Reflecting on the Vegas Golden Knights Road-trip: The Good and The Bad

The Good

Winning Record While on the Road

Finding the good of the road trip involves having low expectations. But there are some positives. For example, the Vegas Golden Knights have lost almost every star player they had going into this season, and yet somehow they are staying relevant and competing.

I mean going into the road trip the Vegas Golden Knights were 1-4, and now they are 6-6. Which means they actually walked away with more wins than loses. Not only is it impressive going out on the road trip with a record of 5-2, but they did that while going into other team’s houses.

Not to mention that in the final three games against the Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, and Detroit Red Wings, the Vegas Golden Knights were able to put up 12 goals. Now, some will critique the fact that they did have some empty net goals, but regardless, it counts. Then you look at some of the contributors on offense during that stretch, and it makes you even more excited for the Vegas Golden Knights turnaround.

There is life on Offense

So to build off that because I realize I should probably express who I’m referring too, How does the names: Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, and Alex Pietrangelo sound? I’d assume pretty good. We’ll at least on our end it sounds pretty good.

It’s funny seeing the Pietrangelo showing a little bit of spark right after people were dissing his performance so far. Not only did he show up for the Vegas Golden Knights on the defensive side of the puck, well outside of the Detroit Red Wings game. Then you realize that he also showed up and put up some offensive numbers as well, and it makes you have that much more hope for the Knights.

Then, you look at what Jonathan Marchessault was able to do in the final stretch of the road games, and you think he might be a dark horse weapon for the Vegas Golden Knights going forward. After all, he was able to score four goals in three games which was unmatchable by anyone else on the Knights.

Finally, you take a look at Chandler Stephenson. There is not enough good things that can be said about Stephenson. After line-mates, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty went down, the Vegas Golden Knights were about to lack a lot of offense. I mean that line made up just about all of their offense last season. But instead, Chandler Stephenson stepped up.

In those seven games that they played on during their road stretch, Stephenson had three goals, and five points for eight total points. On top of that he also has a +/- of +3. Then defensively he has nine hits, and five blocks.

Robin Lehner

I cannot stress how just how good Robin Lehner has been for the Vegas Golden Knights this season. Lehner has easily been their best player without a question. That is undebatable. He’s been remarkable in every aspect.

Robin Lehner has made five starts for the Vegas Golden Knights during the seven game road-stretch. Here’s where it gets good though. In those five start he’s had to make 27, 38, 33, 39, and 38 saves against the opponents he’s faced. Which, by the way, shouldn’t happen.

Even with the amount of shots he faced during those five games, he’s managed to not just keep the Vegas Golden Knights in the game, but win four of the five. Which some credit has to be given to the offense for being able to score in light of that, but what Lehner has done in net has gone underappreciated thus far into the season.