Golden Knights fan travels from Australia to see her favorite team

Las Vegas Review-Journal

7 years ago

Golden Knights fan Dee Dravnieks of Perth, Australia, poses for a photo outside of the Staples Center before attending Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto

Golden Knights fan Dee Dravnieks of Perth, Australia, center left, with friend Savvy Collins of Las Vegas, cheer on Golden Knights players – including goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) – as they warm up before taking on the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto

Golden Knights fan Dee Dravnieks of Perth, Australia, left, with friend Savvy Collins of Las Vegas, arrives at the Staples Center to attend Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto

Golden Knights fan Dee Dravnieks of Perth, Australia, right, with friend Savvy Collins of Las Vegas, arrives at the Staples Center to attend Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto

Golden Knights fan Dee Dravnieks of Perth, Australia, arrives at the Staples Center to attend Game 4 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto

It was Day 2 of the Golden Knights’ exile from the practice rink as they wait for the NHL to say it’s OK to begin another best-of-seven series in the playoffs for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

General manager George McPhee assured media the team would be staying close to home during the respite.

“We won’t be going to Mexico,” McPhee said, alluding to the Knights sunning themselves in Cabo San Lucas during the regular-season bye week.

So Australia probably is out of the question.

Before Knights coach Gerard Gallant addressed media at City National Arena on Thursday, a Knights fan who traveled 9,538 miles to spend most of the past three weeks with her favorite team stocked up on souvenirs at The Arsenal team store.

Dee Dravnieks hails from Perth in Western Australia, often referred to as the world’s most isolated city. She flew five hours to Brisbane and 13 to Los Angeles and then into Las Vegas — no ordinary walkabout.

She saw the Knights beat the Blues and Sharks at T-Mobile Arena, and then she made the Canadian junket to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, where she nearly froze. After thawing out and hiking Red Rock Canyon, she witnessed two of the four playoff games against the Kings, one each at T-Mobile and Staples Center in Los Angeles.

She rode Greyhound, by herself, to and from L.A. Yes, the driver made the required stop in Barstow.

Canadian Rules Hockey

Dee Dravnieks said they don’t have Australian rules hockey back home, but there are three rinks in Perth at which Canadian rules hockey sometimes is played. Since 2010 Perth has had an amateur team called the Thunder, who are nowhere near as popular as the Fremantle Dockers, Dravnieks’ favorite Aussie rules football team, or even the Perth Scorchers of the Big Bash Cricket League.

“It was after the Stanley Cup playoffs last year,” she said about becoming a hockey fan. “I had seen bits and pieces on video — it’s so fast, I couldn’t see where the puck was half the time.”

She said when the 2017-18 NHL season started, she decided to adopt a team.

“Then I found out there’s a brand new team, and if I’m a newbie, I’m going to follow a new team,” said Dravnieks, who works as a mining inspector for the Government of Western Australia. “Everybody said they were going to suck but they were really, really good.”

After it became clear the Knights did not suck, her mate said wouldn’t it be cool to go to The States to watch some ice hockey matches?

“I said that would be ridiculous, that it would cost too much money,” Dravnieks said. “But it was bubbling away in the back of my mind, and when the Knights kept winning and having the most amazing games, I thought that would be so much fun. And it has been. It’s been just amazing.”

She is a self-taught fan, having partly learned the game by creating a form of hockey bingo that she and friends play during Knights games shown on the NHL app. The squares have hockey terms, and when one happens during the game, you get to mark it on your card.

“I think I’ve picked up quite a bit,” she said of her hockey IQ. “But sometimes when they wave off icing, I don’t get exactly why it has been waved off.”

That’s something she has in common with the TV announcers.

She brought her skates

The Aussie lass said some of the best parts of her trip were experiencing the rollicking atmosphere at T-Mobile, buying a ticket close to the ice at Rogers Place in Edmonton and watching Oilers’ star Connor McDavid skate past in a blur and meeting up with friends in Vancouver who are to be married in September.

“That was the Sedins’ second-to-last game,” she said of longtime Canucks standouts Henrik and Daniel — and of not being able to return to British Columbia for the sacred vows. “So I took them to the match to try to compensate.”

To a hockey fan, that sounded like a more thoughtful gesture than a gift card from Bed Bath & Beyond.

Dee Dravnieks said when she started her Golden Knights walkabout, she wasn’t sure what her expectations were, only that every one was exceeded. She opened her carry-on bag to reveal a pair of hockey skates.

She said her flight back to Perth didn’t leave until 7, and that she still had time for a skate at the public rink down the hall.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.