Golden Knights looking forward to normal training camp, NHL season

By Justin Emerson

Friday, Sept. 24, 2021 | 2 a.m.

The Golden Knights’ first practice of the season felt even more like a celebration of a return to hockey than usual. Vegas staffers passed out rally towels; John Wick Mode, the entrance music for home games, blared over the loudspeakers; “Go Knight Go” chants rang out throughout City National Arena.

It’s been more than 18 months since fans were allowed to watch Vegas practices, and their return was appreciated inside the Golden Knights room. The presence of fans was one hopeful omen — along with a return to an 82-game schedule, an easing of virus restrictions and many other things — that after two COVID-shortened seasons, things are finally starting to get back to normal.

“It’s obviously been very exciting to get fans back in every building and get some normalcy back,” forward Nolan Patrick said. “It was pretty cool seeing that. I’ve never seen that many fans at a practice, so obviously it shows how good they are.”

The 2019-20 season started off ordinarily enough, but by March things started to take a turn. The final practice of the season on March 11, 2020 remained open, but autograph signings were canceled as the team jetted off to Minnesota later that day, only for the virus to pause the season. The season resumed in two empty Canadian arenas later that summer, and last year was impacted on nearly level by the virus.

The only noticeable difference to this season is that it will start about week later than usual, making up for the Stanley Cup Final finishing later into last summer. Teams will go back to playing every other team in the league instead of the regionally based intra-division schedule last year, and travel restrictions are eased to resume a normal slate of road games.

The Golden Knights are also fully vaccinated, meaning they won’t be subject to the same restrictive COVID measures as last season. While it seems impossible to fully rid the hockey world of the virus, at least in the near term, the hope is this season will be as normal as it has been in two years.

“I’m really excited,” goaltender Robin Lehner said. “I can’t express it enough. It’s been tough since COVID. The whole season last year, playing the same teams all over again, it’s nice to get back some normalcy for sure. I had a good summer, just took a mental break then started working out getting ready for the season, so it feels pretty good.”

Normal, too, was the training camp the Golden Knights were able to hold. There wasn’t one last year ahead of a lack of preseason games, and even when the 2020 playoffs began, the training camp consisted of the players going to the postseason bubble. It’s the first time several of the prospects got to compete against NHL players and the first chance they got to show they belonged in NHL camp.

Kaedan Korczak, for instance, was drafted in the second round of the 2019 draft and is considered one of Vegas’ better defensive prospects. He scored in the scrimmage Thursday and will embark on his first full season playing only professional hockey. He’ll likely start in Henderson with the Silver Knights, but force his way to Vegas at some point this year.

“I think the first couple of drills I kind of got used to it, and obviously you’re playing with high-end talent out there and it just took me a little bit, but as I got used to it I kind of felt better as it went on,” Korczak said. “I know how I can play and the coaches know how I can play too, so I’ve just got to bring that every day and hopefully my time will come.”

It was also, rather strangely, coach Pete DeBoer’s first real training camp. He was hired in January 2020, meaning he got the bubble camp and the abbreviated camp before last year’s 56-game season. Entering what is his third season as Golden Knights head coach, it’s the first time he gets to start the season properly.

“It’s a weird sensation,” DeBoer said. “I feel like I know the group really well, we’ve had some long playoff runs and gone through a lot of battles together, yet it’s the first real training camp we’ve had.”

It’s one of the many reasons why the Golden Knights are optimistic about what figures to be a long 2021-22 season. This is a team that twice in pandemic-touched seasons reached the postseason’s final four, and look to go even further in the first full season in quite some time.

The Golden Knights will get to travel to Montreal, who eliminated them from the playoffs, and New York, where former coach Gerard Gallant and locker room favorite Ryan Reaves await, and Chicago, where they’ll face former goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

And just like it was when the Golden Knights saluted their fans with stick taps after practice, it will be normal.

“I've got my fingers crossed, just like the rest of the world, that we’re going to plow through this,” DeBoer said. “I believe we are. I’m an optimist.”