, but the fans dig it. 

As we neared game time we heard the national anthem where the crowd screams when the song says …”gave proof through the NIGHT!!!”  I love when teams can do that, and that was only after the players streamed onto the ice through the huge Knight helmet. Once that was done it was puck drop. 

The Mammoth have been in the league a long time, but really came from the original Winnipeg Jets  who moved to AZ and became the Coyotes. Arizona folded and moved to Utah where they immediately gained momentum with some smart player moves bringing in speed and size.  Vegas in the other hand from day one built a team that has been strong with key draft picks, trades, and grabbing amazing vets. Their first year they went to the finals and in 23 hoisted the cup. Unreal. 

The game was back and forth. The first period the Knights came out strong.  A ton of big hits, shots on goal, but the first shot to go in was from Utahs Marino around 17 minutes into the game. That took all of the air out of the arena. But a power play goal by Pavel Dorofeyev at 19:19 tied up the game right before the end of the period. That got the crowd back into the game and got Shane/Anthony excited to get more drinks. 

In the second the Mammoth came out firing. They had so much speed and it looked like the Knights D was chasing the first 10 minutes. When Lawson Crouse snapped a wrister by goalie Hart, you could hear crickets. It’s got so quiet so quickly.   But lucky for Vegas because Superman got them back on the board when Dorofeyev got his second goal followed by Shea Theodore just two minutes later. With a 3-2 lead it was time to hit the head (for some reason the urinals had small elephant toys in them…???) and back to get another tall beer. 

Third period Dylan Guenther and Michael Corcone crashed the net and put the mammoth up again 4-3. I could hear Shane getting oissed saying “Utah is just too fast!”  I guess all of the negative comments was pissing off the lady in front of us and she physically moved seats. Ha!  It’s was around this point the guy dressed like Elvis went to the bathroom and I yelled “I guess he’s leaving the building!”  That got some great laughs. But the game was far from over. A penalty gave some life to the knights after the crowd chanted “Shame, Shame, Shame!” and guess who put in the tying goal with less than a minute…?  Yep, Dorofeyev. Hats came flying onto the ice for about 5 minutes holding up the game and giving all the players a bit of a break. But the period ended and we were off to OT. I told Tony that although I don’t want to stay up all night I was hoping to go into the second OT and Vegas to score so it would be right in front of us. 

As you can imagine, I got my wish. The first OT was a massive back and forth with some close calls but no goals. At intermissions the bars were closed but the serve yourself store was still open so Shane got his 5th drink of the night and we were ready for the start of the 80th minute of hockey. We didn’t have to wait long. 5 minutes in, while down a man, Brett Howden scored a short hander and the place went nuts. I’m obviously not a Vegas fan but that was exciting and a great way to end the night and week in LV. By the time we got back to their hotel, and I finally hit the Marriott a few blocks away it was after midnight. Luckily I saved half of my Philly cheese from lunch. I scarfed that down, took a quick shower and was in bed around 1am. I had to get up a 4am for my flight home so suffice to say I was exhausted when I got home. 

Fun fact of the night, Shane’s wife has hockey in her blood. She still plays, their 2 boys and 1 girl play, and her father was on the 1932 silver medal team where she still has his medal, Jersey, parade of nations jacket and blanket. So amazing. 

This was game 111 and I am 73% complete with hockey and just over

70% for all games. Slowly getting there.

Game #111-Memphis Grizzlies

 Game #111:  Memphis Grizzlies vs San Antonio Spurs

Fed Ex Forum

3/25/2026

 

I made my way out for the first time to Memphis for a work trip.  I have been working with my vendor for two years, but my manager refused to fly out to this area but selfishly I wanted to make my way out to knock off this game.  Therefore, after a long day of flights I made it to the Memphian a cool hotel in mid town on Tuesday where I had a little time to chill out before grabbing dinner with the vendor at a local steak house.  The following day we had a quarterly business review that would take up the first half of the day before I could relax for the rest of the night and hit up the game.

 

