‘Nothing is going to change for us’
It’s status quo for the Vegas Golden Knights in the postseason.
With the Golden Knights now two games into their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings in the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup playoffs, head coach Gerard (Turk) Gallant says it’s business as usual for the expansion franchise. While some teams opt to stay at hotels for home games to avoid distractions, Gallant said the Golden Knights, who won the series opener against the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 and hosted Game 2 late Friday night, will maintain the same routines they followed during the regular season.
“We just want to play the best hockey we can play, and give ourselves a chance to win,” said Gallant. “Nothing is going to change for us. It’s been a great season so far, we just want to keep it going.”
Gallant did acknowledge the playoffs “will be a little bit more intense” and there will be extra pressure.
For the most part we are going to do what we did all season out there, take the pressure off our players, just go out there, play and see what happens,” said Gallant, who added the Golden Knights were close to having everyone available for the playoffs, in a phone interview with the Journal Pioneer during the final weekend of the regular season.
“We feel real good,” said Gallant, a strong supporter of the Summerside Boys and Girls Club. “We are almost back to having everyone healthy. “We’ve had quite a few players out for quite a while here. We are not 100 per cent healthy, but it’s getting pretty close and I really that. Although this will be the Golden Knights’ first postseason appearance as a team, Gallant notes there are players who have valuable NHL playoff experience, including No. 1 goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
“Obviously, Fleury won three Cups with Pittsburgh and they had a great run,” said Gallant. “James Neal was in the final, and we have guys who have won Stanley Cups.
“There are a lot of good players and experience there. We are a veteran team.”
The Golden Knights have also been a hit off the ice. The team has averaged 18,042 fans a game in the regular season while playing to 103.9 per cent capacity at the T-Mobile Arena.