Road trips don’t often happen this way.
The Golden Knights stumbled out of the gates to start their season-long five-game swing, losing 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 20.
The Knights didn’t take care of business against a depleted Toronto team. They played again less than 24 hours later with no practice or morning skate in between. The Knights, behind a 38-save effort from goaltender Ilya Samsonov, beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2.
The team then took the train from Ottawa to Montreal for their third game in four nights. Again, no practice, no chance to fix little details. They dominated thanks to a five-goal second period and beat the Canadiens 6-2 on Saturday.
The Knights will have to continue to adjust on the fly for the foreseeable future. They won’t be practicing any time soon given their schedule.
“Team was great,” right wing Cal Burke said Saturday. “This is a tough building to play in. I thought we came out well and we were strong all the way through. Feels great to walk out of here with a win.”
The Knights (13-6-2) are now 2-1 to start their five-game road trip. They return to the U.S. next for a meeting with the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Monday. They’ll fly to Colorado afterwards to play the Avalanche on Wednesday, before returning home for Thanksgiving.
The Knights then have a back-to-back at T-Mobile Arena. They’ll play the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets on Friday and the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday.
That schedule means the Knights may not practice until Dec. 2. They’ll have to figure things out in-game as they try to maintain their lead in the Pacific Division.
One challenge for coach Bruce Cassidy in this stretch has been attempting to find the right forward combinations without additional time on the ice with his team.
Captain Mark Stone remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury, which has led to line shuffling. Burke, 27, was called up from the Silver Knights on Nov. 20 and has made a positive impression so far. The undrafted forward out of Notre Dame scored his first NHL goal Saturday and was moved up to the top line with center Jack Eichel and left wing Ivan Barbashev in the second period.
Cassidy elevated Burke in place of right wing wing Alexander Holtz, who has struggled to find a home in the lineup. Burke’s play on the walls was a factor in the decision.
“Teams know (Eichel and Barbashev are) going well, so they’re going to work above. You’ll have to create (offense) on the forecheck,” Cassidy said. “(Burke) can disrupt and he has decent hockey IQ. We need to balance our lines, (we) moved Burke up and it worked out well.”
Cassidy still wasn’t pleased with how the Knights finished the game. He felt his team didn’t handle Montreal’s third-period push — the Canadiens scored two goals in the frame — well.
“We were not good enough,” Cassidy said. “We weren’t strong on pucks.”
The Knights won’t have time to work on those issues before their next game. Or even in the next week.
Instead, they’re on to face the Flyers (9-10-2), who have been led by exciting 19-year-old right wing Matvei Michkov this season. The seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft leads all rookies in scoring with 16 points in 19 games.
Philadelphia is 8-5-1 since losing six of its first seven games. That means the Knights should be ready to play a worthy opponent Monday.
They’ll just have to do that preparation off the ice. It’s at least something the team is getting used to.
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
