After a rare five-day break, the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights are heading out for what is likely their toughest road trip of the season.
Vegas will play three games in four days, including matchups against two teams that are tied for the NHL lead in points. The trip begins Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.
After a day off on Friday, the Golden Knights will face a back-to-back schedule, starting with a Saturday afternoon game against Connor McDavid and the defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers. Then, on Sunday morning, they will play the Central Division co-leader Minnesota Wild.
Winnipeg, which just beat the Boston Bruins 8-1 on Tuesday, and Minnesota both sit at the top of the NHL with 42 points.
Vegas has won its last three games, outscoring opponents 8-3, including a 1-0 win over McDavid and the Oilers in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights haven’t played since last Friday when they held off the Dallas Stars 3-2 with 38 saves from goalie Adin Hill.
“We have had time to recover,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I thought it was right for us because of the intensity of our schedule early on, so we needed it. It came at a good time for us.
“We’ll be back to work with three games in four days this week. We’ll be on the ice a lot. Hopefully, they’ll have lots of energy in the third periods. That’s what your rest does for you, should give you some legs each night and then on the last game on Sunday. Hopefully, we haven’t skated them into the ground this week where we have something left for that game, too.”
Cassidy said the Golden Knights spent a lot of time working on basic skills.
“Playing through hands, stick-on-puck details, all the stuff that when you’re playing a lot of games you’re not practicing,” he said. “I don’t want to say (it was a) mini training camp because that’s probably not accurate, but in some respects, (we did) daily drills we would have done in training camp for some of them.”
The first stop on the road trip will be against the Jets, who have won three of their last four games and tied their season-high with eight goals against Boston. This was the ninth time Winnipeg scored six or more goals in a game, the most in the NHL.
The top line of Mark Scheifele (two goals, one assist), Kyle Connor (one goal, two assists), and Gabriel Vilardi (one goal, one assist) combined for four goals and eight points against the Bruins, helping Winnipeg improve to 10-3-0 at home.
“I thought we played a helluva hockey game,” Jets coach Scott Arniel said. “I really liked just the fact that we were in attack mode all the game.”
Scheifele and Connor entered Wednesday tied for eighth in the NHL with 16 goals each.
“Usually when they play like that, it leads to a win,” forward Adam Lowry said. “They came up huge for us throughout the game. Dominant shifts, some huge goals at critical times to get us in the lead and things like that.
Their line has had a great year so far, and it kind of starts with Mark driving it down the middle. In order for us to be successful, that’s the line we look to.”
