The song’s uptempo bass thumps through the Vegas Golden Knights’ dressing room walls on the ground floor of the arena.
“And we are never going home, oh-whoa, oh-whoa!”
Following a win the players, saunter off the ice, through a parade of fist bumps, and follow a rubber carpet to the dressing room, where they can’t help but sing along with the infectious chorus.
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“Let’s go dancin’ ’til the morning, oh-whoa, oh-whoa! And we are never going home, oh-whoa, oh-whoa!”
The song is “Never Going Home” by the French electronic DJ named Kungs, and it’s the dressing room anthem following every Golden Knights’ win this season. Here’s the official music video. It will be stuck in your head as you read, and long after.
The tune is a hit in the Golden Knights’ room. A poll of several players found no negative reviews . While players don’t definitively remember who chose it as the victory song, most believe it was the locker room DJ, Shea Theodore. Team massage therapist Raul Dorantes is in charge of making sure it’s playing when the players enter the room following a win. He has it lined up at the top of the postgame playlist on the iPad connected to the dressing-room speakers.
The players celebrated to the song following Thursday night’s 5-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets to even the first-round playoff series at 1-1. Mark Stone donned the customary Elvis Presley wig and sunglasses as the player of the game while the beat echoed through the room.
“And we are never going home, oh-whoa, oh-whoa!”
They hope to be blasting the victory song inside the visitors’ dressing room at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg this weekend. As the song title suggests, the tradition started on the road.
“We were always on the road in November, and we kept winning every game,” Jonathan Marchessault recalled. “The song just fit because we were never going home.”
Several of the players, including Theodore, grew fond of the song this past offseason. The catchy beat and smooth lyrics scream summer vibes. Whether it was poolside or just hanging out, it quickly became one of the go-to jams for players during the break.
“It was a pretty hot song in the summer,” Theodore said. “I don’t exactly remember the moment we chose it, but it was a good song and it just ended up fitting pretty well.”
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From Nov. 1 to Dec. 5, the Golden Knights played 11 of 17 games away from home. That started off with the longest trip of the entire season — five games and 10 days — which took them from Washington, D.C., through eastern Canada and then to Buffalo. Vegas won all five games, including an emotional return home for Jack Eichel on Nov. 10. Overall, they went 9-1-1 in those 11 road games, building a lead atop the Pacific Division that they’d hold for the remainder of the season.
“We were just making a joke of it, but it’s kind of catchy,” Eichel said of the song. “It’s great, because we felt like we were on the road all year.”
They faced another key trip in early March, coming off their roughest patch of the season. The team was 11-7-4 in its previous 20 games, allowing Los Angeles, Seattle and Edmonton to close the gap in the Pacific race. The five-game trip featured tough matchups against Florida, Tampa Bay and Carolina, while Vegas was down to its fourth and fifth goalies. At the time, it certainly felt like a potential turning point of the season, one way or another. The Golden Knights dropped the first game against the Panthers, then ripped off four straight wins. After a brief two-game homestead, they went right back onto the road and earned consecutive wins in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
Vegas finished the regular season with its best road record in team history, and the second-best in the NHL behind Boston. The Golden Knights .732 points percentage away from home was significantly better than it was at T-Mobile Arena (.622), and it was one of the biggest reasons they earned the top seed in the West. They scored more goals and allowed fewer on the road. The power play converted at a higher percentage, and the penalty kill was more effective. The goalies’ save percentages were higher. For whatever reason, Vegas was better in nearly every aspect while playing away from home.
It’s a good thing the players embrace the travel. By mileage they flew the third-longest distance in the NHL this season with 47,787 miles. Only the Oilers and Panthers flew more miles. With several long trips early in the season, the room rallied around the tough schedule and formed an identity as road warriors. Rather than dreading the trips, they relished them.
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“We’re deep,” Eichel said. “We feel really confident with any line and any of our defensemen. When we go on the road, I think we just keep it simple and play our game.”
Vegas’ balanced attack makes it easier to manage on the road, when opposing head coaches have the last line change and more control over the matchups. Bruce Cassidy’s confidence in all three defensive pairings becomes a major asset, especially in the playoffs when matchups are a much bigger focus.
Cassidy won that chess match in Game 2, playing William Karlsson’s line heavily against the Jets’ top unit. Karlsson, Reilly Smith and Phil Kessel stifled Winnipeg’s dangerous trio of Pierre-Luc Dubois, Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, outscoring them 2-0 on Thursday. It was the single biggest difference between games 1 and 2.
Now that Jets’ coach Rick Bowness has last change, it will be interesting to see how the line matching changes from the first two games of the series. Not only that, but the road environment will be more challenging than a typical regular-season road game. Thousands of Jets fans will flood the streets of downtown Winnipeg this weekend, dressed in white from head to toe for their traditional “White Out.”
With a roof that feels lower than in most venues, Canada Life Centre feels compact, like the fans are right on top of the ice. Unlike most cavernous hockey arenas, the sound is magnified by the tight confines, creating an exceptional environment for playoff hockey. With the way the Golden Knights have handled themselves away from Las Vegas this season, they can’t wait.
“We’ve been a good road team, so we need to do that,” Eichel said. “We know it’s going to be a hostile environment up there in Winnipeg.”
Teams that travel well tend to fare well in the postseason. Even with home-ice advantage up to the Stanley Cup Final, Vegas will need big wins on the road to advance. The Jets already stole home ice with a big win in Game 1, so the Golden Knights need at least one of the next two in Winnipeg.
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The postseason also gives new meaning to the victory song. In the playoffs, you either win or go home. Golden Knights players hope Kungs’ lyrics ring true, and that they have the chance to dance to the song 15 more times.
“It’s going to be great in the playoffs,” defenseman Nic Hague said of the tune, “because we are never going home, oh-whoa, oh-whoa!”
(Photo: Chris Unger / Getty Images)
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