{"id":452718,"date":"2026-02-09T23:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452718\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T23:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T23:59:12","slug":"golden-knights-week-ahead-schedule-storylines-olympic-break-edition-the-hockey-writers-vegas-golden-knights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452718\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Knights Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines \u2013 Olympic Break Edition – The Hockey Writers – Vegas Golden Knights"},"content":{"rendered":"

The key storyline for the Vegas Golden Knights this week is the Olympic Break, with no NHL games until Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

The focus shifts entirely to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, where a significant portion of the Golden Knights\u2019 roster (and coaching staff) has departed to represent their respective nations.<\/p>\n

The Olympic Exodus<\/p>\n

The NHL season has officially paused. The Golden Knights have sent eight players and head coach Bruce Cassidy (assistant coach for Team Canada) to Italy. This is a massive representation<\/a>, meaning the \u201cVegas style\u201d of play will be heavily featured in the tournament.<\/p>\n

The headline story is Jack Eichel (USA) vs. Mark Stone (CAN). The two captains of the Golden Knights are on opposite sides of the biggest rivalry in hockey.<\/p>\n

VGK vs. VGK: The preliminary round features direct clashes between teammates, most notably Canada (Stone, Shea Theodore, Mitch Marner) facing Czechia (Tomas Hertl) on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBattered Roster\u201d & Healing Time<\/p>\n

For the players not going to Italy, this break is a medical necessity. Vegas entered the break limping<\/a>, having lost five of their last six games before a rebound win against the Vancouver Canucks.<\/p>\n

William Karlsson remains out with a lower-body injury (expected back in March).<\/p>\n

Brandon Saad and Colton Sissons are sidelined until after the Olympic break.<\/p>\n

The break provides a critical two-week window for these depth pieces to heal without missing game action.<\/p>\n

Golden Knights Olympic Players<\/p>\n

PlayerPositionCountryMark StoneForwardCanadaMitch MarnerForwardCanadaShea TheodoreDefenseCanadaJack EichelCenterUSANoah HanifinDefenseUSATomas HertlCenterCzechiaRasmus AnderssonDefenseSwedenAkira SchmidGoalieSwitzerland<\/p>\n

Golden Knights Olympic Schedule This Week<\/p>\n

DateTime (ET)MatchupVGK Players InvolvedWed, Feb 113:10 PMSweden vs. ItalyRasmus Andersson (SWE)Thu, Feb 126:10 AMSwitzerland vs. FranceAkira Schmid (SUI)10:40 AMCzechia vs. CanadaTomas Hertl (CZE) vs. Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Shea Theodore (CAN)3:10 PMLatvia vs. USAJack Eichel, Noah Hanifin (USA)Fri, Feb 136:10 AMFinland vs. SwedenRasmus Andersson (SWE)3:10 PMCanada vs. SwitzerlandStone, Marner, Theodore (CAN) vs. Akira Schmid (SUI)Sat, Feb 143:10 PMUSA vs. DenmarkJack Eichel, Noah Hanifin (USA)Sun, Feb 156:10 AMSwitzerland vs. CzechiaAkira Schmid (SUI) vs. Tomas Hertl (CZE)10:40 AMCanada vs. FranceStone, Marner, Theodore (CAN)3:10 PMUSA vs. GermanyJack Eichel, Noah Hanifin (USA)<\/p>\n

AI tools were used to support the creation or distribution of this content, however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of The Hockey Writers editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The key storyline for the Vegas Golden Knights this week is the Olympic Break, with no NHL games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[3189,149,5317,5,1041,1040,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-452718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-golden-knights","10":"tag-goldenknights","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jack-eichel","13":"tag-mark-stone","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-vegas","16":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","17":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116043393985852264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}