Knights ply leadership to steady ship
The Golden Knights may have stopped the bleeding of a three-game losing streak with Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win over Arizona, but it doesn’t mean they’re in the clear.
The Knights (16-9-1) face a challenge Tuesday night at T-mobile Arena in the Anaheim Ducks, before back-to-back road games at Nashville on Friday and Dallas on Saturday.
So what helped the Knights
put the brakes on the losing streak? And what can help them keep from falling backward again this week? In a word, leadership.
The veteran players in the locker room are keeping everyone accountable and there has been no finger-pointing or excuse-making. The ironic thing about that is this is a team that does not have a captain, preferring to spread the leadership responsibilities between six players.
“I think it’s worked out pretty well,” coach Gerard Gallant said Monday. “We have good
KNIGHTS
leaders. We have no issues with our team. They like each other. They enjoy coming to the rink every day.”
Veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland said the fact that everyone buys in makes being a leader easier.
“We’ve got a lot of character here and that’s what kept the skids to a minimum,” he said. “You just try and lead by example and show the younger guys the way, and I think the leaders in our room have done a good job of that.”
Defenseman Luca Sbisa said it’s the little things, like a few encouraging words quietly on the side to someone who’s struggling or just being there in a supportive role.
“You’ve got to know the right time when to say something,” he said. “A lot of the leaders in our room have been around and learned from pretty good players.”
It would be easy to play the injury card as an excuse. Starting goaltender Marc-andre Fleury sustained a concussion Oct. 13 and has missed 22 straight games. The Knights also are without high-scoring veteran forward David Perron, who has been out since Nov. 25 with an upper-body injury. His six goals and 19 points have been missed and his absence forced Gallant to shuffle his lineup to find someone to play with Erik Haula and James Neal.
The Knights are also without rugged right wing Will Carrier who has been a member of the team’s hard-working fourth line of Pierre-edouard Bellemare and Tomas Nosek that has been consistently effective. Carrier, who was injured Nov. 25 at Arizona, is also on the IR with an upper-body injury.
Every team struggles at some point during an 82-game season. But the Knights have kept the lulls to a reasonable number. They had their 1-4-1 stretch on the East Coast road trip in late October-early November and they snapped the recent three-game skid Sunday.
“Look at Montreal. They were struggling. Now they’ve won five straight,” Gallant said. “Nobody likes to lose two, three in a row. But that happens during a season. You try to end those losing streaks as quickly as possible.”
Contact Steve Carp at scarp@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.