Golden Knights look to continue road success in Game 3 of Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. --Connect Four. Hangman. Cornhole. Ax throwing (the take-home game, not with actual axes). Poker and other card games.

The Vegas Golden Knights haven't laid off the competition during road trips in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It's not exactly the type of heated battles they get into on the ice, but these leisure activities at the hotel come with some chirping, winners and losers, and a whole lot of camaraderie building.

They're a significant part of the reason why the Golden Knights have been such a good road team, and why they expect to be comfortable in an uncomfortable environment when the puck drops for Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers at FLA Live Arena on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

Vegas leads the best-of-7 series, 2-0.

"I love the road, to be honest, where all the guys are together, having team dinners, playing cards all together, hanging out," forward Jonathan Marchessault said. "We have such good team chemistry this year that we have a lot of fun. There's no dull moment with that group of guys."

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The Golden Knights are 6-2 with a plus-16 goal differential (32-16) on the road in the playoffs. Some of their most complete games have been on the road, like Game 6 at the Edmonton Oilers on May 14 (5-2 victory) to secure a trip to the Western Conference Final, and Games 3 and 6 at the Dallas Stars, both shutouts (4-0, 6-0, respectively).

"It's a testament to the organization of putting together not only a talented hockey team, but a group of guys that like each other," defenseman Alec Martinez said. "I've been fortunate to be a part of a couple successful teams and any team that has that success, they certainly get along off the ice. This here is a special group. The guys genuinely love each other."

That love is built in those moments off the ice both on the plane and in the hotel, where a room is set up for the players to enjoy some activities to keep them busy.

Their camaraderie is obvious in practice, as it was Wednesday, when the Golden Knights skated for about 40 minutes at FLA Live Arena and it was loud and energetic, complete with a seriousness to what they were doing and chirping to go along with it.

Martinez joked that Marchessault was mic'd up for the practice, "but it doesn't take a mic in order for him to be heard."

Brett Howden was filling in for William Karlsson in a power play drill, and Martinez kept yelling for them to "Let Brett keep it." Howden is not a regular on the power play. He was laughing about it later in an interview for the "NHL @TheRink" podcast.

Some players were all over Paul Cotter for trying to play defense on the penalty kill. Cotter, a forward, has been a healthy scratch for the entire postseason.

"We enjoy the banter among each other," defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. "We've become a close group, so we enjoy that. I think that brings our energy up. I think that carries over into practices like that. We're nine months in. The last thing you want to do is go out and practice, but it allows us to keep our energy up and enjoy it."

While getting work done.

"I think we have a good balance where we certainly have fun, we're hooting and hollering and if you watched practice today you could probably hear it," Martinez said. "But I think that we also have a good balance of knowing when to buckle down and take things seriously. When you face adversity through a game, a series or a playoffs, that's when that camaraderie for one another really shines through and I don't think you can win without that."

When the Golden Knights get into the game on the road, they feel they win because of their belief that no matter who is on the ice, that line or defense pair or goalie will do the job against whoever the opponent puts out there against them.

They try to play and operate their systems and rotations the exact same way on the road as they do at home.

"We roll four lines, we roll six [defensemen] and our goalie has been really good," Vegas captain Mark Stone said. "We're not chasing certain matchups. We trust the guys that are going over the boards. Guys aren't asked to play 23-24 minutes. When you have a team like that, you play the right way every shift you're on the ice. You have the energy to do so."

The Golden Knights have 13 players with at least one goal, nine with at least two, in eight road games. Marchessault has a team-high eight goals.

Nobody has more than nine points, but eight players have at least five and 12 at least four.

Vegas has only two forwards playing more than 19 minutes per game; Jack Eichel at 19:26 and Stone at 19:05. Pietrangelo (24:38) is the only player playing more than 21 minutes per game. They have nine forwards playing at least 14:44 per game.

"We're using everybody and everybody can get their legs underneath them," Pietrangelo said.