Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The Golden Knights exited the first month of the season with a desired record: 9-3-1 through Friday, which is a great start.
Vegas went undefeated in games at T-Mobile Arena but has struggled in games outside of the Las Vegas Strip, with just one road win.
The offense was mostly dynamic in averaging 4.46 goals per game, second-best in the NHL, and with the third-best power play at 33%. The defense, however, is still figuring things out — often struggling to stop opponents from getting to the net.
Here are four thoughts about the Golden Knights four weeks into the season.
Top-of-the-line first line
Vegas’ 42 goals through Friday leads the league. The mark is 15 goals ahead of where the Golden Knights’ scoring pace was projected to be — the highest differential in the league.
Much of that comes from the Golden Knights’ success at T-Mobile Arena, where they’ve picked up eight of their nine wins and are averaging five goals a game. In half of those games, they scored six goals or more.
A lot of credit goes to the first line of Jack Eichel (19 points), Ivan Barbashev (15 points) and Mark Stone (21 points), who rank as the league’s most productive line. That includes 15 assists each from Stone and Eichel to rank third in the league.
Behind them, defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore have been racking up just as many points as the offense. Pietrangelo has 12 points in 13 games and Theodore has 10.
With the defense still lagging, one could argue the offense is the reason for the strong start. Without those points, after all, Vegas certainly isn’t battling for first place in the Pacific Division.
Defensive struggles
In the preseason, coach Bruce Cassidy said he wanted the Golden Knights to have the best defense in the Pacific Division. After one month of play, Vegas had debatably one of the worst defenses in the division.
Despite scoring the most goals in the league, the Golden Knights have given up 32 goals, which ranks sixth in goals against.
Vegas has allowed 310 shots on goal, which ranks in the top 10 in the league in shots allowed. The Golden Knights have 322 shots on goal, which ranks seventh.
Cassidy and a handful of players have cited the team’s inability to slow opponents on the rush as to why the defense has struggled out of the gate.
The unit has struggled to find its depth in complementing the offense. Pietrangelo and Theodore were the only two defensemen with over three points in October.
However, in their first two games of November, the Golden Knights showed improvement on the back end. Noah Hanifin, who had just three points in the first month, combined three goals and two assists in wins against Utah Hockey Club and the Edmonton Oilers.
Hanifin’s ability to score is crucial to his game, which is why the Golden Knights traded for him, Cassidy said. While Hanifin added needed depth to the defense, Brayden McNabb and Zach Whitecloud are still underperforming.
McNabb, who this season played his franchise-leading 515th game, has two points in 13 games. However, he does have the highest plus/minus on the team (11). Whitecloud has just one point in 13 games and 17 minutes in penalties.
Third and fourth lines
The expectation of an NHL team’s bottom two lines is not necessarily to score but to be aggressors and force their opponents to make mistakes.
However, in the first month, the Golden Knights’ third and fourth lines produced more than their second line did.
Keegan Kolesar, who has been a mainstay on Vegas’ bottom two lines since he came to the franchise in 2020, is on pace for a career-best season, amassing eight points in 13 games. Two goals and an assist highlighted his October, all scored in the third period in a 5-0 win against the Calgary Flames.
Kolesar’s linemate, Nicolas Roy, has eight points and posted a goal and two assists in the win against Calgary. Tanner Pearson, who joined the team on a paid tryout and has flipped between the third and fourth lines, has seven points through the first month.
William Karlsson, who has only played five games and centers the third line, has six points.
Even Cole Schwindt, who was picked up off waivers and moved to wing on the fourth line, has three points.
Stone rock-solid so far
In Stone’s 12 years in the NHL, he has yet to play an entire 82-game season because of injury. And in the past four seasons, he has yet to play more than 60 games.
Yet, he’s healthy and performing at a high clip through the initial month.
He had registered a point in 12 of the initial 13 games, a whopping 21 points off six goals and 15 assists and was tied for fourth in the league for points through Friday.
Stone has thrived on the new-look first line, where he slots in at the right-wing position next to Eichel. They previously teamed together on the power play.
“I knew that we had chemistry and were probably going to have some success together,” Stone said. “There’s a lot of good stuff on the line, so I expected us to have a pretty good start to the season.”
If Stone can buck his history of missing games, he could be on pace to win the first major awards of his career.
[email protected] / 702-259-8814 / @jackgwilliams