Maybe it was a coach or a manager or a player. Or perhaps it was a scribbler or a broadcaster. Google doesn’t seem to know and neither did a quick survey of a few, shall we say mature, colleagues in the business. If the internet and some old dudes can’t provide the answer – we’re stumped. Cliches become so because they’re accurate. While the use of the phrase, ‘championship hangover,’ has become all too frequent, the words still ring true.
In today’s sporting landscape it is difficult to repeat. In the NHL, with a salary cap system designed to promote parity, it’s extremely difficult to lift the Stanley Cup in consecutive seasons.
With the Golden Knights breaking out to a 12-2-1 mark collecting a league best 25 points, observers have been quick to claim, “there’s no sign of a Stanley Cup hangover in Vegas.”
It may be nitpicking but this statement isn’t entirely accurate. There are lingering effects from being the final team to win a game last season. Both physical and mental. And these symptoms won’t be fading any time soon. Managing the threat of fatigue – both of the body and the mind – is a major storyline for this season’s Golden Knights. Management kept the band mostly together. The roster is Stanley Cup caliber. The coaching staff elite. And this group is intent on winning again. They haven’t talked much about repeating since the season began, but their goals were clear at the start of training camp.
“We play this game to win,” captain Mark Stone stated prior to the regular season. “Are we satisfied with last season? Yes. Will we be satisfied with this season if we don’t win again? No.”
So far so good as Vegas is first overall in the NHL as well as the Western Conference and Pacific Division.
Sunday morning saw the Golden Knights up and at it early for a 9 a.m. flight to Washington, D.C. The team has been invited to the White House on Monday and will meet with President Joe Biden before practicing in the afternoon in preparation for Tuesday’s match with the Capitals.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was good enough to stand in the aisle and chat for a few moments midflight. Here are some highlights from the conversation.
GL: How do you feel about your team right now?
AP: It’s hard to complain about our record. I mean, we’re in a good place, right? Good teams find a way to win. That’s one thing we can take from our start. I say it to you guys all the time, we’re good at looking in the mirror and knowing when we played a game and got away with it. I think we’ve been good at that all year. You’re always trying to chase that game of perfection; to get to that full 60 minutes. Guys have been in and out of the lineup. We’ve had some injuries. Guys have filled in and been really good for us. I think we’re in a good place. I think anytime you start the season well, I think it sets a good momentum as the year goes on.
GL: How do you balance wanting to win and be really good right now but realizing you have to continue to grow throughout the season?
AP: We always want to play our best. I think the advantage that we have on the back end, goalies, and our forwards is that we have depth so we can push that as far as we want to go because we’re able to spread out those minutes, especially when everybody’s healthy. It’s an advantage a lot of people don’t have.
GL: You haven’t had your whole group together either.
AP: It’s good having that depth right? Pickles (Brayden Pachal) has played well, and (Kaeden) Korczak has filled in and even up front, others are filling in. Even the last couple games, no one on either side of the puck has complained. It’s never really super heavy minutes. Obviously, some guys are going to play more than others depending on the situation that we need. When you have four lines and six D that can play in all three zones, it makes life easier for everybody because you can limit those hard minutes spread around all the defensive starts or whatever it may and that’s an advantage of our depth.
GL: Do you look forward to certain opponents? Are you looking at the better teams and saying let’s find out?
AP: Yeah, I think, traditionally, you’re going to get the best in everybody every single night. The best teams always do. I think that pushes you to be better every single night. If we look at for example the Colorado game, I think we prepared really well for that one. I think the game against LA, they got some fortunate bounces, but we thought that’s a big one for us anytime we play within the division. Anytime you’re at the top, you want to be pushed and I think playing against the best teams will do that. I think going to the East Coast is going to be a good test for us. We’ve been home for a while here for the most part of the season and it’ll test us here against some pretty good opponents throughout the entire trip.
GL: What does the trip to the White House mean to you?
AP: It’s great. Not many people get the opportunity to go to the White House, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have been able to do it once. I’m excited to do it again because maybe there were some things I missed last time. I guess I’m a little bit of a history dork when it comes to that stuff. I like seeing those things. It’s really interesting getting to do the tours and all that. I think we’ve got some guys coming in too and hopefully, look how many people are here just to experience it. That means something. It’s really just another thing to enjoy as a group.
