Golden Knights off to ragged start in Year 2
By W.G. Ramirez LAS VEGAS (AP) >> A season after their surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights are finally starting to look like an expansion team.
The Knights were in sixth place in the Pacific Division on Monday after a slow start to a season that finally saw them make progress after a fivegame home stand capped by Sunday night’s 4-3 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators.
“Somebody just said in the dressing room we had a five-game home stand and we’re 3-1-1,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “And it doesn’t feel like that because (we started) off 1-4 when we got back home. So, we had a good home stand but it doesn’t feel like that.”
Perhaps it’s because last season the Golden Knights were 8-3 through their first 11 games and just three points out of the division lead. They had outscored the opposition 41-31 as they got their inaugural season off to a rapid start. Vegas also allowed three or more goals just four times in that span. The season, of course, ended with them falling short of the Stanley Cup.
This season so far, Vegas has been outscored 3026 and the Knights have allowed three or more goals seven times.
Noticeably missing from the second line are James Neal, who at this time last year led the team with seven goals and 10 points, and David Perron, who had contributed four goals, four assists. Neal is now in Calgary and Perron is in St. Louis and their presumed replacements — Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny — are on the shelf.
Stastny has missed the last eight games and isn’t expected to return until December, while Pacioretty came off the ice Friday after being drilled by Tampa Bay’s Braydon Coburn. He didn’t play Sunday. Cody Eakin did, and left the game in the first period after being leveled by Mark Borowiecki.
The team is also still without lead defenseman Nate Schmidt, who is serving a 20-game suspension after testing positive for a banned substance, while defenseman Deryk Engelland recently returned from an injury.