As weekends go the Vegas Golden Knights had themselves one to remember after sweeping both games of a back-to-back.
Coming off the bye week with more questions than answers following what was a bitterly disappointing first-half of the 2019-20 regular season, the pressure was firmly on the Vegas Golden Knights.
What made matters worse was the fact that, after deciding to can popular Head Coach Gerard Gallant and replace him with Peter DeBoer, the franchise had placed the spotlight on themselves further.
And, mired in an ultra competitive Pacific Division, the Knights found themselves with plenty of work to do after the All-Star Break.
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So, all in all, there was little room for error in the wake of the bye week especially considering that Vegas will have to navigate the ninth toughest remaining schedule in the NHL.
But, and while all ills aren’t cured overnight, the Golden Knights certainly began to heal some wounds after carving out an impressive and hugely significant weekend.
Starting by overcoming adversity in a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in their first game back after the bye, Vegas followed that up by shutting out the Nashville Predators in dominant fashion on Saturday.
Both wins were huge, both were glimpses of the new Vegas Golden Knights under DeBoer and both were tone-setters for what will hopefully be to come.
Because, in both Carolina and in Nashville, we saw flashes of the powerhouse we all thought the Golden Knights were back in the off-season.
The little tweaks that DeBoer and his coaching staff, including new assistant coach Steve Spott, have implemented seem to be working a treat.
Chief among them is the transition game which has been below average all year, but in the last two games it has been crisp, attractive on the eye and extremely productive.
Then there was the penalty kill which had slumped badly to start the new Decade, going from elite to just god damn awful in a matter of days.
However, DeBoer is somewhat of an expert when it comes to defensive hockey and the PK has morphed into an elite unit over the last few games, including going a perfect 5-for-5 against the Predators on Saturday.
As we’ve stated many times before, you live and die by your special teams in the NHL and if Vegas can become dominant on both the power play and the penalty kill again, then they will be hard to stop down the stretch.
And there were plenty of other positives to take from the back-to-back over the weekend, including the character to respond to allowing two unanswered goals against the Hurricanes to winning the game with minutes remaining, to completely dominating the Nashville Predators in all areas of the ice.
It was just what the doctor ordered for the Vegas Golden Knights who refused to crumble under the sheer pressure building up around them.
While Rome wasn’t built in a day and there is still of a hell of a lot of work to be done, the Golden Knights answered the bell in the best way possible and laid the foundations for what will hopefully be a strong push down the stretch.