Vegas Golden Knights: Kane suspended, less fireworks?

Make it advantage Vegas Golden Knights heading into the 2019-20 season opener after San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane was slapped with a suspension earlier today.

The gritty forward will miss the first three games of the regular season, including two against the Vegas Golden Knights, after getting ejected in the preseason finale between these two teams on Sunday for “abuse of the officials.”

There is word doing the rounds that the Sharks are planning to appeal the suspension but, for now at least, the Golden Knights can continue their preparations for opening night at T-Mobile Arena knowing that their bitter rivals will be without one of their more significant offensive weapons.

It was quite some meltdown by Kane during Sunday’s game, getting into it with Vegas veteran Deryk Engelland before slashing an official with his stick, which was meant for Engelland, and then being hauled to the ice by the linesman.

It was a bizarre turn of events and summed up a contest that can only be described as explosive, despite it being just a preseason game. Both the Sharks and the Knights combined for 50 hits and a staggering 114 total penalty minutes, building on the bad blood that has rapidly developed between these two franchises over the last two years.

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This rivally, which is intense to say the least, reached boiling point during last year’s postseason when Cody Eakin was controversially assessed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round matchup.

That of course led to the Sharks wiping out the Golden Knights’ 3-0 lead on the night thanks to four goals in as many frantic power play minutes, before going on to seal Vegas’ fate in Overtime. As a result, that one game has ensured that this already fierce rivalry has skyrocketed to a whole new level, and that was certainly displayed in full force on Sunday.

But, the question now of course is will the 2019-20 regular season opener between the Vegas Golden Knights and the San Jose Sharks be any less spicy now Evander Kane is going to absent?

Probably not. Although, you can kiss goodbye to betting the over on Ryan Reaves and Kane dropping the gloves and trying to lay a beating on each other on at least two occasions during the two games these teams will slug it out in the first week of the new season.

No, you can be sure that there will still be plenty of snarl, nastiness and grit thrown out on the ice tomorrow because, after all, there is plenty of bad blood swirling about between these two teams that goes beyond Kane.

There seems to be a genuine dislike there and, with two points on the line and the fact that the Golden Knights will be desperate to get the new season off to a winning start in-front of what is going to be a packed out T-Mobile Arena, there will be a plethora of hits, a flurry of heated exchanges and probably a large portion of dropped gloves.

Although it is only two years old, this is without doubt already one of the most fascinating, volatile and impassioned rivalries in the NHL, and it will start to write a new chapter on Wednesday and then again on Friday.

So, although San Jose Sharks forward Kane won’t be on the ice for the Vegas Golden Knights’ opening two games of the new 2019-20 NHL season, expect both matchups to still be absolute bloodbaths and for there to be a bucketload of fireworks between these two franchises as they attempt to draw first blood this year.

Oh, and don’t be surprised if Ryan Reaves finds himself another sparring partner to keep himself entertained and pass the time until Kane completes his suspension.