5 most impressive stats of Golden Knights’ win streak

By Jesse Granger

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018 | 11 p.m.

The Golden Knights extended their league-leading win streak to eight games Tuesday night with a 3-0 win over the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena.

It’s tied for the longest winning streak in the entire NHL to this point and is by far the longest for an expansion team.

It’s one thing for a team to find a soft spot in the 82-game schedule and take advantage by winning the games it’s supposed to, but Vegas is reeling off W’s against the stiffest competition it will face all season.

Included in the stretch are wins over Pittsburgh (defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champion), Tampa Bay (best record in the NHL), Washington (last year’s Presidents' Trophy winner for NHL’s best record), Los Angeles (leading the Pacific Division before Vegas overtook them) and Nashville (defending Western Conference champion).

“If we keep playing the kind of hockey we’re playing, we’re going to win a lot of hockey games,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. “The guys are competing, playing hard and believing in themselves.”

And the eight-straight wins aren’t the only streak Vegas has going. The Golden Knights have also earned a point in 13 straight games dating back to Dec. 3.

Here are the five most impressive stats during the miraculous run.

1. Through 38 games, the Golden Knights already have a longer win streak than the Stars have had in 50 years as a franchise.

Dating back to 1967 when they were the Minnesota North Stars, the franchise has never won eight games in a row. That is 3,882 games over the span of 50 years, and it took the Golden Knights less than three months to beat it.

The eight-game win streak also tied the franchise record for Tuesday’s victims — the Nashville Predators — and is longer than any streak in the 18-year history of the Winnipeg Jets (previously Atlanta Thrashers), who have only won six in a row. The Golden Knights are one win away from tying the franchise records of the Red Wings, Oilers, Coyotes, Hurricanes, Kings and Lightning.

2. It’s the third win streak of at least five games for Vegas this season, which is the most in the NHL. Only one other team has more than one.

This isn’t the first hot stretch of the year for the Golden Knights, who have two other stretches of five-straight wins. Meanwhile, 18 teams (or 58 percent of the NHL) have yet to win five games in a row even once.

There are seven teams (Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Ottawa, Arizona, Detroit and Buffalo) that haven’t even won four in a row.

3. During their 13-game point streak, the Golden Knights have more points than the Arizona Coyotes during the entire season.

Vegas has won 12 of its last 13 games with one shootout loss to Carolina on Dec. 12 in the middle. The Golden Knights haven’t lost in regulation since Dec. 1 at Winnipeg.

That amounts to a total of 25 points during that stretch, which is two more than the Arizona Coyotes have in 41 games with an abysmal record of 9-27-5.

4. Marc-Andre Fleury has two shutouts during the nine-game win streak. Only eight goalies have more shutouts during the entire season.

Fleury stopped all 29 of the Predators’ shots on Tuesday to notch his second shutout of the season, the second one in his last three starts.

The 33-year-old netminder has been spectacular for the Golden Knights this season with a record of 8-1-1 and a save percentage of .943, which ranks second in the NHL. In his last three starts, Fleury has saved 81 of the 83 shots he faced (97.6 percent).

All eight of the goalies that have recorded more than two shutouts this season have played in more than 20 games, while Fleury has only 10 while out nursing a concussion.

5. Another impressive streak-related stat for the Golden Knights is they’ve never lost more than three games in a row. Only one team (Tampa Bay) has lost fewer in a row (2).

The Golden Knights own three of the five longest winning streaks in the NHL, but they also haven’t had many losing stretches. Vegas has lost three in a row on only two occasions this year, and has never lost more consecutively.

Only the league-leading Lightning have done a better job staying out of slumps, with two consecutive losses on Nov. 24-25 being their longest.

Also, not to pick on the Coyotes, but they own the longest losing streak of any team this season at 11 games, which is the same number of total games the Golden Knights have lost in their entire schedule.