Golden Knights roll into Los Angeles on yet another hot streak

By Justin Emerson

Friday, March 19, 2021 | 2 a.m.

The Golden Knights’ 20-6-1 record is the best 27-game start in the team’s four-year history, as they enter tonight’s game at the Los Angeles Kings on their third four-game winning streak of the season.

The streak has seen them dominate the bottom feeders of the West Division, including winning all five games against the second-to last-place Sharks. They are also hanging tough with the division’s better teams, such as Colorado and Minnesota.

“I credit our group for the streaks because you’re never going to have your ‘A’ game over three, six, seven, eight games — you’re going to have some games over those stretches when your energy’s not there or you’re mentally fatigued,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “You’ve got to win in different ways.”

Forward Ryan Reaves made a comment after Wednesday’s win that the Golden Knights know how to win and the Sharks don’t seem to. It was shot at a rival to be sure, but also a statement on how Vegas, which trailed 3-1 entering the third period, never felt out of the game.

The Golden Knights did win, of course, which is part of what makes the current streak so impressive. It started in St. Louis last week, a back-and-forth affair that ended in overtime. Vegas blew out the Blues the next night, then returned home on Monday to eke out a win against the Sharks in a defensive battle.

They’re winning, as DeBoer said, in all sorts of ways.

“When we come into a third period like that down or up, doesn’t matter. We know we have a chance to come back or put the nail in the coffin,” Reaves said. “At the end of the day, we know we can win any game.”

Part of the Golden Knights’ early-season success has been a product of their schedule. They started the season with 10 of their first 11 games against the Ducks, Coyotes, Kings and Sharks, with a shootout loss to the Blues sprinkled in, too.

Those four teams, all out of the playoffs currently, have combined for a 43-52-19 record — .460 points percentage, basically the equivalent of playing San Jose every night. Vegas is 14-2 against those teams.

It gets a little dicier against the likely playoff teams, with a 6-4-1 record against the Avalanche, Wild and Blues, which drops to 4-4 when the Blues are excluded. That’s a problem for next week, with three games against the Blues and Avalanche.

The immediate challenge is the Kings, who Vegas will play at 7 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. Sunday. The Golden Knights’ longest winning streak of the season is six games. They can match it with wins in both games, no matter how those wins come.

“I think in some of those games where we’re sticking together as a group, we find positive outcomes,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “That’s the way we like to play.”