Golden Knights return from break depleted but eager for game action

By Justin Emerson

Monday, Dec. 27, 2021 | 6:15 p.m.

The Golden Knights who participated in the first practice after the holiday break were energetic, refreshed and eager to get back on the ice Tuesday in Los Angeles against the Kings.

The problem was that there just weren’t as many as Vegas would have liked.

The Golden Knights were without six regular players and their head coach Monday because of injuries and COVID-19 protocols, a week after having nearly a clean bill of virus health. They return to have action Tuesday after a week off, and the players who are there will look to carry over momentum from a strong finish to the season’s unofficial first half.

“Whether it’s a day or two, every day matters for guys, whether you’re going through injury or sickness, whatever it is, any break is good,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “It came at a time when a lot of things were going on, obviously.”

Coach Pete DeBoer and forward Brett Howden were added on Monday to the team’s COVID protocol, joining defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and forward Evgenii Dadonov, who were included in the list last week and remain there.

Vegas also practiced without goalie Robin Lehner and star forwards Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty due to “bumps and bruises,” according to assistant coach Steve Spott who ran the on-ice session in DeBoer’s absence. All three are game-time decisions for Tuesday, Spott said.

The Golden Knights aren’t the only team affected by COVID issues, and the league instituted some rule changes over the weekend to address it.

The big one is the return of last year’s taxi squad, allowing teams to carry players on the roster without taking up cap space. Vegas added forwards Jonas Rondbjerg and Jake Leschyshyn, defenseman Daniil Miromanov and goalie Logan Thompson to the taxi squad Sunday, and all were at practice.

Other changes include making it easier to recall players on an emergency basis as COVID replacements. The changes do not include allowing asymptomatic players who test positive to play, as some in the league including Vegas forward Reilly Smith have suggested.

The league's COVID protocols have been in flux all season as the virus evolves and variants emerge. At the start of the season players were more or less back to normal, as all but one player in the NHL was vaccinated.

Amid a wave of cases in mid-December, though, things reverted to last season's stringent procedures. Tests were administered daily instead of every third day, social distancing was required, community interaction was discouraged and meetings were to be held virtually.

Currently, a confirmed positive test for a player means a 10-day isolation period in most cases. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened its recommended quarantine to five days. That did not immediately change NHL policies, and remains to be seen if it will with seven league teams based in Canada, which has stricter national standards for COVID.

“Just remind yourself that this thing is here and it’s part of our life now,” forward Keegan Kolesar said. “For us, it’s just about doing the right things we can so to not infect ourselves or infect others, keep everyone safe as well as playing hockey at a high level.”

In one way, the holiday break came at an inopportune time for the Golden Knights, who were playing their best hockey of the season before the break.

They lost to the Lightning in their final game before Christmas but still looked good in the game, and prior to that had won five games in a row and eight of nine. They start play today tied for first place in the Western Conference in total points (40 in 32 games).

The good news, though, is that Vegas and the rest of the league got to spend some time recovering the past week. The Golden Knights went into the holiday break having played eight games in 14 days, a fortnight that included a weeklong stretch in Boston and New York.

Things pick up again soon, with five games in nine days starting Friday. So even though they came out of the break with more players missing than they had before it, the Golden Knights were thankful for the time off.

“Rest is a weapon for us. Anytime we can get an extended amount of time off we’re going to take full advantage of it, do what we can to get our bodies feeling right again,” Kolesar said. “We have a long stretch coming up here the rest of the way, and for us it’s about getting as many healthy bodies as we can and feeling good.”