LAS VEGAS – Nick Robone understands the bond that exists between the residents of this gambling mecca that has been his home since birth and its new hockey team at a level few could comprehend.

Robone nearly lost his life on Oct. 1, a victim of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, as he was enjoying a country music concert outside in the warm fall desert air.

As he fought for his life in the days after the attack that killed 58 people and wounded more than 800, Robone found the answer media have been searching for since the Vegas Golden Knights made their NHL debut in October.

Las Vegas quickly embraced the Golden Knights

For at least five months, reporters have descended upon Las Vegas in search of the answer to a seemingly unanswerable question: What exactly is behind the bond which exists between this city, where for years the only ice was in the free drinks handed out by scantily clad cocktail waitresses, and, as the team playfully likes to call itself, one of the NHL’s original 31 franchises?

Since the first exhibition game at T-Mobile Arena in late September, “The Fortress” has been rocking with loud and enthusiastic fans as Las Vegans quickly embraced the city’s first professional sporting team. Though Vegas finished only 17th in the 31-team NHL in average home attendance, at 18,042 a game in the regular season, it played to 103.9 percent of capacity, which was fourth in the league behind just Chicago, Minnesota and Washington.

View photos Nick Robone is the associate coach of the UNLV hockey team. (Photo courtesy Beth Parrish) More

Attendance figures alone, though, belie the extraordinary love affair the fans have with the team.

Robone survives the Route 91 shooting after being shot in the chest

Robone, the 28-year-old associate coach of the UNLV hockey team, didn’t make it to the memorable Oct. 10 home opener against the Arizona Coyotes.

That’s because he was hospitalized, recovering from wounds he suffered in the heinous attack on the Route 91 Harvest Festival country music concert. On that night, shooter Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured 851 others while spraying automatic gunfire into the concert grounds from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Paddock later took his own life as police stormed his room.

Robone was enjoying the concert with his younger brother, Anthony, and friends. They were standing near the VIP tent directly across from Mandalay Bay, in easy sight of the shooter.

“I was in pretty much the worst possible spot,” Robone said.

A little after 10, Robone heard a brief sound, but didn’t immediately associate it with gunfire. Then, there was a longer, more sustained sound. After a brief silence, there again was a long, sustained sound.

“Just like everyone else, you don’t actually know what gunshots really sound like, and initially I thought it was firecrackers on The Strip because it wasn’t really consistent,” Robone told Yahoo Sports. “Then, there was more of a consistent barrage that kind of sounded like gunfire. It stopped and I looked around and didn’t see anyone injured yet. People were kind of crouching down and that’s when I crouched down, as well.

“I turned and faced Mandalay Bay and it kind of went off again, this barrage. And then, right away this second barrage came and I was probably one of the first ones shot. I felt it in my side, really.”

Robone was shot in the chest. The bullet traveled downward after entering his chest. Once inside his body, it turned right and barely missed his lung, settling in his latissimus dorsi, the large muscle group in the back.

Had it turned left, which it easily could have done, it would have hit his heart and the fatality total would have been 59.

Even when he was hit, though, Robone still wasn’t sure what had occurred.

“Even then, I didn’t know I had been shot,” Robone said. “I started spitting up blood out of my nose and mouth and I looked down and I had a hole in my chest. So that was when I said, ‘I’ve definitely been shot. This is gunfire and we need to leave now.’ ”

Story continues