LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mark Stone was coming back from a lacerated spleen, Tomas Hertl was still trying to find his form after knee surgery and Alex Pietrangelo underwent an appendectomy as the playoffs neared.
The Golden Knights, according to NHL Injury Viz, led the league in man games lost to injury with 476. Last year, their season ended in a seven-game, first-round loss to Dallas.
The situation is considerably different this year as the Golden Knights prepare to open their first round series Sunday night against Minnesota. Vegas had 210 man games lost this season.
“Not only are we healthier, I think we're more just dialed in,” Stone said. “A few guys entered the lineup in the playoffs who hadn't played for a month or two months. We were trying to find chemistry. This year, I don't think we're really trying to find chemistry.”
The Golden Knights won their fourth Pacific Division title in eight years and captured the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. That set up Vegas against the Wild, who won the top wild card after going through their share of injuries this season.
Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin each missed more than 30 games, but the Wild have become healthy at the right time. They had their entire roster available for the final regular-season game on Tuesday for the first time since Nov. 10.
“When you look around the room and you’re missing pieces, it wears on you,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno said. "It’s noticeable. Everyone’s going to say keep moving forward, next man up, but you take away (Connor) McDavid and (Leon) Draisaitl from Edmonton, it’s a different-looking team. So we get them back now, and I think it’s something maybe we can use to our advantage that Vegas hasn’t seen before.”
Scoring in bunches
There was a lot of external talk on where the Golden Knights would get their scoring given they lost players, such as Jonathan Marchessault, who led the club with 42 goals and 69 points.
The Golden Knights not only adequately replaced such players, they set franchise records with 274 goals and a plus-60 goal differential.
“It's not just about one line,” said Hertl, whose 32 goals were just three off his career high set six years ago with San Jose. “It's about the four lines. We played all season like that. Six players play 20 to 23 minutes every night. We have everybody spreading the time. Everybody has a piece in it, and I think that's why it's such a good hockey team.”
Blue line bump from Buium?
The Wild signed their 2024 first-round draft pick, defenseman Zeev Buium, less than a week ago after his college career with Denver ended in the NCAA Frozen Four. Buium didn’t suit up for the final regular-season game, but in practice on Thursday he skated on the third blue-line pair with Zach Bogosian and on the first power-play unit.
“It was a good day for Zeev to put him in some situations that we think he can help us in and just continue to try to make him feel comfortable and understand what’s going on,” coach John Hynes said.
The 19-year-old Buium has, by all accounts, been a quick study.
“I’m just excited," he said. "Every day coming to the rink, it’s fun to be here. This is the highest level. This is where you want to be. If my name gets called upon, I’ll be ready”
Swallowing the whistle
The Golden Knights showed their discipline by taking 197 penalties, the only NHL team to ever finish with fewer than 200 in an 82-game season.
But they also set the league record by going on just 187 power plays, though the Golden Knights converted a team-record 28.3%, second in the league to Winnipeg's 28.9%
“I don't know why we can't draw more penalties,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I feel like every game those 60-40, 70-30 ones never seem to go our way. I can't control that. I try to stay off the refs. I do think we are a big, strong team. We don't go down easy. At least since I've been here, I don't know if anybody's gotten a letter or fine for diving or anything like that.”
Fleury on other side in 2021
When the Wild lost in seven games to the Golden Knights in the first round in 2021, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was on the opposite side. He gave up only 13 goals, including a shutout in Game 4.
There was previously a picture of Eriksson Ek scoring the overtime winner on Fleury in Game 1 of that series hanging in the Wild locker room that Fleury, a noted prankster who joined the Wild in a trade less than a year later, mischievously altered by putting some tape on top of the puck so it wouldn’t look like a goal.
Fleury is the emergency backup now, supporting Filip Gustavsson in his farewell season. He knows first-hand how loud T-Mobile Arena can get and will surely be when the Wild take the ice for Game 1.
“Music’s loud, building’s loud. It’s got some energy in it. Sometimes you’ve got to just be able to relax a little bit, just breathe, instead of going 100 miles an hour,” Fleury said. “Be smart with your energy and go at the right time and stay calm and try to play your game.”
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AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Mark Anderson, The Associated Press
