LAS VEGAS (KTNV) \u2014 While the Vegas Golden Knights confirmed hockey in the desert is a success, the Las Vegas Thunder sparked the idea.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Alex Eschelman shares what the valley will do to honor the roots of hockey in Las Vegas:<\/p>\n
Before the Golden Knights, the Las Vegas Thunder brought hockey fever to Vegas<\/p>\n
General manager Bob Strumm was the brains behind one of the most electrifying rosters in the International Hockey League. <\/p>\n
“When I got interviewed for the job of general manager, they asked me can we lead the league in goals and penalty minutes,” Strumm said. “I said yeah, I can do that.”<\/p>\n
Strumm will be recognized during Saturday’s ceremony at the Henderson Silver Knights game celebrating the beloved franchise. <\/p>\n
“I’m honored to be remembered,” Strumm said. <\/p>\n
In six years, the Thunder made the playoffs five times and won the Pacific Division twice, but the club wasn’t the only proof that Vegas is a hockey town. <\/p>\n
“The thing that sold me on Vegas as a future NHL market was the number of NHL jerseys that showed up at our games,” Strumm said. <\/p>\n
Along with NHL jerseys, locals rocked Thunder jerseys at the Thomas & Mack Center to cheer on the team, hang out with Boom Boom the mascot, and help lay the foundation for the National Hockey League in the valley. <\/p>\n
“Vegas is the Entertainment Capital of the World,” Strumm said. “People are going to come and watch.”<\/p>\n
Now, locals watch the Henderson Silver Knights and goalie Carl Lindbom, who’s representing the club at this year’s AHL All-Star Classic. <\/p>\n
“I just try and make sure I do what’s best for the team, make sure everyone is feeling good, and try to make sure we all understand that we have to do this together,” Lindbom said. <\/p>\n
The Silver Knights host Tucson for “Thunder Knight” on Saturday at Lee’s Family Forum at 6 p.m. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (KTNV) \u2014 While the Vegas Golden Knights confirmed hockey in the desert is a success, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[3504,3505,3506,149,5317,5,3507,3508,3509,3510,3511,285,4,3512,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-421909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-13-action-news","9":"tag-channel-13","10":"tag-go-knights-go","11":"tag-golden-knights","12":"tag-goldenknights","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-hockey-in-las-vegas","15":"tag-hockey-in-vegas","16":"tag-ktnv-tv-channel-13","17":"tag-las-vegas-hockey","18":"tag-las-vegas-sports","19":"tag-national-hockey-league","20":"tag-nhl","21":"tag-nhl-in-las-vegas","22":"tag-vegas","23":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","24":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115939730249672729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}