It’s been season’s beatings on the ice for Vegas. Another December and another pre-Christmas month of domination for the Vegas Golden Knights.
With a 4-0-1 record since December dawned, the Golden Knights have pushed their way back into first place in the Pacific Division and continued their Yuletide tradition of beating just about everything put in their way.
Vegas has an all-time points percentage of .718 in December and a record of 68-24-9 in the month which is historically far and away the best chunk of the calendar.
A year ago, Vegas was 10-2-0 (.833) in December which was its best month of the 2024-25 season and 3rd best single month in team history. The Golden Knights’ record in December is the 2nd BEST in the NHL since 2017-18.
NHL, Best Record in December – Since 2017-18
- .737 – TBL (70-24-3)
- .718 – VGK(68-24-9)
- .686 – WSH (60-24-13)
- .672 – PIT (58-26-9)
- .661 – BOS (55-24-17)
So, Original Golden Misfit Brayden McNabb, what gives?
“I don't know. Holiday season, I guess. Maybe it's just that time of year where you kind of go through training camp, get your identity, and you start building blocks towards getting your game where you want it,” said McNabb. “At 30 games in, you should be building your game. We're always working on perfecting it. It's not where we want it to be most of the time, and we're always trying to do better and critique things, but, by Game 30 your game should start getting a little better and better.”
Vegas plays the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday to conclude a five-game road trip and they have collected seven out of a possible eight points on the journey so far. The only blemish on the trip is a shootout loss to the New York Islanders.
“Our record on this road trip kind of speaks for itself, but been to overtime lots and we’re a resilient group coming back in games,” said McNabb. “We’d like to play with the lead a little bit more, obviously. Playing from behind will come back and haunt you at some time. So, it's playing with the lead and staying with the lead.”
Everybody says they want to win. It’s way better than losing. But is there something about this group that makes it a little different?
“We have a lot of guys here that have won. We've got a veteran group. We understand how it works. We've got some younger guys adding a little juice to the group,” said McNabb. “We've had a lot of overtime games, we've lost a lot of overtime. These are big points, obviously, you want to try and win those games. But we understand what it takes to win. We all understand it's a long season and it's a process of building your game where you want to be at your peak level by April.”
We hear coaches and players talk about getting to their game all the time. For McNabb, the perfect formula is pretty easy to discern.
“It starts with managing the puck properly. We're making plays off the rush and not forcing anything. Our structure is really good. We're closing in D-zone. We're not spending a whole lot of time in our D-zone. And if they're getting opportunities, it's from the outside,” he said. “And we're finishing on chances. I mean, I think that's when we're at our best. Mistakes are going to happen. And it's just limiting the mistakes.”
Some stats…
Vegas is up to 106.1% in combined PP+PK% on the season (6th in NHL) and +7 in special teams goal differential (6th).
23 of Ivan Barbashev’s 25 points this season have come at 5v5. He ranks 5th in the NHL in 5v5 points behind MacKinnon (32), Necas (28), Scheifele (27) and Bedard (24).
