Vegas Daily: Knights Storm Back to Beat the Leafs 4-3 in a Shootout, and Pearl Jam’s Guitarist Says the Band’s Too Cheap for the Sphere

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2026 — Down 3-0 before the game was nine minutes old, the Golden Knights did what they do: they waited, they surged, and they made T-Mobile Arena very loud. A 4-3 shootout win over the Maple Leafs, a rookie hero, and the No. 1 pick turned away at the worst possible moment. Meanwhile Pearl Jam’s guitarist explained why the Sphere probably isn’t happening, Arizona exhaled after a fire season that never caught, and the whole Southwest is about to get the rain it’s been begging for. Las Vegas and the Southwest, October 9.

The iceDown 3-0 in nine minutes. Then the Knights did the thing.

The Golden Knights beat the Maple Leafs 4-3 in a shootout Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena, erasing a 3-0 first-period deficit in the kind of comeback that's becoming this team's signature. Toronto needed all of eight minutes and 37 seconds to pump three pucks past Adin Hill — Jack Roslovic 34 seconds in, Easton Cowan on a breakaway, Nick Paul on a deflection — and then the building remembered who plays here.

Mark Stone got Vegas on the board late in the first with a full-blast slapshot, Brett Howden pulled them within one early in the second, and Jack Eichel tied it on a penalty shot, extending his season-opening point streak to five games. Nobody scored in the third or overtime, so it went to the shootout, where 20-year-old rookie Trevor Connelly — on his first career shootout attempt — went forehand-to-backhand around Sergei Bobrovsky's left pad in the fifth round for the winner. Braeden Bowman also converted for Vegas. Adin Hill stopped Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Gavin McKenna, and John Tavares. The No. 1 pick's first NHL road game ended with him getting stoned in the shootout. That's the Fortress for you.

The numbers tell the story of the last 50 minutes: Vegas outshot Toronto 43-24, including 21-8 in the second period. Bobrovsky made a season-high 40 saves and was, per Sportsnet, far and away the best Leaf on the ice. The win is Vegas's third straight and moves them to 4-1-0. Next up: the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night at T-Mobile, 7 p.m. puck drop. — the full preview of last night's game lives here.

The StripPearl Jam at the Sphere? McCready: we're kind of cheap.

Mike McCready is open to Pearl Jam playing the Sphere. The rest of the band? He's not so sure. On Thursday's Watch What Happens Live, Andy Cohen asked the Pearl Jam guitarist if there was any chance the band ever plays the Las Vegas Sphere. “I'm for it,” McCready said, per Parade's account of the appearance — though he wasn't sure the rest of the band felt the same way.

When Cohen pressed on why his bandmates wouldn't be into it, McCready cracked: “Because we're kind of cheap.” Which, fair — the custom visuals for a Sphere residency run into the millions, and Cohen agreed bands have to spend a fortune on the graphics. Cohen pointed out that his friend John Mayer added 12 shows to his Meet Me Where the Light Is Sphere residency after the first run sold out and suggested Pearl Jam could play the venue indefinitely — and McCready just laughed it off: “I'm good with Vegas for two days.” That exchange is from Parade's account of the appearance.

For context, the Sphere has hosted U2, the Eagles, and now Metallica's 24-date Life Burns Faster residency since opening in September 2023, and John Mayer's residency keeps expanding. Pearl Jam wrapped the Dark Matter world tour in May 2025, played two shows at Eddie Vedder's Ohana Festival in late September, and bassist Jeff Ament recently told Rolling Stone the band wants a new album and a 2027 tour. So the door isn't closed. It's just — per the guitarist himself — a very expensive door.

ArizonaThe fire season that never caught

Arizona just closed out one of its mildest wildfire seasons in years — and almost nobody saw it coming. The state reported 1,589 incidents burning nearly 65,000 acres this year, per the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, via the Arizona Republic. That's less than a fifth of last year's acreage. The state's largest fire, the Pocket Fire near Sedona, burned 27,393 acres. For comparison, last year's Dragon Bravo Fire at the Grand Canyon's North Rim swept across nearly 150,000 acres.

