[tvp2003]

This is for Vegas: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/de...for-las-vegas/

When I was younger, I never, in a million years, thought I would ever call Vegas home. I’m an Edmonton kid. I first came here in 2003 to play for the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL. It was about as far from the NHL as you could get. Our arena was inside The Orleans Casino, and since there wasn’t a real weight room, the whole team used to go do workouts at the Gold’s Gym up the street. It was kind of rough-and-tumble, but it was a blast. We were all making like $500 a week, so the team worked a pretty sweet deal with this Irish bar called McMullan’s. It was right across the street from The Orleans, so we would all walk over after the game to eat dinner. The deal was that you could get a free meal as long as you left a $5 tip. I probably ate 500-plus shepherd’s pies at McMullan’s.

This one night, I noticed a pretty girl sitting near the bar with her friends.

I am definitely not the smoothest talker in the world. I will admit that, no problem. But I did my best. I walked up to her and introduced myself. She said her name was Melissa and that she was getting her master’s at UNLV. I said I played hockey for the Wranglers, and I guess part of me thought she’d be impressed.

But she had the blankest expression possible.

“Las Vegas has a hockey team?” (Yes.)

“Do they actually pay you to play?” (Sort of.)


You know, that kind of thing. She didn’t know anything about hockey. So I gave her my number and told her to come to our next game so she could see what it was all about.

But then as I was walking back to my table, I just had this feeling, like, You know what? This girl is definitely not going to call me.

Editor’s note from Melissa: This is probably true. I thought he was a little too young.

So, I don’t know what got into me, but I wheeled back around and I said, “Hey, sorry, but uhh … I know you’re not going to call me. So how about you give me your number and I call you?”

I got the number. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Editor’s note from Melissa: It was the best thing that ever happened to him.