Health is the great equalizer in today’s NHL and if a team can keep winning without its full lineup it has the opportunity to achieve special things.
The Vegas Golden Knights boarded their flight to South Florida on Thursday morning without three key players in No. 1 goalie Adin Hill, captain Mark Stone and top end defender Noah Hanifin.
Vegas has built a Pacific Division leading record of 5-0-2 and is one of the top scoring teams in the NHL. In its last two games, Vegas held its opponents to one goal in each out outing. The Golden Knights have the NHL’s best power play (32.1%), are scoring 4.29 goals per game (NHL best) and allowing 2.71 goals per game (15th best).
This weekend the team will face the Florida Panthers on Saturday and Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday before closing out a three-game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh on Tuesday.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy said on Wednesday he expects forward Brett Howden to return this weekend and goalie Carl Lindbom to get his first NHL start as well. Lindbom and veteran defenseman Jaycob Megna were recalled from AHL Henderson Silver Knights on Wednesday and made the trip with the team.
Cassidy was asked about his team dealing with injuries and continuing to collect wins. “Well, it's great when that happens, it shows you’ve got good depth, the other guys are ready to accept the extra responsibility. That's a good thing to have in the room. I've always said the best teams have internal competition. This is a bit of a form of that, with guys being out, they get to prove that ‘Hey, if I'm given the responsibility, I can take care of business.’ So that when everyone is healthy, you get a good push from each other,” said Cassidy. “I think that's very healthy for the group. We've done that a lot here, so it's a good sign that the guys can respond. The guys that are going in, but also the guys that are in, know that hey, maybe I’ve got to do a little bit more while certain guys are out to make sure, we keep the ship afloat, and going in the right direction. So, there's a little bit of that mentality in the room as well, I think it's both sides of it.”
Vegas center Jack Eichel has been the best player in the NHL so far this season and leads the league in scoring with 16 (6G, 10A) points through seven games.
Eichel and Stone have had great chemistry to date. Brandon Saad has moved up in the lineup to take Stone’s place for the time being and he had his best game of the season in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over the Hurricanes.
Cassidy said he was hopeful Howden would play on Saturday night. Howden was moving very well prior to a lower body injury and will likely go back on a line with Colton Sissons and Keegan Kolesar.
Unsung hero Ben Hutton has softened the blow of losing Hanifin with some excellent play. Hutton has now played in six games this season after getting into just 11 last year.
Akira Schmid is 4-0-0 already this season. His workload will increase with Hill missing some time. “Well, he's going to play more; that's the adjustment he has to get used to and be leaned on a little more. Probably an example of what I just said, there's a guy that is in a more of a support role now, he knows that he's going to be in there a little more often, and if you ask, I'm sure he'd say that's what he wants. Probably he should, it should be the answer. ‘I want to be number one in this league, so I'm going to get treated like one as long as Hilly's [Adin Hill] out,’ of that type of thing,” said Cassidy. “Where Carl's [Lindbom] looking at, ‘OK, I'm the support guy, but hey, I got a chance to be in the net too if I play well,’ so they're pushing each other. We won't change the message to Akira. Maybe [Sean Burke] has to look at how he approaches his workload if he's playing more, adjust the days in between. That'll be up to Sean and the goalies to handle that part of it. He's played well for us, so I don't think it's going to change our mindset in terms of how we're going to play, and I don't think the guys will change the way they play. They trust that he'll give us solid outings, and he has.”