The setup looked terrifying in spring: Phoenix averaged 80.2 degrees, nearly three above normal; March was the hottest in city history; March 18 brought the earliest triple-digit day ever recorded; and the summer was the second-warmest on record. Then the monsoon arrived, drawing on El Niño's moisture, and the conditions that feed megafires never locked in. Arizona hasn't seen a wildfire since early October, and the state ends its fire season weeks ahead of the rest of the West — which had a brutal summer. More than 57,000 fires burned 8.6 million acres nationally from January to September, double last year. Utah had its worst season in nearly 20 years with six megafires that killed six firefighters. Oregon and Washington lost 2.7 million acres, with 65,000 people evacuated and 700-plus structures destroyed. As of Oct. 7, more than 3,300 firefighters were still working 10 fires elsewhere. Arizona, somehow, gets to exhale.

The SouthwestRelief is finally on the way — bring an umbrella

After more than a week of baking, the Southwest is about to get a serious cooldown — and it might come with a flood warning attached. The remnants of two tropical systems are converging on the region: Rachel's leftover moisture is already moving in, and Simon's remnants arrive Tuesday after the storm becomes a hurricane Friday and makes landfall as a major hurricane on Mexico's west coast Saturday.

Here's the timeline, per weather.com: the first push brings a front out of the Northwest that collides with Rachel's moisture — temperatures drop 5 to 15 degrees below average by Monday, with Southern California highs falling into the upper 60s and 70s and parts of Arizona and New Mexico dropping into the 70s and 80s. Snow falls in the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies, with parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho looking at their first significant snow of the season — over a foot in spots. Then Simon's leftovers funnel northward Tuesday into Wednesday, bringing 1-3 inches of additional rain to parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, with a real flooding threat across the Southwest and Southern Plains. After the week this region just had, the cooldown is a gift. The rain on hard-baked desert ground is the part to watch — washes and burn scars flood fast. Check the forecast twice if you're driving the desert this weekend.

Los AngelesA 3.2 rattles Signal Hill overnight

A preliminary 3.2-magnitude earthquake was reported near Signal Hill just before 12:45 a.m. Friday, per the U.S. Geological Survey via FOX LA. The quake hit about 1.24 miles southwest of Signal Hill at a depth of roughly 7.6 miles. No damage or injuries were immediately reported, and the USGS is asking anyone who felt it to file a report on its website. Small, shallow, middle-of-the-night — the classic Southern California wake-up call that turns into a group text by morning.

PhoenixWeekend freeway headaches, mapped

Heads up, Phoenix: multiple closures hit the freeways this weekend. Northbound State Route 51 closes between Indian School Road and Glendale Avenue from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday for pavement work — on-ramps at McDowell and Thomas are closed too, with 16th and 24th streets as the suggested detours. State Route 347 narrows to one lane in both directions between Maricopa and Casa Blanca Road from 8 p.m. Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday for paving. And the southbound Loop 101 ramp to the eastbound Loop 202 HOV ramp is closed. Plan accordingly, or plan to stay home.

BusinessSouthwest Airlines might finally think bigger

Southwest Airlines is considering adding Boeing 787 wide-body, twin-aisle jets to its fleet, Reuters reported Thursday, citing three people familiar with the fleet planning — via Barron's. If it happens, it would end the 737-only era that defined the airline for half a century.

The airline isn't confirming anything — in a statement reported by Barron's, the airline said it keeps listening to customer feedback and satisfying evolving needs, “including initiatives like lounges and aspirational destinations,” but that it has “no forthcoming news about fleet plans.” Still, the direction of travel is unmistakable. This is not your parents' Southwest: bag fees arrived in 2025, open seating ended in 2026, and the scrappy point-to-point discounter increasingly looks like a legacy carrier. A 787 would open long-haul and international routes the 737 can't touch. For Las Vegas, where Southwest is the dominant carrier, that's a bigger deal than it sounds — new nonstops to places the current fleet can't reach would reshape the airport's map. Barron's notes the market logic too: Delta stock is up about 85% over five years while Southwest has slid 25%. Going wide-body is a bet that bigger is the way back.

Around townWhat’s on deck

A packed weekend in Vegas: the Knights host the Kings Saturday at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile after last night's comeback, and the Raiders host the Patriots Sunday — the Week 5 lines are out — fresh off the 30-27 win over Kansas City. On the Strip, Metallica's Sphere residency rolls on, Chicago just locked in a record tenth year at the Venetian, and Lisa added dates at the Colosseum. Sports has the full Friday guide here. We'll be back tomorrow with the next Vegas Daily.