Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

In backdrop of protests, Golden Knights ready for playoff return vs. Canucks

Golden Knights Beat Vancouver Canucks 5-0

AP

Vegas Golden Knights’ William Carrier (28) checks Vancouver Canucks’ Jordie Benn (4) during the first period in Game 1 of an NHL hockey playoff second-round series Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta.. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Golden Knights will take the ice tonight for a playoff game unlike any other they’ve had.

The league postponed two days of playoff games following a player-led protest of the events surrounding the shooting last week of a Black man by white police in Wisconsin. That included Thursday’s Game 3 of the Golden Knights’ second-round series against the Vancouver Canucks, rescheduled to 6:45 p.m. tonight.

It’s going to be a strange game, because it's an important playoff matchup played in the backdrop of protests throughout the sports world this week. Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer admitted it’s been a few weird days of practice, but now they feel ready to go.

“It’s been an enlightening and interesting couple of days,” DeBoer said. “The goal was to get conversations going and I don’t think there’s any doubt that went on and hopefully will continue. But I think right now, I think I can speak for our whole group, we’re ready to play some hockey.”

Forward Ryan Reaves was a catalyst for the protest, not just on the Golden Knights but throughout the league. He knew it was going to become something when players from other teams — notably Tampa Bay’s Kevin Shattenkirk and Vancouver’s Bo Horvat — reached out to him Thursday morning.

There was also support inside the Golden Knights. Reaves may be one of the public faces of the movement, but he’s far from the only one part of it.

“One thing we want to focus and stress is that he’s not alone,” forward Reilly Smith said. “It’s not just him that feels passionate about these issues."

With any social movement, there was going to be backlash.

Steve Grammas, the president of the union representing the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, confirmed to the Las Vegas Sun that he sent a letter to the Golden Knights expressing his “disappointment in the organization and the players” for protesting games in response to Blake’s shooting.

“It appears, to my law enforcement brothers and sisters, that the Golden Knights would rather jump on the bandwagon of attacking the police profession rather than waiting for the facts of an event to be brought to light,” Grammas wrote. “It is clear, now, that your veiled support of the heroes of law enforcement, the same ones you praised for 1 October, is only when the media or a certain political party or other un-informed (sic) athletes tell you it is OK.”

Grammas said he has been contacted by “high-ranking representatives with the team and we will continue to have dialogue.”

Smith said Saturday that he was aware of the letter, but had not read it and did not want to comment until he had. DeBoer said his brother-in-law works as a deputy police chief and another who is a retired military member, and hopes the admiration he has for them isn’t skewed.

“I know they know the amount of respect that we have for what they do, and I can tell you the guys in the room the amount of respect they have for what those men and women do every day,” DeBoer said. “So hopefully that isn’t misinterpreted.”

It’s an important game in the series, each team having won one game, but it’s also not easy to immediately get back into playoff mindset. Smith, forward Mark Stone and DeBoer spoke for about 12 minutes combined this morning and most of the questions were not related to the on-ice competition. DeBoer declined to name his goalie and spoke to the challenge of playing back-to-back games in the playoffs, and the challenges of getting back to hockey mode.

It’s also unique that Horvat, the captain of the team opposing Vegas in the series, was one of the ones to reach out to Reaves and support. It’s not something that typically happens between players matching up in a playoff series.

Reaves and Horvat, as well as their teammates and players from the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche, shared a unifying moment Thursday, standing side-by-side during a press conference. The respect they have for each other is clear.

It’s also clear once the puck drops, it’s back to hockey.

“We’re ready to go, we’re excited to get back playing,” Stone said. “We want to win the Stanley Cup, they want to win the Stanley Cup. I think a lot of us have plenty of friends, not just on our own team but throughout the league. But when it comes to getting on the ice, it’s a whole different breed.”

Series: Tied 1-1

TV: NBC Sports Network (DirecTV 220, Cox 38, CenturyLink 640)

Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM

Betting line: Golden Knights minus-210, Canucks plus-175; over/under: 6 (minus-125, plus-105)

Golden Knights (8-2, Western Conference No. 1 seed)

Previous round: Defeated Chicago in first round, 4-1

Coach: Peter DeBoer (first season)

Points leaders: Shea Theodore (11)

Goals leaders: Alex Tuch (6)

Assists leaders: Shea Theodore (11)

Expected goalie: Robin Lehner (2.34 GAA, .909 save percentage)

Canucks (8-4, Western Conference No. 7 seed)

Previous round: Defeated St. Louis in first round, 4-2

Coach: Travis Green (third season)

Points leaders: Elias Pettersson (16)

Goals leader: Bo Horvat (6)

Assists leaders: Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson (11)

Expected goalie: Jacob Markstrom (2.64 GAA, .925 save percentage)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Max Pacioretty—William Karlsson—Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault—Paul Stastny—Reilly Smith

Nick Cousins—Nicolas Roy—Alex Tuch

William Carrier—Chandler Stephenson—Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Brayden McNabb—Nate Schmidt

Alec Martinez—Shea Theodore

Nick Holden—Zach Whitecloud

Goalies

Robin Lehner, Marc-André Fleury