It’s so nice to be looking at a real schedule again. Teams outside of the awful division, real road trips, tricky back-to-backs, bye-weeks, you name it, this schedule has it. In fact, this year’s schedule is even more jam-packed than the previous 82-game schedules the Golden Knights have had due to the late start and the Olympic break in the middle.
Looking over it, there are six spots that jump out as the easiest and toughest spots over the seven-month season. We’ll start with the positive, a group of three stretches where the Golden Knights should be able to really make headway towards winning the Pacific Division for the third time in four years (we’re throwing out last year because that was technically the “West” division).
Softest Spots
December 29th – January 13th
vs ANA, vs WPG, vs NSH, vs NYR, vs CHI, vs TOR
This is one of two six-game homestands on the VGK schedule this year, but it’s also against a group of middling to bottom-feeding teams. Vegas has historically dominated Anaheim no matter where the games are and Winnipeg has won just twice at T-Mobile Arena in six tries. The return of Gerard Gallant will likely bring an emotional game, but home games against Nashville, Chicago, and Toronto should all be winnable too. 12 points are at stake over these two weeks, the Golden Knights should be able to grab at least eight or nine of them.
