After a short weekend away, the Vegas Golden Knights are back home with the hopes of regaining their confidence in their own barn.
On Tuesday, the Golden Knights hope to emerge victorious at T-Mobile Arena when they take on the New York Rangers.
Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Paradise, NV
Date: Tuesday, November 18
How To Watch:Â ESPN+, SCRIPPS, FDSNMW
Radio: 1340 AM, 101 ESPN (101.1 FM)
The Golden Knights are coming off of an overall successful road trip, notching three of four points against the St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild. They hope that this newfound momentum converts over to T-Mobile Arena, where they have a shocking four-game losing streak.
In order to break the skid, the Golden Knights have their work cut out for them.
While much has been made about the Rangers’ struggles at Madison Square Garden, they have more than made up for it by being arguably the best road team in the NHL.
Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Rangers are tied for the league lead with nine road wins and second with 19 points banked away from the Big Apple. They are riding a six-game road winning streak, buoyed by a defense only giving up 1.91 goals per game in such situations. Needless to say, the Golden Knights have their work cut out for them if they hope to get their home crowd leaving happy.
Arguably the most promising sign for the Golden Knights over the weekend was that the power play finally appears to be back online after a cold spell.
The addition of forward Braeden Bowman to the top power play unit appears to be working, as the Golden Knights came away with three power play goals. Bowman, Pavel Dorofeyev and Reilly Smith got Vegas on the board with the man advantage, while Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner looked more comfortable making plays. Facing another strong five-on-five team in the Rangers, taking advantage of mistakes will be imperative for the Golden Knights once again.
With the end of the first quarter of the season on the horizon, no team has gone through the Jekyll and Hyde phase like the Golden Knights.
They have more losses than wins largely due to their 1-6 record past regulation, but they are still comfortably projected to be a playoff team. The statistics and analytics all tell conflicting stories, leaving the Golden Knights with little definitive answers on what they need to fix. The good news is that there is still plenty of time to get everything sorted out, but the faster the team finds what they need to be successful, the better off they will be.