Golden Knights embrace the quirks of unusual NHL schedule

By Justin Emerson

Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021 | 2 a.m.

The upcoming hockey season won’t look and feel like what we are accustomed to because of changes brought on by the pandemic.

The oddest alteration could be how the schedule is constructed. Games will be played in two-game sets, with one team coming to town and playing two games before moving on to their next city.

Throw in that all 56 games will be against the same seven teams, and the Golden Knights will get quite familiar with their West Division opponents.

“I don’t think anyone’s really coming into this season thinking they know how the script is going to be written,” forward Reilly Smith said. “There’s going to be challenges and things we haven’t had in the past.”

Take the second week of the season.

After two games at home with the Ducks, the Golden Knights will welcome the Coyotes to town for two games. But right after that, Vegas hits the road for two games in Arizona, making four games in seven days against the same team.

It could make things spicy throughout the season.

Remember how tempers flared in the second game of the season between the Golden Knights and Sharks, the second time in three days the teams met. That was the only time all regular season Vegas played the same team two games in a row.

“It’s going to be weird that way, but it’s almost going to be like a playoff mini-series,” defenseman Brayden McNabb. “Things could get pretty heated, so it’s going to be fun hockey to play and watch.”

That will happen again in February, too. The Golden Knights host the Avalanche on Feb. 14 and 16, then after three days off will play two more games against the Avalanche on Feb. 20 and 22 (the Feb. 20 game will reportedly be at Lake Tahoe).

Another oddity of the schedule is the lack of preseason. Typically, Vegas has seven games to get in the swing of the season and will go right from training camp this week and next to opening night against the Ducks on Jan. 14.

“I think the preseason, everyone wants a couple games to kind of get their game back in order, but I also think as preseason goes on everyone gets anxious for the season to start,” defenseman Alec Martinez said.

The Golden Knights plan to make up for that by simulating a game as much as possible tonight. They’re skating at City National Arena to start the day, as they would for a normal morning skate. Then they’re off to T-Mobile Arena at night for a full scrimmage.

It ensures some new players, like star defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, will not be walking into the home dressing room for the first time on opening night. Then they’ll take Friday off, making sure they use the preseason days that they have, but also not burning out players before the games count for real.

“We’ve got a lot of thought put into how we’re using that work-to-rest ratio, because once the season starts there’s no rest,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “You’re playing pretty much every other day.”

Indeed, Vegas’ 56 games come in 114 days, two days more than one every other day. It includes eight sets of back-to-back games and the final 24 games will come in a staggering 44 days.

It’s going to be an odd season for sure, but as one player was quick to mention, the fact this is happening at all is worthy of praise.

“There’s a lot of hard work being put into this just so we can have the opportunity to play, so I’m not going to complain about anything,” Martinez said. “Everyone’s going through the same thing. Nothing in the world right now is ideal, so I don’t expect an NHL season to be any different.”