How do the Golden Knights foster chemistry? With team dinners and Halloween parties
“The guys like each other. Our team has no issues with anything. There are no big egos. They just come to have fun and enjoy each other.”
Nick Holden knew the showgirl costume he sported to the Vegas Golden Knights’ Halloween party over the past weekend would shock his teammates.
What the defenseman didn’t expect, however, was that he would be equally surprised by the outfits of everyone on the roster.
“This is the first team I’ve been on that everybody put in an effort,” Holden said.
A new addition to the Golden Knights this season, Holden has concluded that everything he heard about the team when signing as a free agent was true — they’re an incredibly tight-knit bunch.
Golden Knights’ players often referenced camaraderie as an underrated aspect of their record-breaking expansion season last year. Despite some roster reshaping in the offseason, it appears Gerard Gallant, coach, Golden Knights
Vegas has maintained the same atmosphere.
“The guys like each other,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “Our team has no issues with anything. There are no big egos. They just come to have fun and enjoy each other.”
The attitude is apparent every day in practice, where the closest thing to altercation is good-natured trash talk from leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault on the ice or the infamous hijinks of goalie Marc-andre Fleury in the locker room. Fans filling City National Arena know to look toward Marchessault if they hear a voice tormenting the goalies; players seek out Fleury if anything with their gear is awry.
It’s made for a culture that both Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch have cited as a driving force for recently signing longterm contracts.
“You get chirped here and there but I love it,” Theodore said. “It really makes me feel at home. … I don’t think anyone takes any sort of words the wrong way, and that’s a big importance of our team.”
Theodore can rest easy knowing he’s no longer the top target. Even Gallant marveled at the relentless needling The-