[dannibalcorpse]

Camp is over, the preseason schedule is done, and the Vegas Golden Knights are getting geared up to start their 3rd season of professional hockey in Sin City. The team struggled at times in the preseason, putting up a dismal 0-6-1 record. “I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I’m not going to lose sleep over preseason games,” GM/Coach Dan Hampton said in his weekly spot on KRST this morning. “The important thing to me is getting guys used to playing in the system, and getting everyone to the first game without any injuries. And I think we did a good job with that.”

Some other players around the league aren’t so lucky - Chicago’s Scott Darling, the Flyers’ Travis Konecny, and Florida’s Mike Matheson all suffered injuries that may have ended their season prematurely. The Stars made a surprising move on the eve of the preseason and signed goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to a 2 year, $13.4M deal, thus ending Goalie Bob’s strange summer. Semyon Varlamov also returned to the team he started his career with, signing a 2 year, $9.9M deal to serve as insurance to Braden Holtby.

The dollars paid out to Varlamov show that Washington is intent on making noise in the playoffs again this year - in fact, they are one of the early favorites to win the Cup coming out of the East. Montreal has definitely made some strides with its offseason moves, and it still has Carey Price in goal, so they are definitely a team to watch. Pittsburgh could make some noise, but the depth on their blue line is a concern - especially with the injury prone Kris Letang leading that group of players. Tampa, of course, is the reigning Stanley Cup champion, but not many people are talking about them - just the way it was last year, and just the way coach Jon Cooper likes it. Out of the West, Nashville has to be considered a contender after making it to the Cup final last year; the always dangerous Blackhawks stand in their way, as do division rivals Dallas. Arizona made a surprise run in the playoffs last year with a young roster; they’ve added Tyson Barrie to their young core and look to make it even further this year.

Turning our eyes back to Vegas, the Golden Knights have seemingly set their lineup and it looks like they’ll be rolling these lines out on opening night:

LEFT WING
1 - Ondrej Palat (LY: 82 GP, 24-27-51)
2 - Jordan Greenway (LY: 65 GP, 19-17-36)
3 - Frank Vatrano (LY: 45 GP, 4-8-12)
4 - Igor Barbashev (LY: 78 GP, 6-14-20)
5 - Jason Dickinson (LY: 24 GP, 4-3-7)

CENTER
1 - Tyler Johnson (C) (LY: 82 GP, 16-32-48)
2 - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (LY: 28 GP, 4-11-15[EDM])
3 - Marcus Kruger (LY: 82 GP, 6-22-28[CHI])
4 - Alan Quine (LY: 82 GP, 10-11-21)

RIGHT WING
1 - Wayne Simmonds (LY: 58 GP, 16-9-25[PHI])
2 - Jakob Silfverberg (A) (LY: 82 GP, 15-26-41)
3 - Jon Marchessault (LY: 75 GP, 13-8-21)
4 - Josh Ho-Sang (LY: 82 GP, 6-18-24)
5 - JJ Piccinich (LY: 58 GP, 21-24-45*)

LEFT DEFENSE
1 - TJ Brodie (A) (LY: 82 GP, 7-26-33)
2 - Nikita Zadorov (LY: 82 GP, 2-21-23)
3 - Mikhail Sergachev (LY: 80 GP, 7-23-30 [MTL/VGK])

RIGHT DEFENSE
1 - P.K. Subban (LY: 82 GP, 15-43-58 [NSH])
2 - Darnell Nurse (LY: 83 GP, 8-18-26 [EDM/VGK])
3 - Julius Honka (LY: 82 GP, 9-21-30)
4 - Jordan Subban (LY: 64 GP, 2-6-8)

GOALIE
1st String: Robin Lehner (LY: 36-21-6, 2.31, .926[BUF])

2nd String: Malcolm Subban (LY: 7-11-3, 3.09, .909)

(* - AHL Stats)

Their offseason acquisitions look to play important parts in the new season - their starting goalie, first-line RW, 2nd & 3rd-line Centers, and top line RD are all new to the team this year. There are some surprises on the lineup, especially the demotion of Josh Ho-Sang to the 4th line. “We want to use that line as our ‘energy’ line this year,” Hampton was quoted as saying. “They’re all guys with good scoring pedigrees who might not have a full game to play on one of the top lines yet; by limiting their minutes and exposure we think we’ll be able to get the best out of them.” Another big surprise is Frank Vatrano going out on the checking line with Kruger and Marchessault. “Frankie stepped up when guys got hurt last year, and we feel like he needed a spot. We think he’s improved his defensive game a lot since he came up, and it can’t help to have a guy who’s a scoring threat on your main defensive line too,” the coach said when asked about that assignment.

The team will be dialing it back in terms of offensive complexity this year - Hampton told reporters he was looking for his players to control the puck. “We’ve got a lot of big bodies that can shake off defenders coming into the offensive zone, so instead of having to look for that home-run pass all the time, I’m happy being a little more conservative and waiting for good chances to develop with the guys we have.” The 1-3-1 forecheck returns from last year’s defensive scheme, and the hope is that the new players on the team will be a better fit for it. “Defensively, we want to be able to clog up the middle of the ice and generate a lot of turnovers - with the speed we have on this team, I feel like getting the puck around center ice could lead to a lot of odd-man rushes. Even though we’re going to be more conservative with the puck, don’t think we’re going to be keeping our foot off the gas pedal - we’ve got a lot of guys here who can rush up and down the ice all day, and I want to use that to wear teams down.”

With only a couple days left before the regular season starts, we’ll see how the coach’s words hold up. It’s the best time of the year - hockey’s right around the corner!