■ The new-look Golden Knights are ready to focus on playing good hockey.
Team sets its focus on season’s stretch run
Nobody around the Golden Knights locker room is going to say the uncertainty around the trade deadline affected the team’s play on the ice.
There’s still a great deal of relief it’s done.
“It’s time to go now,” defenseman Brayden Mcnabb said. “The noise is over with and now we just have to go play and start winning games.”
The Knights hope Saturday’s
5-3 home win over the Detroit
Red Wings can serve as a turning point. It snapped their four-gamelosing streak and was just their
third win in 12 games.
“I think it should jumpstart us,” center Jack Eichel said.
It didn’t hurt that the Knights improved their roster before the deadline, at least on paper.
General manager Kelly Mccrimmon added a talented trio of players in defenseman Noah Hanifin and forwards Anthony Mantha and Tomas Hertl.
“(The roster’s) better,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The question will be keeping everyone happy when and if we’re completely healthy, but it just makes us deeper and stronger and to me that’s what a coach wants.”
Cassidy acknowledged there might have been some angst in the locker room even though the Knights were clear buyers.
Some players might have been nervous they were about to be shipped out. It seemed even more of a possibility given the team’s recent struggles.
The Knights (34-23-7) still managed to add while only removing depth defenseman Daniil Miromanov from their roster.
“We’re not where we want to be and we know that, but (Mccrimmon) believes this team can get back there,” Cassidy said. “The players don’t know that always coming up to it, though.
“At the end of the day, it could affect them, so it’s good it’s behind us. Now this is our team. It’s just a matter of fitting together and playing together and off we go. This is an opportunity to put it all behind you, both good and bad.”
The new guys expect to make an impact.
Mantha is still easing his way into the lineup after two games. Hanifin looked far more comfortable in his second game Saturday, recording two assists. Hertl is still working his way back from a knee procedure and isn’t available yet.
“He is like a toy you can’t open for a few weeks, like before Christmas, right?” Cassidy said. “We don’t even know how he fits yet, but we know he’s going to be good for the group. We anticipate he will be available at some point in the near future and he is just going to make our team better once he’s in the lineup. I’ve had numerous people reach out to me about what a high-character guy he is as well so I think that will be great for our locker room.”
“But all three of those guys will make our team better and that’s what you want and I think the players want the same thing to have the best chance to win.”
There may be some guys who lose minutes when the roster is healthy, but that’s a good problem to have. The Knights learned last year it takes a full roster to win a championship.
“If you want to have a run, you have to have depth,” Cassidy said. “We saw that last year. We used Teddy Blueger, we used Phil Kessel. We used a lot of people. It’s going to be a positive.”
Hanifin got his first real glimpse of what the Knights could look like Saturday. He had just landed in Las Vegas a few hours before puck drop when he made his debut Thursday.
He likes what he has seen so far. He and the Knights are ready to move forward and chase another championship.
“Being on another team the last six years, Vegas has always been one of the best teams and winning (the Cup) last year speaks a lot about the character in the room and the way they want to play the game here,” Hanifin said. “It’s a great culture and I’m excited to be a part of it.”