Golden Knights set sights on Pacific Division title
The Golden Knights slowly are moving through the end of the alphabet.
They reached “X” on Monday when they clinched a playoff spot and earned the letter next to their name in the standings.
The next letter in sight is “Y,” which would come when they clinch the Pacific Division.
The Knights hold a five-point lead in the race for the division title with six games remaining and will try to hold off streaking San Jose over the final week and a half of the season.
“For the first year, to get a banner up there, it’s always nice,” Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said Tuesday at City National Arena. “I think it would show how good of a job the management did getting the team together, how good of a job the coaching staff, the players have done all together. As an organization, everybody did a great job all season long, and it’s a big reason why we’re successful.”
The Knights (48-21-7, 103 points) are seeking to become the second expansion team from the four major North American professional sports leagues (Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, NFL) to finish first in its division.
The 1976-77 Denver Nuggets of the NBA are the only team to accomplish the feat, excluding the 1967-68 Philadelphia Flyers when every team in the NHL’s West Division that year were expansion clubs.
The Knights, who host last-place Arizona (26-39-11, 63 points) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena, have owned the lead in the Pacific Division since they overtook Los Angeles for the top spot on Dec. 27.
“We still want to keep that top spot in our division,” defenseman Colin Miller said. “Obviously it’d be a great accomplishment in the first year. After every game, you kind of refocus what you’re trying to do. And yeah, that’d be a great thing to happen here.
“I think it’s more about playing well. We want to make sure we’re playing our 60-minute game and playing our style of hockey to keep us ready for the playoffs.”
San Jose, which trailed the Knights by 10 points on March 4, had its eight-game winning snapped on Tuesday, losing 3-2 in overtime to the host St. Louis Blues.
The Sharks, with 98 points, have five games remaining and play at Western Conference-leading Nashville on Thursday, before visiting the Knights on Saturday in a game that could decide the division title.
The winner of the Pacific Division will be guaranteed home-ice advantage through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Knights are 27-9-2 at T-Mobile Arena, tied with Tampa Bay for the third-best home record in the league entering Tuesday’s games.
“The most important part is now we know that we clinched, we haven’t played a full, 60-minute game in a while. This is the most important part,” forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. “The next one is that, having home-ice advantage in front of our fans, it’s a huge advantage, especially with the kind of fans that we have.
“So, this is the most important part. Make sure we keep San Jose behind us because down the line if we meet them, we have to make sure we have one more game at home.”
Despite being an expansion team, 10 of its 27 players — nearly 40 percent of the Knights’ roster — have won a division title during their career.
Fleury (3), Deryk Engelland (2), James Neal (2), David Perron (2), Ryan Reaves (2) and Nate Schmidt (2) have multiple titles, and their leadership will be counted on in the final six games.
“We still have home-(ice) advantage to play for, so I don’t see us slacking right now,” forward William Karlsson said. “We still have to work hard and try to get as many points before the playoffs.”
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.