Adam Bradford
The Golden Knights recorded a sweep of their four-game homestand. Now, they will look to take their momentum with them on the road.
It was indeed home sweep home for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Last week, Vegas returned home following a frustrating road trip in which they dropped all three games, with two of the losses coming by one score. Back at T-Mobile Arena, however, the Golden Knights got back on track with four offensive explosions, propelling them to a sweep of the homestand.
First, it was a 6-1 blowout of the Los Angeles Kings last Tuesday. After a come from behind 6-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday afternoon, the Golden Knights blew out the San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames by scores of 7-3 and 5-0, respectively. Vegas is now 7-0-0 at home this season, having scored five or more goals in five of those seven wins.
The biggest catalyst behind the offensive outburst was captain Mark Stone. During the four-game homestand, he recorded nine points, including three mutli-assist games. For his performance, Stone was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week.
As dominant as Vegas has been at home this season, however, they have looked like a completely different team on the road. Despite averaging 5.57 goals per game at home thus far on the season, they have averaged just 2.67 away from T-Mobile Arena. Hence, the Golden Knights have yet to win a game outside of the Sin City this season.
Tonight, they will look to change that in Los Angeles against a Kings team that enters the contest having won four of its past six games.
Behind Enemy Lines
Los Angeles is led by captain Anze Kopitar, who even at 37 years old remains one of the top centers in the league. Kopitar leads his team with nine points through their first ten games of the season. In addition, second-year winger Alex
Laferriere appears to be finally experiencing his breakout, as leads the Kings with five goals.
In net, Los Angeles will likely turn to veteran Darcy Kuemper. After winning a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022, Kuemper spent the past two seasons in Washington before being traded to the Kings over the summer. In four starts on the season thus far, Kuemper has allowed an average of 3.20 goals per game with a save percentage of .896.
Puck drop between the Golden Knights and Kings will be at 7:00 PM PDT. The game will be televised nationally on TNT and TrueTV, and can be streamed on Max.
