Observations
- Vadim Shipachyov had a presence when he hit the ice on Tuesday. The smooth skating Russian showed off his crisp passing ability. He made multiple corner passes from the offensive-zone, that would make any forward lick their chops.
- Clayton Stoner came to play. The other, bearded defenseman looked mean and physical when he checked pursuing forward Brendan Leipsic to the ice.
- All week, Cody Eakin and Reilly Smith seemed to connect well. Possibly, setting up as future line-mates.
- Four of the six listed VGK centers were on the ice this week; Shipachyov, Eakin, William Karlsson and Oscar Lindberg. Jonathan Marchessault and Tomas Nosek were the only two listed centers that didn’t check in early.
- Forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, William Carrier, Erik Haula, James Neal and David Perron were the only missing point-collectors. I use the word ‘missing’ lightly. These guys, weren’t really missing. This week was voluntary, they just plan on showing up on time.
- Defensively, only Griffin Reinhart, Luca Sbisa and Nate Schmidt were absent this week. Schmidt’s ankle injury may have kept him from attending. Sorta surprising, Reinhart and Sbisa didn’t show up early. Jon Merrill, took the ice this week, eager for the opportunity with Vegas.
Excited. Fresh start for me, new organization, a lot of new teammates and coaching staff. A lot to prove too myself. Fifth-year in this league, it’s time to step up or, you know, step to the side. -Jon Merrill, Golden Knights Defenseman
Pictures
**Friend of the site, Brandon Andreasen, was at practice on Wednesday and took a ton of high-res photos. Check out his gallery.**
RJ
So I’m finally listening to the most recent podcast, and I’d like to make the case for the importance of Engelland’s leadership (even if he isn’t the C).
Las Vegas is a city most hockey players and most people in the hockey world just do not understand. As a matter of fact, Las Vegas is a city that most people who have never lived here would not be able to understand. Frankly you could say that about most cities. The difference is every other NHL city has has NHL players there for at least 10 years.
This team is a group of people who now have the responsibility to represent the city of Las Vegas (or at least, Vegas). By December and January the team is going to be deeply in last place and they will be loseing by 2-3 each night and most home games will have nearly equal representation for the away team in the stands. Those nights it will be very easy for the locker room to turn against this new city. It will be very easy to forget the locals have never had skates on and don’t know what a power play is and may not even have the games on TV. On those nights, I definitely want Deryk Engelland in that locker room. When Steve Carp and Jesse Granger finally start to ask hard questions, I want a guy who is invested in the city to be answering them.
This is going to be a bad team on the ice, with or without Engelland. Forget the Captian Conceirge crap. Engelland isn’t Yelp. He is a Las Vegan in the locker room.