When Las Vegas needed a hero, the Golden Knights came through in shining armor.
In this project assigned in a Raster Image Processing class, my task was to develop a New York Times Magazine cover based on a current events topic of my choice. The Times' magazines are popular for their covers that convey strong messages. At the start of the 2017-2018 National Hockey League season, a brand new franchise was set to begin play. This new franchise was the Vegas Golden Knights, the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas. Since the team was brand new, Golden Knights management were allowed to pick an 'unprotected' player (teams were able to protect six players) from each team. The players of the team were a mix of free agents and average players that weren't protected by their teams. The expectations of the expansion team weren't high and management would hope that the team would be somewhat competitive and continue the building process in the next offseason. As the players and excited fans eagerly anticipated the beginning of the season, the unthinkable happened.
On October 1, a gunman opened fire on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival being held right on the Las Vegas Strip. 58 lives were lost during that night. Instilled with fear, anger, sadness, and confusion, the people of Las Vegas were shaken to the core. A week later, the Vegas Golden Knights were set to play their inaugural home opener against the Arizona Coyotes. Instead of boisterously introducing the home team as expected in their first home game, each player was escorted by a first responder, nurse, or doctor that sprung to action in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. These people were introduced as the heroes they are.
With the season now underway, more unexpected happened. The Golden Knights kept winning, and winning. The new hockey team from Las Vegas that wasn't supposed to do anything special was dancing in and out of first place with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This team gave the Las Vegas community a reason to cheer and celebrate. It gave the people a distraction from the events in early October. The city was buzzing over the new team, a true rallying point for the people. The Golden Knights embarked on an unlikely playoff run, knocking off the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks, and Winnipeg Jets, punching their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. The Golden Knights would eventually fall in the finals to the Washington Capitals, but that does not take away from the impressive feats the team had accomplished throughout the season. The people of Las Vegas needed a hero after the events of October 1, 2017, and the Vegas Golden Knights came through in shining armor.
