Ken Boehlke

Tonight will be Vegas’ 6th trip to the NHL’s now 2nd newest franchise’s home arena and the Golden Knights will look to keep their immaculate record. In the first five games between the Golden Knights and Kraken, Vegas has a perfect 5-0-0, they’ve outscored the Kraken 21-9, and have scored at least three goals in every single matchup.

As the games are played and the goals are scored, opinions on players are constantly shifting. Let’s play a game of stock up/stock down on each Golden Knight compared to where we had them on Opening Night.

Since the 2021-22 season, Stone has participated in 149 of the Golden Knights’ 261 regular games, a little more than 57%. VGK’s record with Stone in the lineup is a sterling 88-46-15, that’s a points percentage of .641, or an 82-game pace of 105 points. Without him, they are 60-40-12, .589 points percentage, or 97 points over 82 games.

It has been 985 days since the Golden Knights won a game against the Ducks at the Honda Center.

Four of his five goals have come when VGK have the man advantage. Also, three of his eight assists, which means seven of his 13 points, or more than half, have come in 51 minutes on the power play. Thus, he’s tallied just six even-strength points in 218 minutes over 16 games. And, four of the six even strength points came in two games at home against San Jose and Los Angeles.

The Golden Knights roster has been active the last few days as they prepare for the season's longest road trip. Here’s why VGK have recalled Cal Burke, Mason Morelli, and Jonas Rondbjerg, placed Mark Stone on IR, Ben Hutton on LTIR, and assigned Victor Olofsson to Henderson for a conditioning stint.

It’s been a solid start. But, when you break it down from the first 10 games to the next 10, it’s pretty clear the Golden Knights will have to pick it up to keep things headed in the right direction.

In Vegas, that’s never been in question. From the moment the team was announced to the day they lifted the Stanley Cup at T-Mobile Arena, it’s been abundantly clear that the most important aspect of owning the team has been to give them a chance to win.

The win is VGK’s 14th of the season in 22 games. Amazingly, the Golden Knights have been behind at some point in more than half of their wins. They’ve trailed by at least one goal and won eight times, and erased multi-goal deficits to win on four separate occasions, including last night.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a 14-6-3 record to start a season and there’s certainly no one in Golden Knights land complaining about it. However, the record is not exactly indicative of how strong Vegas is against the rest of the best teams in the NHL.