Golden Knights calm, ready to return home after treacherous trip
The fictional contemporary poet Jimmy Smith Jr. once said, “All’s well that ends OK.”
He could’ve easily been talking about the Golden Knights’ longest road trip of the season that finished with a victory Saturday at Philadelphia.
The Knights were dealt several big blows on the five-game voyage, which didn’t include a stop in Detroit, the home of Smith, who is more widely known as “B-Rabbit” in the film “8 Mile.”
Instead, the losses came at Buffalo, Washington and Pittsburgh.
But a dramatic 1-0 win against the Flyers may have been a perfect balm for all the bumps and bruises they took along the way.
“It wasn’t our best road trip, but 2-3 is better than 1-4, so those are valuable points going back west,” said forward Cody Eakin, who scored the lone goal Saturday late in the third period.
Before he found the back of the net, it looked like the Knights might waste a spectacular effort from goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. Instead, Fleury returns home with confidence after recording 26 saves, several of them spectacular, in his first shutout of the season.
Even a dramatic win like that couldn’t cover all the warts. The Knights still struggled to score and gave up far too many good chances, which is why Smith’s cautious line is more appropriate than the more traditional cliche about all being well that ends well.
The victory did however allow the Knights to avoid a fourth-straight loss, a fate the Knights eluded in the regular season last year.
“It’s been a tough beginning to the season,” Fleury said. “I think our play has been improving throughout the road trip. I don’t know, nobody likes to lose and we had to finish on a good note.”
A disappointing early-season road trip is something the Knights also experienced in their otherwise spectacular inaugural season.
The Knights squeezed just three points out of six road games on a late-October, early-November swing last season that covered 6,368 miles. This trip yielded four points in five games during a 6,011-mile journey.
The most important thing for the Knights will be how they deal with the adversity.
Last season’s early disappointing eastern swing was followed by six wins in seven games.
Now, there is an opportunity to make up some points with the next five games coming in the friendly confines of T-Mobile Arena, beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the Sabres.
“Just forget about the losses and build off this win,” forward Ryan Carpenter said of how the team will move forward. “All season we try to just take it one day at a time and when you lose three in a row, it’s never a good feeling, especially after having higher expectations this year. But just off confidence, go home, get some rest and be ready for the next game.”
It’s certainly far from panic time.
The Knights don’t have another five-game trip this season and are still in the top half of the league despite the struggles, according to Westgate sports book manager Ed Salmons.
The defense took a lot of criticism for allowing 14 goals in the first four games of the trip, but his biggest concern is with the slumping offense and the sidelined players.
The Knights managed just eight goals in five games on the road. They are still without Alex Tuch and the suspended Nate Schmidt. Paul Stastny and Deryk Engelland were injured on the trip.
Salmons had the Knights near the bottom of the top 10 in his NHL power ratings to start the season.
“I’d have them somewhere between 10th and 15th right now,” Salmons said. “They just can’t score, but that was probably their hardest road trip of the season.”
If they respond like they did last season, the Knights could begin to rise back up the list.
“We feel good leaving the road trip now,” coach Gerard Gallant said after Saturday’s game. “It was a tough trip. We won the first game and lost three in between and won the last game. We’re going back home for a bunch of games and it’s going to be a long flight home but it’s going to be a good flight.
“We’re 2-4 and we’re battling back.”
Just like when Smith rallied from a disastrous performance at The Shelter to claim victory at the next rap battle.
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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
