Golden Knights still not satisfied despite continued success

By Jesse Granger

Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017 | 11:45 p.m.

LOS ANGELES — The Golden Knights completed their two-game California road trip with an electrifying overtime win over quickly developing division rival Los Angeles Kings Thursday night.

Sitting alone atop the Pacific Division, now three points ahead of the Kings with two fewer games played, it would be easy for the Golden Knights to lose the hunger that has brought them success to this point, but don’t count on it.

“It’s nice to be slightly disappointed in wins because that means you can do better personally,” said forward David Perron, who scored the game-winning overtime goal in Vegas’ 3-2 victory in Los Angeles. “I felt like I wanted to do that tonight, and it’s nice that that shot went in.”

Before the season, expectations for the Golden Knights’ inaugural season were extremely low, and with good reason, considering the history of past expansion teams.

They have cleanly hurdled each bar placed in front of them, but players continue to reshape their goals.

“It’s great,” Perron said. “The games keep getting bigger and bigger but it is what it is. We just have to keep rolling with it and having fun with it.”

As a team, the Golden Knights continue wading into unknown waters, but individually they comprise veterans who have been to playoffs and even Stanley Cup Finals.

“When we picked our team we wanted the (Deryk) Engellands, the Perrons and the (James) Neals — those types of guys — because they put the pressure on our guys,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “They talk to the other guys and say, ‘Listen we aren’t good enough, we need to be better,’ and as a coach they help you out.”

The Golden Knights are 10-0-1 in their last 11 games and continue to extend the expansion team record for consecutive games with at least a point. They’ve won a league-high six straight games and lead both Nashville and Los Angeles by three points for first place in the entire Western Conference.

“I don’t care what happens or what they say,” Gallant said. “We know we’re a good team and we work hard and play hard. But we are less than halfway through the season, so we have to keep playing and keep proving people wrong.”

While Vegas may not have the top-end talent of other clubs, the Golden Knights have quality depth to their roster and a group of players that continually outworks the opposition.

“We are lucky to get the point,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said following the overtime loss to Vegas. “They outshot (us) by a pretty big margin. We had a really, really bad second period. I don’t know, in some ways I don’t even think we deserved a point. We are obviously kind of lucky and happy now that we got it, but that wasn’t a very good performance by us.”

Vegas outshot the Kings 39-28 overall, and 15-3 in the second period.

“Our forecheck was outstanding,” Gallant said. “I thought we started a little bit slow but we played really good hockey. I thought the second period was our best period of the year. We played well and we played fast.”

The Golden Knights fell behind early, but scored two consecutive goals including Brendan Leipsic’s first of the season to pull ahead 2-1 in the third period. Doughty tied the game late for the Kings, but for the fifth time this season the Golden Knights scored the winner in overtime.

“For us to come on this road trip and play Anaheim and L.A. on back-to-back nights and play the way we played, (the players) should be proud of themselves,” Gallant said.

Still, they are only 36 games into an 82 game season.

“We have to go about our business making sure we don’t cheat the game,” Perron said.

The Golden Knights have remained fundamentally sound, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Players are constantly tempted with chances to score that may hurt the team defensively, but playing as a team, Golden Knights players have mostly resisted.

“We try to remind each other when there’s some cheating creeping into our game to get that away,” Perron said. “We have to be honest with each other and that’s how we’ll keep having success.”

Jesse Granger can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Jesse on Twitter at twitter.com/JesseGranger_.