Knights finally get practice time after season-long trip
The Golden Knights took the ice Monday at City National Arena for their first practice in two weeks.
The last time they had an organized session that wasn’t a morning skate was Nov. 18, the day before they traveled to Toronto to begin a season-long, five-game road trip.
They played seven games in the next 11 days, earning nine of a possible 14 points. All things considered, given the circumstances, a job well done with the Knights sitting in first place in the Pacific Division entering December.
“That was quite a stretch for us,” center Jack Eichel said. “I was trying to remember with the other guys if they had ever had stretches like that in their career at different times. That was an interesting one.”
The worst of the condensed schedule for the Knights is almost over. But that won’t come until next week. They have to get through another stretch of three games in four days, starting Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers at T-Mobile Arena.
It being the Oilers is reason enough to get back on the ice. Any matchup against Oilers captain Connor McDavid and star center Leon Draisaitl is always call for extra preparation.
But the Knights also had to move on after their 6-0 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday, a result the Knights have to accept but won’t dwell on — a small blip after an 8-4-2 record in November.
“I don’t think the score was indicative of the whole play,” coach Bruce Cassidy said regarding Saturday when the Knights trailed 4-0 after the first period. “The analytics back that up. It just didn’t go our way.”
Help is on the way
The Knights dealt with injuries throughout November but still had a winning record.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (upper body) missed three games, defenseman Zach Whitecloud (upper body) has missed the past four and center William Karlsson (personal reasons) missed one.
Two of the three are back, with Whitecloud missing practice Monday and likely to miss his fifth straight game Tuesday. But overall, the Knights are getting healthy.
The notable is captain Mark Stone, who skated in a noncontact role Monday with the team for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury Nov. 6 in Edmonton.
Cassidy said Stone won’t play Tuesday, but he didn’t rule him out beyond that. The Knights are in Anaheim on Wednesday and home against Dallas on Friday. It depends on how quickly Stone can get to full contact.
“For him, it’s probably just as important getting around his teammates again and get going,” Cassidy said. “I think he got through it OK. We’ll find out tomorrow.”
The Knights got right wing Victor Olofsson back Saturday after he missed the previous 20 games with a sprained ankle suffered Oct. 15 in Washington.
Olofsson got off to a strong start with three goals in four games before his injury. He jumped right back into action by playing 16:54 on Saturday.
“I felt pretty good,” Olofsson said. “I thought it was going to be even tougher on the legs, but I’ve put in a lot of work over the past few weeks and feel like I’m in good shape.”
A good start
Eichel said a lot of credit goes to the players who stepped up in their absence.
Right wing Cal Burke appeared in six games after being called up from the Silver Knights and scored his first NHL goal Nov. 23 in Montreal. Defenseman Robert Hagg played two games with Pietrangelo and Whitecloud out.
The schedule will ease up once the Knights (15-7-3) get through this week. After playing the Stars on Friday, they will have nine games the rest of the month, including five days off before heading to Winnipeg on Dec. 12.
They will be able to get a practice or two in at that rate.
“We wanted to get off to a good start,” Eichel said. “Historically, teams that get off to a good start and are in a good position come Thanksgiving time usually put themselves in a good position toward the end of the year. It’ll be important for us to have a good month of December and heading into Christmas feeling good about ourselves.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.