Knights on road … to recovery?
Improving Vegas plays 12 of next 17 games away from T-mobile Arena
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — William Karlsson hasn’t memorized the Golden Knights’ upcoming schedule. But he’s certain of one thing.
“All I know is we have a lot of road games,” Karlsson said. “That means we’re going to be home later in the year, right? So, it has its ups and it has its downs.”
After giving the NHL’S newest team a favorable schedule to open its inaugural season, the empire struck back in the Knights’ second year.
Starting with Tuesday’s game against the Predators at Bridgestone Arena, the
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IT was just before noon on Monday, qualifying day for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. A man had pulled into the parking lot at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, turned his back on the pro shop no more than a chip shot away, and began to urinate.
You rarely see that at Augusta National.
Wouldn’t be good for the azaleas.
Mike Weir, who had just made the turn, knows all about the azaleas.
The azaleas were in full bloom along with his game in 2003 when Weir defeated Len Mattiace on the
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Knights play 12 of their next 17 games on the road, including six of their next seven away from home against teams with a combined record of 35-19-9.
“It’s funny because somebody said in the dressing room we had a five-game homestand and we went 3-11, but it doesn’t feel like that because we started off at (24) when we got home,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “We want to win and we want to play better and we want to make sure things are going.
“It’s a tough trip coming up to Nashville and St. Louis and they’re good hockey teams. We’ve just got to keep going. We have to keep playing like this.”
The Knights traveled Monday and did not provide an update on whether injured forwards Max Pacioretty and Cody Eakin are cleared to play on the two-game trip that concludes Thursday at St. Louis.
Pacioretty left in the first period of Friday’s 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay after absorbing a hard hit from Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn and did not play in Sunday’s 4-3 overtime victory over Ottawa. He is listed as day to day.
Eakin took an illegal check to the head from Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki in the first period Sunday and did not return. Borowiecki was slapped with a three-game suspension Monday by the league’s Department of Player Safety.
“It’s not where we wanted to be as a group to start the year, but I mean, all teams face adversity in the year and we have a lot of injuries right now,” leading scorer Jonathan Marchessault said. “It’s not an excuse. It’s just, we’ve got to see it as guys need to step up. I think we all need to step up, especially for myself.”
Nashville, which is tied with Colorado atop the Central Division with 16 points, continues a tough opening stretch for the Knights. The Predators are the eighth playoff team from last season the Knights haved faced through 12 games.
The Knights (5-5-1, 11