Golden Knights Back To Work After Stanley Cup Win And Short Offseason

LAS VEGAS — From elevating the Stanley Cup to a victory parade on the Strip to a summer of celebration, the Vegas Golden Knights are now back to the business of playing hockey.

A brief offseason is a desirable yet problematic issue.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon said This is part of why some teams may have difficulty winning consecutive championships as the team opened training camp on Thursday. “An abundance of vigor and enthusiasm currently surrounds our team. I’ve always believed that if you play until the end and win, you don’t mind that short summer. The summer will feel brief if you play until the end and lose in the championship game.

The Knights, who won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Florida Panthers in five games, aim to become the most recent team to repeat as champions. Only two teams in the salary-cap era have accomplished this feat: the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2015 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017.

Vegas opened training camp with an almost identical roster to the one that claimed the championship less than three months prior. Reilly Smith, who was traded to the Penguins to create cap space, is the only player from the championship game who is no longer with the organization.

The Knights, who typically make a statement in free agency, added players on September 12, when they acquired forward Max Comtois. But Comtois, who has played for the Anaheim Ducks in parts of the past five seasons, was signed for training camp without a roster place being guaranteed.

The Knights focused most of their offseason efforts on re-signing goaltender Adin Hill and forward Ivan Barbashev.

The result was a locker room filled with familiar faces.

The Knights’ status as underdogs is nothing new.

“You already know what to expect,” said center Chandler Stephenson. “You know how everyone operates and performs, as well as the systems and other pertinent information. It is somewhat fluid. You can continue roughly where you left off.”

Coach Bruce Cassidy set the tone early by making a repeat a priority, leading the chanting “back to back!” at the victory parade. It didn’t reach the level of Pat Riley’s promise at the Lakers’ parade in 1987 — Los Angeles did indeed repeat — but it was still a fairly bold statement less than a week after winning the championship.

“We feel like we’re returning a lot of players to give us that opportunity,” Cassidy said. “We are currently of an age where it wouldn’t be just this year, either. All of these are positive developments for us. I said it in jest at the time, but you’re asking me about it now. We have an equal opportunity as anyone else. I feel that way about where each athlete is in their career and where our team is, but until you get out there, everything is up in the air.”

The odds do not favor back-to-back performances. FanDuel Sportsbook lists Vegas as the sixth-most probable team to win the Stanley Cup, tied with the Dallas Stars at 13-1 odds. The Colorado Avalanche, who won the Stanley Cup two seasons ago, are 8 1/2-1 favorites.

The Knights’ status as underdogs is nothing new. Teams such as the Boston Bruins and Edmonton Oilers received more attention heading into the postseason during the previous season.

After opening the playoffs with a 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, however, the Knights went 16-5 for the remainder of the postseason.

The Knights’ status as underdogs is nothing new.

Now they are back at work, hopeful that this season will end similarly to the previous one.

“We felt we had something to prove to ourselves and the rest of the league after missing the playoffs the previous year,” said center Jack Eichel. It’s an Equis theme.

IN ENEMY PROPERTY
When Eichel had his day with the Cup, he brought it to Chelmsford, Massachusetts, where he is from. That region had anticipated the Bruins would be the ones celebrating after they put together a record-setting regular season only to be eliminated by the Panthers in the first round.

“After they were eliminated, many (Boston) fans said they were rooting for me,” Eichel said. “Whether it was true or false, everyone was respectful.”

LEHNER IS YET ABSENT
Goal-scored Robin Lehner continues to be placed on long-term injured reserve. Six weeks before the start of training camp, he had hip surgery, which caused him to miss the entirety of the previous season. Being on LTIR allows the Knights to exceed the salary cap by Lehner’s $5 million salary.

SOURCE – (AP)