Golden Knights penalty unit among NHL’s best in selfless task

The life of a penalty killer is not a glamorous one.

Golden Knights forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has been living it for a long time and understands the focus and old-school selflessness required of the role.

“To me, you have to be willing to sacrifice your body and yourself for your team, and not just physically in the way of blocking shots,” he said. “But even moreso, those are going to be tough minutes and you have to be ready to sacrifice those minutes for the team. Those aren’t minutes that are going to look good on your stats. They’re way more important for your team than for yourself.”

Size, speed and skill continue to separate the good from the great in the modern NHL as star players get bigger and faster and finesse plays a more prominent factor.

Bellemare helps lead a Knights penalty-kill unit that has risen above the team’s recent struggles, although a three-game stretch of not allowing a power play goal was snapped Friday when they surrendered two to Winnipeg’s Patrik Laine, including one on a 5-on-3 situation.

Despite the lapses, the Knights still rank tied for fifth in the league at 82.7 percent on the penalty kill through Saturday’s games.

NHL teams traditionally kill off just over 80 percent of power plays. Knights veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland has been a part of penalty-kill units for most of his 10-year career, and experience has taught him there’s no secret to the art.

“Just don’t get scored against,” he said. “It’s really that simple. You just can’t let the puck in the net.”

Engelland averages 3:25 per game in short-handed situations, most on the team by 33 seconds over fellow defenseman Brayden McNabb. Bellemare (1:59) and Tomas Nosek (1:49) lead the way for the forwards. While it’s often a thankless endeavor, Bellemare knows it’s a way to impact the game in a positive way.

“We obviously would love to put 70 points up for the team, but we don’t so we know that one of our roles is to be able to kill that 25, 35 seconds when it’s our turn to do it,” he said of himself and Nosek. “We put a lot of love into it because that’s our role. If you don’t score goals, blocking shots and killing penalties is as good as scoring.”

Forward Cody Eakin has proven it’s possible to do both. He is tied for fourth in the league with three short-handed goals, but knows it’s important to pick the right spots to be aggressive on the penalty kill.

“It depends on how long you’ve been on the ice and how long they’ve been on for,” he said. “If you get the puck and see it’s you against a forward who’s skating backwards and isn’t used to being in that position, it might change your mind. But if you’re dead tired, you might just dump it in and change.

“You want to kill it first. That’s the main priority. Anything after that is just extra.”

Eakin believes the key to doing that is in the planning and preparation.

“Since you’re outnumbered, you have to take away certain threats and certain areas of the ice,” he said. “Give them some things, but not let them get where they want. Know where the threats are and know who are their shooters and who are their passers, where they are most dangerous. There’s a lot that goes into it. You have to think, but you can’t be stuck thinking. At some point, you just have to (instinctively) know where to be and what to do.”

Keep scorers fresh

The Knights are fortunate enough to have several penalty-killing specialists, but contributions from everyone has led to their success.

Forward Paul Stastny has always been a productive offensive player and has shown the elite passing skills that attracted Knights management to him when he was a free agent this offseason.

He has continued to show his worth with his contributions on special teams.

“I take pride in being a good defensive guy,” he said. “Having a good stick. Sometimes I watch guys and it frustrates me because whether it’s on other teams, or teams I’ve played with in the past, if they don’t do it right then sometimes I’d rather be out there.

“You realize how important it is now. A lot of games are one-goal games. Maybe in the past you saved your energy and you just wanted to have the goals, but as you’ve gotten older you realize there’s so many guys on this team that do different roles. If you’re counted upon to be on the penalty kill and you take care of that, then the other guys that are counted upon to score will be fresh.”

Even when it’s all hands on deck, communication and continuity are keys to building a consistent penalty kill unit.

There’s no real secret, but in the end there is always only one objective.

Keep the puck out of the net.

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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.