The Lake Tahoe Knight Monsters of the ECHL are pulling out all of the stops for their inaugural season in Big Blue.
The team is transforming the face off dots at each end of the ice at the Tahoe Blue Event Center into roulette wheels.
They posted a video of the paint going down on the ice on their X account.
Big things are happening @TahoeBlueEvCtr .. 🐉🏒#tessthewaters#hockeyislurking#preseaon#hockey#tahoe#tahoeknightmonsters#EHCLpic.twitter.com/KGljSiWdsl
— Tahoe Knight Monsters (@Knight_monsters) October 8, 2024
And here’s a look at the finished product. It was also posted on the team's feed.
Let it ride…
–@HarrahsTahoe | @ECHL | @TahoeBlueEvCtrpic.twitter.com/D0viyaiDLm— Tahoe Knight Monsters (@Knight_monsters) October 7, 2024
Why a Roulette Wheel for a Face Off Dot?
The Knight Monsters announced over the summer that they had entered into an affiliation agreement with the National Hockey League’s Vegas Golden Knights and the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights.
All three teams play in cities that have been widely recognized for gambling for many years. So, tying it all together with on-the-ice roulette wheels seems to make sense only in Lake Tahoe. The wheel is sponsored by Harrah's Lake Tahoe.
The teams also play good hockey. The Golden Knights have already won one Stanley Cup, two conference championships, and three division titles. The Silver Knights began playing in the AHL in 2020 and have appeared in the Calder Cup Playoffs in one of their four seasons.
The ECHL Continues to Grow
The East Coast Hockey League, now called the ECHL, is a minor professional ice hockey league that changed its name to ECHL in 2003 to highlight its national reach.
The ECHL started in 1988 with five teams in four states and has now expanded into a nationwide league with 29 teams across 20 states and two Canadian provinces.
It ranks just below the American Hockey League (AHL) and serves as a training ground for both the NHL and AHL. It is the third-highest level of professional ice hockey in North America
Nevada Now Represented in All Hockey Leagues
With Tahoe's addition, Nevada now has teams in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL, making it one of the few places, along with Pennsylvania and Québec, to have representation in all three leagues.
The Knight Monsters will play their first home games on October 24 and 25 against the Jacksonville Icemen at the Tahoe Blue Event Center.
