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The new season has reached the quarter pole, and the Golden Knights are looking more like what most people thought they’d look like as a first-year team last year. The team has limped out to a 6-14-0 record, good for the worst record in the Western Conference.
“Limped” is an apt word to describe the team’s performance so far - both physically and offensively. The team has struggled with injuries to this point; Kevin Shattenkirk, Jon Marchessault, Jason Dickinson, and AHL call-up Tyler Bertuzzi have all been bitten by the injury bug - with Dickinson looking at another 5 weeks on the shelf due to elbow problems. The anemic offense has also borne the brunt of the criticism in the early going; the team ranks last in the league with a paltry 1.70 goals per game (for comparison, the next-worst team, the New Jersey Devils, are averaging 2.33 per game). The offensive has been led, predictably, by Ondrej Palat (7-6-13) & Tyler Johnson (6-4-10); Josh Ho-Sang has struggled early on, only putting 2 goals and 2 assists on the scoresheet in his first 20 games on the top line. The defensemen have been surprisingly active, points wise, with Kevin Shattenkirk putting up a 1-8-9 in 17 games, and T.J. Brodie & Julius Honka with matching 1-7-8 lines.
Coach Dan Hampton has expressed frustration with the team defensively, having to shuffle the team’s defensive scheme to a simpler trapping style, eschewing the 1-3-1 forecheck he’s known to favor. He’s also dialed back the offense to a more simple, conservative style meant to minimize the mistakes and turnovers that have been plaguing the team early on this year.
To top it all off, Craig Anderson has many people beginning to question if his age is finally starting to catch up with him. The 37-year-old goalie has gone 3-10-0 in his 13 starts, with a 3.45 GAA and .907 SV%. Malcolm Subban has fared slightly better, going 3-4-0 with a goals-against average of 2.86 and a save percentage of .903. Rumors have it that the team will be seeing more of the younger Subban in goal going forward, barring an extreme turnaround from Anderson.
Around the league, there’s been a flurry of early season moves. Boston & St. Louis made an early “change of scenery” kind of move, flipping Kevan Miller and Carl Gunnarsson. St. Louis immediately turned around and made a much bigger trade, moving Jaden Schwartz & the rights to KHL D Dmitri Sergeyev to Seattle for Viktor Arvidsson & Patrick Eaves. The biggest move, however, was Edmonton moving star LW Rick Nash to Ottawa in exchange for highly-regarded 21 years C Filip Chlapik. Nash had struggled to find a role in Edmonton, despite his 3-12-15 line in 18 games, and immediately looks to slot into the top line in Ottawa.
There are some early surprises around the leaderboard - 21 year old LW Jakub Stukel of the Canucks is leading the lead with 13 goals early on, while Filip Forsberg rode an 8 game helper streak to lead the league with 21 assists and 32 points. Devin Dubnyk, Mikko Koskinen, and Marek Mazanec all are tied for the league lead with 13 wins, and Cam Ward has seemingly found the fountain of youth to leave the league with a 1.70 GAA.
The 2018 season has shown a bunch of surprises already, not the least of which has been the struggles of the Golden Knights. We’ll take a deep dive in the state of the NHL at the midway point, so check back then!
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