Think of how this season has gone for the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
The first thought wouldn\u2019t be that this is a first-place team, nor a top-five team in the NHL.<\/p>\n
But the Knights can enjoy the mandatory Christmas break exactly given that\u2019s exactly where they\u2019re at \u2014 first place in the Pacific Division and a top-five hold, via points percentage, in the league\u2019s standings.<\/p>\n
Given how things have gone through 35 games, the Knights have overachieved.<\/p>\n
It starts with a league-leading 10 losses in overtime or a shootout.<\/p>\n
Injuries in key areas, like losing their captain for a month. Even with Mark Stone back, the Knights are still without center William Karlsson and No. 1 goaltender Adin Hill.<\/p>\n
Now they\u2019re down top defenseman Shea Theodore for the immediate future.<\/p>\n
Yet, the Knights are 17-8-10 while playing a league-low 35 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like our commitment to playing the right way,\u201d coach Bruce Cassidy said. \u201cI think we\u2019re getting closer to (playing a full) 60 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knights injury updates<\/p>\n
Cassidy said he thinks the three players \u2014 all deemed week to week \u2014 will be back before the NHL breaks for the Winter Olympics in Milan in February.<\/p>\n
The chances of Hill making Team Canada are slim given he\u2019s been out since Oct. 20 with a lower-body injury. Hill was the backup to Jordan Binnington for Canada during the 4 Nations Face-Off.<\/p>\n
Karlsson is a more intriguing case for Sweden. A refreshed, healthy Karlsson with his two-way ability would be a boost for a team that has plenty of shutdown players.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old hasn\u2019t played since Nov. 8.<\/p>\n
Theodore is the latest add to the injury report with an upper-body ailment that will also sideline him week to week.<\/p>\n
Theodore, who suffered a wrist injury after playing one period in the 4 Nations for Canada, has put himself in the conversation for Canada. He had 15 points in 17 games before getting hurt.<\/p>\n
Cassidy doesn\u2019t think Theodore will miss enough time to keep him from playing in Italy.<\/p>\n
The same goes for top center Jack Eichel, who is day to day with a lower-body injury. Eichel was one of the first six named for Team USA. There\u2019s no fear he\u2019ll miss extended time.<\/p>\n
Rough stretch coming up<\/p>\n
The Knights are locked in a three-way tie for first place in the Pacific Division, but they have two games in hand on the Anaheim Ducks and three on the Edmonton Oilers.<\/p>\n
The team is sitting 13th in the league at 3.11 goals per game while being a top-10 scoring defense at 2.86 goals against.<\/p>\n
The Knights\u2019 resiliency has been tested. They\u2019re 2-7-7 when trailing after two periods. When tied after 40 minutes, they\u2019re 5-1-3.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019ll be tested coming out of the break with games against the Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators to end the homestand before the calendar year turns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our guys don\u2019t like to lose,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cFor a coach, and for them, I\u2019d hope at some point they\u2019d extend the lead. Some of it is self-inflicted, some is the other team plays better than us. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to correct so we can play with a little lead more often, but that\u2019s kind of the way it\u2019s been working so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier in the year, we were scoring more. Less now so the games are tighter. Hopefully we get a little more scoring so we can breathe a little.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @DannyWebster21<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n Up next<\/p>\n Who: Avalanche at Golden Knights<\/p>\n When: 7 p.m. Saturday<\/p>\n Where: T-Mobile Arena<\/p>\n TV: KMCC-34<\/p>\n Radio: KFLG-FM (94.7), KKGK-AM (1340)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Think of how this season has gone for the Golden Knights. The first thought wouldn\u2019t be that this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-372355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}