GL: How do you balance knowing you can’t win every game but still wanting to do just that?
AP: I think I learned a long time ago that there’s more to it than just the one game. I think it’s important to kind of dissect what happened after the game or maybe the next day, but I’ve played for so long and for me obviously, I go home to my wife and kids, and I used to bring it [the game] home a lot more than I do, and life goes on. You wake up the next day and my first thought is to be a husband and dad. I think that’s kind of helped me push things to the side and go to work and focus on what I’ve got to do. I’ve played so many different types of seasons where you’re in first place and then you’re not good in the second half, you’re in last place and then we won the Stanley Cup. Last year, we were good the whole year and playing in the playoffs really helped because if you can’t manage those ups and downs, then it’s going to be a tough way to get through it. I’ve kind of learned throughout my career knowing you need to be better, knowing you need to be good, and just get ready for the next day.
GL: What is this team missing?
AP: Well, it’s hard to say right now. I mean health, I guess but that happens too. Some of the stuff we’ve gone through has just been bad luck. Some of it is when you played as late as we did, you get a little bit of wear and tear. We have the luxury of managing those injuries with some depth so that we’re not really having to push guys through things. It’s good to get the band back together, we’ve got Whitey (Zach Whitecloud) back and hopefully, guys trickle in over the course of this trip because it helps bring the energy back up.
GL: You guys really seem to like being around one another.
AP: Yeah, I’ve said that since I got here. I think as important as it is to find the right players on the ice, it’s important to find the right people in the locker room. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got to perform but when you put the right mix of people together, it translates onto the ice more than you think and I think the important part of our group is we all want to push ourselves to be out there all the time and be the best but we’re all willing to give up a little bit. And I’ve said that before, a couple minutes here and there throughout the game or different situations, guys are genuinely happy for other guys when they have success and I think that’s the one thing that’s really important to our group. Look at the Finals for us, I don’t even remember who scored other than Stoney’s hat trick in Game 5 and to us that’s important to enjoy that success of the other guy. It’s really an important part of our locker room.
GL: How is the coaching staff handling your group coming off a Stanley Cup championship?
AP: Honestly, Bruce is the same as he was last year. Like anything, when you spend the year with a bunch of players, you develop a relationship with them, and I think he’s really come to understand us as a group and been able to listen to us about when to push it or when to take our foot off the gas. I think us players do understand the coaches’ mindset too and it’s the same thing too, we understand when we need to go out there and win but he’s done a good job of pushing us when he needs to be. I think we want that. I’ve always said that you want to get into the next season after you win and you want to treat it the same way. Obviously, you have to manage energy levels a little bit as the season progresses, but we want to treat things the same way because it worked so why change it up.
GL: Do you worry about the energy levels and the emotional component?
AP: No, I think we’ve got a mature enough group that I think it could go two ways and I think our group is the mindset of we want to show people that we’re still a good team and we want to do it again. There’s the mindset where you can put your foot on the gas and hope you accomplish what you wanted to but that’s not really how we think in here and that’s part of the reason why we started so well because for us, we want to prove to people again that we’re not a one off and we have an opportunity to be a good team and we want to be good for a while here. That’s the idea and you can see that just from how we started the season.
By the numbers: From NHLInjuryViz: VGK have the fifth most injuries to skaters by cap hit and have not allowed it to impact record with a league best 12-2-1 mark to open the season (top 5 is FLA, SJS, MIN, ANA, VGK).
Vegas is second in Man Games Lost to blueline. Vegas has yet to play a game this season with its top six D group (Pietrangelo, Alec Martinez, Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb, Nic Hague, Zach Whitecloud) intact. Golden Knights were 31-10-3 with that group in the lineup last season.
The two pairs from last year that have played together so far this year are Martinez and Pietrangelo (+5 in goal differential in 104 minutes, fourth best goal differential per 60 among D pairs with 100+ mins) and McNabb and Theodore (+8 in 228 min, fourth best goal differential among D pairs this year, sixth best goal differential per 60).
Vegas PK ranks eighth in NHL, third by net PK% (factors in SHG). Golden Knights ranked 19th and 16th last season in those categories.
From MoneyPuck, Vegas goalies rank second (Hill) and fifth (Thompson) in the NHL in goals saved above expected.
