Vegas Saturday: Knights vs. Kings, NKOTB's Final Run, and Raiders–Patriots Has a Payback Angle

LAS VEGAS

Saturdays in October are the reason people live here. The Knights are home tonight, the Strip has a boy band farewell run, the Raiders fly to Foxborough tomorrow with a genuine revenge subplot, and somebody's closing half the roads again — this time it's Formula 1's turn. Here's what's actually happening in Vegas today.

The Knights host the winless Kings tonight

T-Mobile Arena's Saturday night special is a mismatch on paper. The Golden Knights are the defending Western Conference champions, coming off Thursday's 4-3 shootout win over Toronto — a game where they fell behind 3-0 in the first period and still found a way. The Kings, on the other hand, are still looking for their first win under new head coach Peter Laviolette at 0-2-1: an 8-4 drubbing in Colorado, a 5-4 overtime loss in San Jose, and a 2-1 home-opener loss to Florida on Tuesday.

Veteran defenseman Joel Edmundson told reporters the team just wants to put a full 60 minutes together, and captain Drew Doughty insists they don't feel as bad as the record. Maybe. They'll try to prove it without Mats Zuccarello, who's week-to-week with an undisclosed injury and didn't make the trip — Jared Wright got the call-up from AHL Ontario. The Knights are exactly the team you don't want to see when you're desperate for a win.

NKOTB's final October run starts at Dolby Live tonight

Doors at 7, show at 8. New Kids on the Block takes over Dolby Live at Park MGM tonight — the first of the last four shows in the final leg of The Right Stuff Remixed residency. The dates left after tonight: October 14, 16 and 17, and that's it — the group has said these are the only times they'll perform for the rest of 2026 and 2027.

The Remixed leg overhauled everything from the first year: all-new setlist and wardrobe, flying pods that carry the guys over the crowd mid-song, and an encore staged inside a replica of the LeSabre from the "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" video. It's the kind of production that genuinely can't be done on a regular arena tour, which is the whole point of a Vegas residency. Eight October shows were booked; four are done, four remain. If you've been putting off the Blockheads pilgrimage, the clock is real now.

Raiders at Patriots: payback is on the menu

Sunday at Gillette Stadium, and the football story is the tight ends. Brock Bowers keeps drawing extra attention — ESPN's Benjamin Solak pointed to the structure: defenses isolated Bowers early against the Saints in Week 3, and Kansas City had to account for him last week, which opened throws for Michael Mayer and Ian Thomas underneath. Now comes a Patriots secondary held together with hope: Carlton Davis III and Christian Gonzalez are ruled out, Karon Prunty and Channing Canada are out too, and Charles Woods is questionable. If New England commits to Bowers, Mayer can eat. Tre Tucker leads a receiver group that also includes Malik Benson and Cody White, but the tight end trio of Bowers, Mayer and Thomas is where this game gets decided.

But the real storyline has nothing to do with X's and O's. It's Josh McDaniels — the former Raiders head coach, fired in October 2023 after 21 months and a 9-16 record, now calling plays for New England. Richie Incognito went on the Initial Contact podcast and lit him up: McDaniels disrespected everybody on the team, alienated the locker room, and — Incognito's kicker — the ultimate sign of how Raiders players feel about him is that they don't even talk about him. Former safety Johnathan Abram took his own shots back in June. The Raiders won't say any of this publicly. They'll say it on the field.

Meanwhile Tom Brady — minority owner of the franchise, power-rankings auteur — dropped the Raiders from No. 5 to No. 10 after the 30-27 loss to Kansas City. His review was generous anyway: 437 yards of offense, a final-play interception sealing it for the Chiefs, and Kirk Cousins with 11 touchdowns in four games, 25-plus points every week. The Chiefs scored 20 in the fourth quarter to steal it. Tomorrow's the response.

Allegiant's north side is getting $158 million

Some real money is moving around Allegiant Stadium. The Stadium Authority unanimously signed off on up to $75 million from the Waterfall Residual Fund — part of the Senate Bill 1 financing structure, so no new taxes and no new public dollars — toward a roughly $158 million overhaul of the stadium's north entry. The Raiders cover the rest.

VP of stadium operations Chris Sotiropulos told the Sports Business Journal the whole point is the first and last impression: getting in and out. The Grimshaw-designed plan calls for an elevated 45,000-square-foot pedestrian deck extending from the Hacienda Bridge, a 100,000-square-foot canopy shading the plaza, and a ride-share area tucked underneath the deck. One thing the renderings show that isn't happening: a mini-replica of the stadium in the plaza, which the architects say is just a placeholder, not in the project's scope. All of it is aimed at the building's biggest upcoming assignment — the Super Bowl in 2029. Sandra Douglass Morgan called it another investment in keeping Allegiant the premier venue in the world, and honestly, the arrival experience has needed it since day one.

F1 is eating the roads again

The Las Vegas Grand Prix runs November 19-21, and the street-circuit build is already squeezing the Strip. Las Vegas Boulevard between Sands and Harmon narrows to one lane each way overnight — midnight to 9 a.m., Monday through Friday — through October 30. Sands Avenue drops to one lane each way from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. through October 16. The Deuce's southbound Strip stops are closed nightly. And starting tomorrow through October 16, RTC routes 119 and 202 detour while crews install the temporary Flamingo vehicular bridge, closing the Koval Lane and Flamingo Road intersection outright.

Plan accordingly — or better yet, don't drive anywhere near the Strip at 1 a.m. this month. And if you're landing this weekend: UFC Vegas 122 goes down at the APEX tonight, and Wynn's Awakening is in its final week. The town is busy.

Around the Southwest

Los Angeles: The city had maybe the most absurd governance meeting of the year on Friday. The Los Angeles Continuum of Care general membership session — the big agenda item being whether LA County takes sole control of regional homelessness administration — ended about two minutes after it began, with no vote, because the room couldn't handle the crowd. Mayor Karen Bass and four council members (Harris-Dawson, Jurado, McOsker and Padilla) issued a joint statement calling the breakdown a failure to plan for a large audience: "Angelenos want a voice in the future of homelessness services, and they were silenced today." The underlying fight is about who runs the system — the county wants it consolidated under its new Department of Homeless Services and Housing; the city says it funds hundreds of millions in housing but the county decides who gets placed. A rescheduled meeting is promised. The backdrop, of course, is Thursday's federal Operation Free Skid Row drug crackdown — the tension between the city and everyone else is thick enough to cut.

Phoenix: Tropical Storm Rachel is bearing down on Arizona this weekend — a flood watch goes up at 11 a.m. today through Monday morning, flash-flood risk peaks Sunday, and a wind advisory covers nearly the whole state. Metro Phoenix could see up to two inches, and the high country could get hammered. Full breakdown in our separate story.

Tesla Semi in North Las Vegas: Tesla filed a Clark County permit for a Semi service center at 3780 N. Las Vegas Blvd — a tenant improvement in an existing industrial building, currently "awaiting plans," so nothing's opening soon. But it's the first real service footprint for the electric Class 8 truck in the valley, and the Semi just entered volume production.

Dodgers: Worth one line — the Dodgers are back in the NLCS against Milwaukee, second straight year, after sweeping the Braves in the division series. Edwin Díaz closed Game 4 with his second save in as many days.

More from the Vegas beat: yesterday's roundup · Raiders–Patriots full preview · Tropical Storm Rachel's Southwest impact