Good morning. Tonight is a big one across our markets. At 3:30, the Aces can close out the Fever in Indiana. At 7, the Padres host the Cubs in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series at Petco Park. At 7:30, the Golden Knights drop the puck on Year 10 against Chicago with Ryan Craig making his NHL head coaching debut. The Dodgers finished with 100 wins and have the rest of the week off. Let’s get into it.
🚨 HEADLINES
🏒 Year 10. From “Golden Misfits” to a Stanley Cup, the standard the Golden Knights set in 2017 still holds — Steve Carp at T-Mobile Arena.
⚾ 100. Andy Pages hit a three-run homer in the 10th and the Dodgers finished 100-62 — Fredo Cervantes in Los Angeles.
⚾ October in San Diego. The Padres clinched their fourth postseason trip in five years, and it opens tonight against the Cubs — Brady Charette in San Diego.
🏀 One away. A’ja Wilson’s 38 gave the Aces a 1-0 series lead; they can finish Indiana today — Derek Hegna at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
🏈 “Obviously I got to be better.” The Rams are 1-2 after giving away a 16-0 lead in Denver — Arash Markazi at Empower Field at Mile High.
See what else is trending at The Sporting Tribune.
🏒 ALWAYS ADVANCE
Steve Carp starts his story with three words: From tragedy, triumph.
The Golden Knights were a team made up of players nobody else wanted, playing in a building that opened before the franchise existed. On Oct. 1, 2017, as the players ate a team dinner at the Cosmopolitan, a gunman on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest festival across the street. Fifty-eight people were killed. The team hadn’t played a game yet.
What the players did next, Carp writes, formed a bond with the city that still holds. They thanked first responders and visited the families of the victims and the injured. The home opener became a somber, dignified night: every player and coach walked onto the ice with a first responder, and Deryk Engelland — the only Knight who had lived in Las Vegas before — gave a 58-second speech that ended with “We are Vegas Strong.” Then Engelland, who scored 30 goals in 631 NHL games, scored in that game.
What followed was the best expansion season in NHL history: 51 wins, 109 points, a division title, a sweep of the Kings and a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
“We decided to be very bold, very unconventional,” George McPhee said, “and needless to say, it’s gone very well.”
Nine seasons later, that remains true. The Knights are 401-224-76, have made the playoffs in eight of nine seasons, reached the Final three times and won the Cup in 2023 — the “Cup in Six” Bill Foley promised. With 45 wins this season, they would tie Edmonton’s record of 446 wins in a franchise’s first 10 years. Forbes now values the team at $2.2 billion, up from the $500 million expansion fee.
Only three players remain from the original roster: Shea Theodore, William Karlsson and Brayden McNabb. The coach who will be behind the bench tonight was there too. Ryan Craig was an assistant on Gerard Gallant’s first staff, and against Chicago he makes his NHL head coaching debut.
“It was a motivated group,” Craig said of Year One. “Guys had a chip on their shoulder. They were out to prove something.”
Carp makes a point worth repeating: this team wasn’t moved here from somewhere else. It was born in Las Vegas, and it made it possible for the Raiders, the Aces and, in 2028, the Athletics to follow.
Foley’s locker room slogan is “Always advance, never retreat.” Craig calls this season “unfinished business.”
“It means a lot to still be here,” McNabb said. “Building a winning culture, it’s really hard to do. But we were able to do so right off the hop. … Now we’re looking to keep it going.”
GO DEEPER
› Steve Carp: Ten years later, the Golden Knights’ standard of excellence remains high (The Sporting Tribune)
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⚾ OCTOBER AT PETCO
The Padres will play a postseason game at Petco Park tonight. They open the best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Cubs at 7 on NBCSN.
They got here by winning two of three at Dodger Stadium last week. Brady Charette was there Thursday when San Diego clinched its fourth postseason appearance in five years. It was the second time in three seasons the Padres celebrated a playoff berth in the Dodgers’ building. Nick Pivetta threw 4⅔ scoreless innings in his fourth start back from an elbow injury. The Padres held the bottom six of the Dodgers’ order hitless in 22 at-bats. Mason Miller set the franchise record for strikeouts by a reliever in a season, then got Mookie Betts to ground out to Manny Machado for the final out.
That series showed what makes the Padres dangerous in a short series: a bullpen that doesn’t give in, and a lineup that has Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill hitting at the right time. They went into last week 15-5 in September, the best record in baseball this month.
GO DEEPER
› Brady Charette: Padres clinch postseason berth with 4-2 win over Dodgers (The Sporting Tribune)
› Brady Charette: Machado’s two-run blast powers Padres into top wild card spot (The Sporting Tribune)
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🏟️ THREE GAMES, ONE TUESDAY
Aces at Fever, Game 2, at 3:30 on Prime Video. Wilson scored 38 with 16 rebounds in Game 1, the Aces turned 17 Indiana turnovers into 28 points, and a win ends the series.
Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 1, at 7 on NBCSN. It’s best of three, and every game is at Petco.
Blackhawks at Golden Knights at 7:30 on ESPN. It’s opening night of Year 10 and Ryan Craig’s first game as an NHL head coach.
Still ahead this week: The Kings open at Colorado on Wednesday on TNT. The Dodgers start the NLDS on Saturday at Dodger Stadium against the winner of Phillies-Braves.
📌 AROUND THE MARKETS
One hundred, and 11 to go. Fredo Cervantes has the Dodgers finishing 100-62 with a 5-1 win in 10 innings in San Francisco. Alex Call singled in the go-ahead run, Andy Pages hit a three-run homer, and Jack Dreyer plus four relievers, Roki Sasaki and Edwin Díaz among them, held the Giants to one run. “11 more wins to go for us,” Freddie Freeman said.
“You can’t wait until a person retires.” Arion Armeniakos writes that Wilson is the first player with at least 35 points and 15 rebounds on 75% shooting in a playoff game, and Chelsea Gray says we should appreciate her now.
3-0 and Chiefs next. Steve Carp has Brock Bowers back with 10 catches and the winning touchdown in the Raiders’ 35-27 win in New Orleans. Kansas City comes to Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.
The end of an era, and a low. The Angels finished 62-100, the first 100-loss season in franchise history and the last under Arte Moreno before Kroenke Sports & Entertainment takes majority control.
GO DEEPER
› Fredo Cervantes: Dodgers finish with 100 wins, turn their attention to October (The Sporting Tribune)
› Arion Armeniakos: A’ja Wilson doesn’t have time to appreciate her own legend, so we have to (The Sporting Tribune)
› Steve Carp: Undefeated Raiders proving they’re for real this season (The Sporting Tribune)
› Jack Haslett: Angels lose 100 games in a season for the first time in franchise history (The Sporting Tribune)
📺 WATCHLIST — TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
🏀 WNBA Playoffs: Aces at Fever, Round 1, Game 2 — Gainbridge Fieldhouse — 3:30 p.m. — Prime Video
⚾ MLB Postseason: Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 1 — Petco Park — 7:00 p.m. — NBCSN
🏒 NHL: Blackhawks at Golden Knights — T-Mobile Arena — 7:30 p.m. — ESPN
🎟️ GOING TO A GAME?
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⚾ Cubs at Padres, Wild Card Game 1 — Petco Park — $105
🏒 Blackhawks at Golden Knights, opening night — T-Mobile Arena — $115
🌴 TST TRIVIA
The Golden Knights won the first game in franchise history 2-1 in Dallas on Oct. 6, 2017. Who scored both Vegas goals, including the winner with 2:44 left?
Answer at the bottom.
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Trivia answer: James Neal, who scored the overtime winner in Arizona the next night too.
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