Still, Las Vegas had never had a big-league sports team, and many people welcomed the idea.

Residents like Cady Olsen, who attended Thursday’s game with her friends Drew Jerger and Nathan Montgomery, said the players fit the psyche of Las Vegas. They are castoffs, she said, which is also how many residents see themselves.

Olsen, who moved to Las Vegas 15 years ago and who lost a friend in the shooting, said she was impressed that the players dedicated the season to the city at their home opener. “When athletes can put the money and fame aside, it says something,” she said.

The team has kept the memory of last October alive, a kind of perpetual rallying cry. Before Thursday’s game, the team showed a video with images of emergency medical workers and fans in “Vegas Strong” jerseys. Undersheriff Kevin McMahill, the second-in-command of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was honored as the hero of the day at the game.

“We did our best to get it right, to be respectful and honor the people and help them grieve and heal and persevere,” the Golden Knights’ general manager, George McPhee, said before the Stanley Cup series began in late May. “It’s unfortunate that thing happened, and sometimes beautiful things follow something like that, and the way that this community came together and these people helped each other really was a beautiful thing to witness and experience.”

Though not a hockey writer, I had an unusual interest in the Golden Knights this season. A couple of days before the shooting, I arrived in Las Vegas to report on the launch of the team and what it might portend for the N.F.L.’s Raiders, who are due to arrive in 2020.

Just hours before the shooting, I was at T-Mobile Arena interviewing hockey fans before the final preseason game.

The mood was giddy. The fans did not know what to expect of the Knights, and some of them barely knew the players’ names. But hope was in the air.