The Vegas Golden Knights enter the new year leading the Pacific Division with 53 points and an NHL-best .716 point percentage following an impressive 10-2-0 run in December.
They also enter their Thursday game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Las Vegas with a bad taste in their mouths.
That’s because 2024 ended with a 3-2 loss to the visiting Montreal Canadiens on New Year’s Eve, a game in which the Golden Knights uncharacteristically blew a 2-0 lead over the final 23 minutes.
The result snapped Vegas’ six-game winning streak, the club’s longest since a seven-gamer to open the 2023-24 season.
“I know when I watch (the video), I’m going to be (ticked) because those are points we should have had,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’re a better team than that, but they’re gone.”
Cassidy said his team lacked some intensity after building the early lead.
“Kind of self-inflicted plays,” Cassidy said. “We probably stopped playing halfway through the second period the way we needed to keep pushing, and it caught up to us.”
“I think we just have got to stick with our game plan,” said Vegas defenseman Noah Hanifin, who scored the goal to give the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead. “I think in the third period we sat back a little too much. No matter what the score is, you’ve got to stay on your toes and attack. I thought in the third we got away from that, which is not normal for us.”
The Golden Knights took just their fourth home loss in 19 games (15-4-0), and they will play five of their next six games at T-Mobile Arena.
The Flyers, who are 2-2-0 on their six-game road trip, are coming off a 4-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.
It was the second win in four nights on Philadelphia’s three-game swing through California, which included a 3-1 victory at Anaheim on Saturday and then a 5-4 defeat at Los Angeles on Sunday.
After the Thursday game in Las Vegas, the Flyers finish up their trip at Toronto on Sunday.
“We’ve got a long trip here,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said after the win over the Sharks. “We’ve got teams coming up here that are very good hockey teams. Hopefully we get some confidence from a couple of wins and bring it to them.”
A big question for the Flyers: Will they have No. 1 goalie Samuel Ersson for the two games?
Ersson made 15 saves against the Sharks before leaving with a lower-body injury after the second period. Aleksei Kolosov finished up with seven saves in the combined shutout.
Ersson (9-6-2, 3.02 goals-against average) has been sidelined twice during the season while battling a groin injury. San Jose’s Luke Kunin slid into him in front of the net during the second period on Tuesday, but Ersson remained in the game until the end of the period.
“I think it happened in the collision. … The way it’s gone for Sam, it’s a concern,” Tortorella said.
This will be the second of the two meetings between the teams during the regular season. Vegas won the first meeting 5-4 in a shootout on Nov. 25 in Philadelphia, with Jack Eichel scoring the shootout winner to go along with a goal and an assist.
–Field Level Media
