Regular season starts on Oct. 12 against the Seattle Kraken
The Vegas Golden Knights wrapped up their home preseason schedule with a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night.
While the T-Mobile Arena crowd of 16,883 brought a lot of energy, Vegas sleepwalked through most of the game. It was a disappointing outing for the team, seeing as they had several regulars in the lineup.
“Tonight, that was a preseason game – good, bad, ugly. A little bit of everything. It’s obviously not where we want it to be.” said head coach Peter DeBoer following the contest.
“I’m confident we’ll get there.”
William Karlsson – the Knights’ lone goal scorer in the game – reiterated a similar sentiment.
“Could have been better today. I think they outworked us. I think we had some problems breaking out. So, a little bit to work on.”
Thankfully, that is the beauty of preseason. It is all about the collective work in progress. Every team wants to iron out the wrinkles in their games, but a few rusty outings are to be expected.
Center Chandler Stephenson also made note that the forwards are learning a new forechecking system, which played a part in their sluggish performance.
The most positive takeaway was the continued success of the power play – which scored a goal and put up six shots on another opportunity. Their struggles with the extra man were well-documented last season, specifically in the playoffs where they converted just 9.3 percent of their chances.
Alas, the units have been hot throughout preseason, as the Golden Knights have a power-play goal in five of their six matches.
Vegas will wrap up their exhibition schedule versus San Jose on Saturday on prior to Oct. 12’s season opener against the Seattle Kraken.
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