The Vegas Golden Knights are looking for just their second road win this season when they open a two-game trip Wednesday in Anaheim.
The early road futility is tied with Nashville and Columbus for fewest in the NHL. But if history is any indication, Vegas’ fortunes could change significantly this week.
That’s because the road trip, which concludes Friday night in Salt Lake City against the Utah Hockey Club, has been designated as this year’s “Dad’s Trip” for the Golden Knights.
Vegas is 9-0-1 all-time in games played on these trips.
“The simplest answer to me is that everyone wants to make their parents proud,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I think our guys want to win for their dads. I think it is as simple as that.”
The player’s fathers will sit together wearing their son’s jerseys. They also get to sit in on meetings, attend practices and have team meals together.
“It’s very exciting,” forward Brett Howden said. “It’s fun for all the dads to be around and obviously have a little buzz going with all the excitement. It’s just fun to see all the dads.”
The Golden Knights, who are one point behind the first-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division, can definitely use a little pick-me-up. Their eight-game home winning streak, which matched a franchise record, ended Monday with a 5-2 loss to Carolina.
Vegas, which was outshot 16-4 in the opening period, fell behind 4-0 in the first 26:13 and didn’t score until the 6:11 mark of the third period on a goal by Jack Eichel goal. Starting goaltender Adin Hill became the first Golden Knights goalie to be pulled from a game this season after yielding four goals on 21 shots.
“When it’s 4-0, it’s tough to come back,” center William Karlsson said. “It always sucks when a goalie has to come out of the nets.”
“I wouldn’t put it on Hilly,” Cassidy said. “I’m not putting any of the game on Hilly. It was just about changing the momentum.”
Anaheim snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over Columbus on Sunday as John Gibson made 38 saves in his season debut.
The 31-year-old Gibson, who picked up his 194th career win, had been sidelined while recovering from emergency appendectomy surgery on Sept. 25.
“I played catch-up a lot (during) training camp and the last few weeks,” Gibson said. “Credit to the guys for coming on early, staying on after, shooting on me and help me get the work to prepare and get back into game speed. … It was a good team effort.”
Ducks coach Greg Cronin got goals from all four of his newly formed lines. Brett Leason and defenseman Jackson LaCombe each scored their first goals of the season, while Leo Carlsson and Isac Lundestrom also found the back of the net. It marked just the second time this season that Anaheim, which has scored an NHL-low 31 goals, scored four goals in a game.
“We’ve been trying to bingo-ball lines together,” Cronin said. “Try and create some identity within the lines, which would obviously strengthen our team identity. We keep putting pucks (on net), and I think that’ll unlock some of this frustration with the scoring.”
