Golden Knights embrace getting things back to normal

The Golden Knights defenseman is 68 games into his NHL career — 107 if you count playoff games — but he’s only visited 14 of the now 31 other rinks in the league thanks to the strangeness of the past two seasons.

The Knights’ entire 2020 playoff run took place in Edmonton, Alberta. They only visited seven teams during the 2021 regular season because they stayed within their division.

So Whitecloud is looking forward to a more normal campaign in which he can travel around the U.S. and Canada, play every team in the NHL and have fans back in the stands. Plus, he can finally play in “the world’s most famous arena.”

“I haven’t been to all the cities yet,” Whitecloud said. “I think for me that’s exciting. Getting to play in new buildings. Get to see new teams, those sorts of things. And obviously getting to travel with all the boys and getting out and that sort of stuff.”

Captain Mark Stone admitted once training camp began that last season “was a difficult year for everybody.”

The NHL’s COVID-19 protocols meant players were largely confined to a home, hotel room or rink unless a special circumstance arose. They weren’t going out to dinner and bonding on the road. They weren’t traveling across the league and running into all their former teammates and coaches.

Not to mention that they often had to create their own energy during games rather than relying on crowds to fuel their adrenaline. Only two of the Knights’ first 17 games last season had fans.

T-Mobile Arena began opening its doors March 1, but it wasn’t until the second round of the playoffs that it returned to full capacity.

The largest announced road crowd the Knights played in front of was 5,671 in the regular season and 10,495 in the postseason.

“It was so great to have the fans in the building last year in the playoffs and the excitement,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “The game’s not the same without full buildings. We were fortunate enough to get to that point last year and it was awesome.”

Another thing that made last season difficult was the condensed schedule. The Knights played 56 games in 119 days, averaging 2.125 days between game. They played their final 49 in 97 days (1.97 days between games) thanks to a brief COVID-19 pause from Jan. 27 to Feb. 4.

The Knights will average 2.17 days between games this season — not counting their lengthy Olympic break from Feb. 2-24 — and have significantly more open dates. They had more than one day between games five times last season not counting their COVID-19 hiatus. That total is up to 18 this year.

“Sometimes you needed 24 hours here or there, and it just didn’t seem like we were able to get it at times because of how often we played,” left wing Max Pacioretty said. “It’s exciting to play every team, go to every city but to have proper rest because that’s the schedule that we’re used to.”

That sense of normalcy has already returned to the Knights, with their first full training camp since 2019, the first under DeBoer, and fans returning to practices at City National Arena.

The organization hopes it’s just the beginning of a season that will feel a lot more like its first two than their past two.

“Really excited,” goaltender Robin Lehner said. “You miss all the cities, playing the other teams. I can’t express it enough. It’s been tough since COVID and the whole season last year playing the same teams over again. It’s nice to get back some normalcy for sure.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.