Almost 18 months since the Vegas Golden Knights’ improbable inaugural season ended, they look much more like the team that vanquished them in the Stanley Cup Final.
If you can’t beat ’em, be more like ’em.
Once a ragtag group relying on more will than skill, Vegas is beginning to resemble the Washington Capitals they faced in the 2018 final. The Golden Knights don’t have carbon copies of Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom, but they added some serious skill in forwards Paul Stastny, Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone and could easily follow the Capitals’ championship model.
”They’ve done a great job,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said. ”I think they’ve added another layer. I thought when we beat them, we were a little bit deeper team, especially up front. Then adding Stone, adding Pacioretty, signing Stastny – those are three really good players, so they have a whole new layer of offensive, really solid players on their team. In theory, I think they’re a better team than they were.”
The Golden Knights who went to the final in their expansion season had a first line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith and leaned heaviest on defensemen Nate Schmidt, Shea Theodore and Deryk Engelland. All those players remain, but have the pressures eased off them with internal promotions and external additions.
Forward William Carrier, one of more than a dozen players left from the 2018 final, said this is a better team.
”Right now, we’re a more talented team,” coach Gerard Gallant said. ”It’s a different team. We’re a more skilled team than we were back then. But back then we had that air about (us) – we were the hardest working team in the league. I want us to get back to that. We were a fast team, we were a quick team that first year and everything went our way. We had a lot of puck luck and a lot of good things that happened that first year.”
Those good things stopped when the Capitals wore down the Golden Knights with their depth and won the series in five games. Then, last spring, Vegas got knocked out in the first round when a blown call in Game 7 against San Jose snowballed into a disastrous third period.
Bouncing back from two tough playoff exits is another lesson the Golden Knights can learn from the Capitals, who kept getting stopped in the second round or earlier before breaking through and winning it all.
”We’ve had some disappointments,” said Kelly McCrimmon, who took over for George McPhee as Knights GM last summer. ”That’s your ultimate opportunity to evaluate and to learn and to assess where you need to be better. … There’s things you need to do to get you to the playoffs, there’s things you need to do to get you through the playoffs. We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been a playoff team both years, we’ve gained that experience.”
Capitals winger Tom Wilson looks at Vegas as a team built for the playoffs because of its size, skill and toughness. It’s almost like gazing into a mirror.
”They have a really stable team – they can establish all four lines and roll,” Washington’s Jakub Vrana said. ”They play hard, and they work hard for every inch of the ice. That’s what’s been winning them games. We do the same thing.”
Blending the work ethic and the grittiness that got Vegas into the final with the talent that could get it over the top is now the challenge. Gallant doesn’t shy away from the comparison to the Capitals, who perfected that mix.
”The work comes before the skill, and when you get your talented guys and your skilled guys working real hard, then that’s when you’re going to have the right team,” Gallant said. ”I think the team in Washington, that’s what they do. They’ve got some real talented hockey players, but when they work hard, they’re a great team.”
The next stage in becoming a consistently great team is integrating homegrown players, like Cody Glass and Nicolas Hague, who were picks from the Golden Knights’ first draft in 2017. Vegas is at the salary cap like the NHL’s best teams and isn’t afraid of the big expectations that come with that.
”We don’t feel or act or believe we’re an expansion team,” McCrimmon said. ”We’re in year three as a franchise, and like every other team, always trying to get better, always trying to win more games, always trying to be a playoff team and have success.”
FIRST TIMER
Lifelong Maple Leafs fan Ron Ruckstuhl, 52, was diagnosed with Lewy Body disease three years ago and told he had five to seven years to live. In August, son Joshuah sent a tweet to retired NHLer Paul Bissonnette hoping his dad could attend a game in Toronto for the first time.
”I’ve waited 52 years for something like this,” Ron said.
As part of the ”NHL First Timer” video series, the league surprised Ruckstuhl at his house earlier this month and took him and sons Joshuah and Ryan to the Leafs’ game Nov. 5 against Los Angeles. The league is releasing video of the occasion Wednesday to mark World Kindness Day.
”I’d never seen my dad smile and laugh (like that),” said Joshuah, 28, who is his father’s full-time caregiver. ”For a little bit, you didn’t realize he was sick. You could see him forget about being sick for just a little bit.”
NO LONE WOLF
Phil Kessel is fitting in just fine with the young Arizona Coyotes and has come a long way from playing in the shadow of – and winning two titles with – Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin in Pittsburgh.
”He fed off those guys in Pittsburgh really well,” said coach Rick Tocchet, who also was an assistant with the Penguins. ”Sometimes he was under the radar, and he’d come up with some big goals because (opponents focused on) Malkin or Crosby. Now there’s a little bit more focus on him.”
Tocchet said Kessel has done more leading because he recognizes, at 32, he should. It’s working.
”Phil, the young guys love him and he’s taking pressure off guys,” Tocchet said. ”When some guys aren’t scoring, to be honest with you, the media are not on the guy as much because Phil takes that pressure off. So he does take the pressure or the burden off some guys if they’re not scoring.”
GAME OF THE WEEK
The Boston Bruins visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday in another preview of the seemingly inevitable first round series.
LEADERS (through Monday)
Goals: David Pastrnak (Boston), 15; Assists: John Carlson (Washington), 20; Points: Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton), 35; Ice Time: Brent Burns (San Jose), 27:08; Goals-Against Average: Thomas Greiss (N.Y. Islanders), 1.88; Save Percentage: Greiss, .942.
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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