Every year when the NHL schedule is released fans, players, and team staffers race to the calendar to see how many back-to-backs their team will face this season. For the Golden Knights this year, that number is 13, tied for the most they’ve ever faced in a single season (2018-19), and the 10th most of any team in the NHL.
Of course, that will be a serious challenge for VGK this season. However, there are two sides to the coin. This season, the Golden Knights will play a team on the second night of a back-to-back 15 times, also tied for the most they’ve ever faced in a season (2022-23), and the 5th most of any team in the NHL.
The Golden Knights are historically very strong when playing against an unrested team. Over their seven seasons, VGK has played a team on the second night of a back-to-back 81 times. The Golden Knights are 50-22-9 in those games for a .673 points percentage.
There are some interesting trends among Vegas’ records in these games.
at Home: 34-18-8 (.633)
on Road: 16-4-1 (.786)
VGK not on B2B: 37-15-5 (.693)
VGK also on B2B: 13-7-4 (.625)
VGK w/ 4 days of rest: 1-2-1 (.375)
VGK w/ 3 days of rest: 2-1-2 (.600)
VGK w/ 2 days of rest: 7-3-1 (.682)
VGK w/ 1 day of rest: 27-9-1 (.743)
vs Eastern Conference: 13-10-3 (.558)
vs Western Conference: 37-12-6 (.727)
vs Pacific Division: 19-8-3 (.683)
23-24: 8-3-0 (.625)
22-23: 8-5-2 (.600)
21-22: 4-6-1 (.409)
20-21: 4-0-1 (.900)
19-20: 8-2-2 (.750)
18-19: 10-3-1 (.750)
17-18: 8-3-2 (.692)
VGK have surprisingly been better on the road and when less rested. They started as a franchise incredibly well in this situation, racking up a 30-8-6 (.750) record over the first four seasons. It hasn’t been quite as strong since but last year’s 8-3-0 was excellent.
This season, VGK will face 15 teams playing on the second night of a back-to-back. 11 of them will be played at T-Mobile Arena, four are games in which the Golden Knights are also on a back-to-back, and six of them are against the Pacific Division.
Oddly, every game against Minnesota this year has the Wild on the second night of a back-to-back vs VGK. The Golden Knights are on the second night in two of the three though.
vs STL – October 11th
vs ANA – October 13th
at LAK – October 30th
*vs UTH – November 30th
*at MIN – December 15th
vs ANA – December 23rd
vs CGY – December 29th
*vs MIN – January 12th
vs FLA – January 26th
at NYR – February 2nd
vs NJD – March 2nd
vs LAK – March 9th
*vs TBL – March 23rd
at MIN – March 25th
*at VAN – April 6th
*VGK also on a back-to-back
Circle these games on the calendar this season for the Golden Knights. With the large number of B2Bs they face themselves, winning against these unrested teams will be paramount.
*Stick taps to Jason Gregor’s article on DailyFaceoff.com for portions of the research for this article.*