Luckily the meeting only went to about 2pm and the rest of my co-workers went immediately to the airport so I had some free time before heading to downtown, so I took the opportunity to hit up Graceland for a few hours.  I was never a big Elvis fan, and although my mom seemed fond of some of his songs, she was more of a Beatles girl, so this was more of a curiosity trip than a “I need to go” field trip.  But it was interesting.  Graceland was not exactly what I expected.  Sure I knew there was the house, but the rest of the area was like a mini theme park.  They had several restaurants, a movie theatre, tons of souvenir shops, and a museum.  I bought the normal ticket which allowed me to see the house, airplanes, and museum.  I started with Graceland manor.  It was trippy to see the house exactly as it was 50 years ago.  Laid out with a combo of futuristic for the 1970s furniture and tech, which included shag carpets in the kitchen, carpeted walls, ceilings lined with fabric, while also having rooms with multiple tvs, the first microwave, security systems, so odd.  Outside the house was a gym where Elvis built a handball court and a meditation garden where he and his family were buried.  Next I went to the museum of his cars, time in the Army, and other collectibles, and finally ended with the private planes.  What a unique life.  I got a kick out of the plane tour where it said he didn’t really like alcohol…but was heavy into drugs.  I spent about 2.5 hours there and by that time I was starving so I grabbed a Lyft and headed toward the arena.  During that ride I found out that Trump was just in town and went to Graceland…so glad I wasn’t there for that.  In fact a few drivers mentioned that, and you could hear the pride they felt when he came to town.  Considering I despise the man, I just kept my mouth shut.

 

Memphis is interesting.  Downtown looks like many other downtowns, in fact very similar to Nashville, but I also know the area is known for its massive crime rates.  I stuck by the arena and only explored Beatle street where BB Kings is located as well as several other large bars, but for food I ended up at Dyer’s for a burger, fries and beer.  My vendor contact told me about it and I didn’t realize it was a staple in the area.  It has been in business since 1912 and according to their menu they use the same oil the did nearly a century ago.  Apparently they filter it every night but because it is so old it adds to the flavor.  Won’t lie, the burger was delicious.  After food, I made my way into the arena hoping to see some fan experiences.  Sad to say, this place had almost nothing to offer.  I found a large painted basketball in front, some jerseys on the wall in an area that looked blocked off, there are three retired jerseys in the rafters, but literally nothing else.  There was a photo booth…boring, and one signed jersey, but that was it.  I don’t understand why these big beautiful new arenas have absolutely nothing for the fans.  The only other thing I could do was ask around about getting a printed ticket for the game.  After striking out in a few guest relation and concierge areas, I eyed one person who said at the end of the game she might be able to give me a transfer ticket used by people switching seats, but I needed to wait until the end of the game.  No problem, so I headed to my seat. 

 

I found a ticket in the second tier section, near center court which was a great place to watch the game.  The people next to me was an older couple who had season tickets for over a decade, but they said to be prepared for a bad game.  The Grizzlies have a team of no name players and they were going against the Spurs who have one of the best records in the league and phenom Victor Wembanyama from France who is 7’4” which range.  I knew he would be a spectacle when his warm up included a dunk where he put the ball between his legs.  Now that said, when you don’t have to jump to dunk it makes that moved significantly easier. 

 

From tip off the game was completely lopsided.  Wemby made the Grizzlies look like amateurs.  The first few minutes he was easily dunking over 40 year old Taj Gibson who is a power forward trying to play center.  It almost seemed like he got bored of scoring so when he go the all he dished to Devin Vassell who would slice and dice for uncontested dunks as well. The Griz tried to mount a few comebacks, but when it was 2 minutes left in the first quarter and they were down 33 to 11 everyone in the building knew it would be a blowout.  I kept watching the plus/minus on the scoreboard and when Wemby was on the court he was plus 25-30.  What a game changer.  His back up, Mason Plumlee would come in and Memphis would inch closer but then after a quick rest starters for the Spurs brought the lead back up to 20 in seconds.  GG Jackson had 20 for the home team, and Prosper had 17, but they were no match.  Memphis has 10 players on the injured list and it was over before it started.  The best play of the game was when a Griz player came down and dunked on Victor…he was completely unphased and took the inbound all the way down the court and easily dunked right back on Memphis, the crowd erupted. And it wasn’t just his offense, the Griz were simply afraid to shoot with him anywhere in sight.  He blocked 7 shots including his 19 points.  Final score, Spurs won 123-98

 

The funny/not funny thing for the night was seeing the kid down the row from me take his water bottle his parents gave to him and calmly reached over the railing to pour out what was remaining.  The parents quickly grabbed him, but it was too late.  Whenever I see these things I think two thoughts:  One I’m glad I don’t have kids, but two why would you give your kid free range with an open waterbottle.  Of course the 2 year old will do something stupid.  Oh well, nothing could be done.  I was temped to look down to see who got hit, but I didn’t want them looking up at me.

 

I managed to get that ticket stub afterall.  It was a very boring stub, but at least it has the team names and date on it.  I made my way home with a very talkative Lyft driver (again with Trump), but at least he pointed out the world famous Sun Studio on the way back to the hotel.  Known as the birthplace of rock and roll, where Elvis, Johnny Cash, BB King, Jerry Lee Lewis, all recorded albums.  I got back to the hotel hungry again, grabbed some food, spoke to Keli for a bit, and called it a night.  My alarm was set for 5am to get back home.  76% of NBA games done