The NHL released the Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights’ full schedule for the 2023-24 season and we’re here to break it down. (Scroll to the bottom to see full schedule)
Longest Homestand
2023-24: 5 games
1/11-1/20
2022-23: 7 games
1/5-1/21 (3-4-0)
2021-22: 6 games (twice)
11/9-11/20 (5-1-0)
12/31-1/11 (3-3-2) *This was originally scheduled as a 6-game homestand but a rescheduled away game turned it into 8*
When the Seattle Kraken take the ice tonight, they’ll be playing the second half of their eighth back-to-back this season. That’s the second-lowest total of any team in the NHL.
The team with the least… the Vegas Golden Knights.
Vegas has had one of the most favorable schedules in terms of rest of any team in the NHL this season. The Golden Knights not only had just seven back-to-backs this year, but they also faced 15 teams playing their second game of a back-to-back. Only five other teams have had more.
Tonight’s 15th game will give the Golden Knights a chance to clinch the division (with some help from Colorado) and lock in home-ice for the first two rounds of the playoffs.
However, the Golden Knights haven’t been great playing against teams on a back-to-back. They’ve won just four of the first 14 in regulation and added three more in OT. The seven losses saw just two go past regulation giving VGK a 7-5-2 record in games against tired teams.
VGK’s record when they were on the back-to-back was also not great this season coming in at 2-2-3. As HockeyViz.com points out, in four of those seven games, the other team was on a back-to-back of their own as well. Vegas went 1-1-2 in those four.
All the Golden Knights can do is play the schedule in front of them, but there’s been no doubt the schedule makers helped out quite a bit this year.
If the Golden Knights can take advantage of it one more time, they’ll likely have carved out a slight advantage in the first few rounds of the playoffs too.
Like every team in the NHL this season, the Golden Knights have had a number of games postponed due to the ongoing/never-ending pandemic. Luckily, Vegas is in a much better spot than most teams in this regard, needing just four games to be placed back on the schedule.
The Golden Knights were supposed to be in Calgary tonight and were scheduled to play in Edmonton last night as part of an All Alberta road back-to-back. Also, in late December, Vegas lost a pair of home games when the December 23rd game against the Kings and the December 27th matchup with Avalanche were wiped out.
NHL discussions have indicated that these games, along with most of the other postponed ones around the league, will be rescheduled during the month of February that was previously left vacant for the Olympics. With NHL and AHL players no longer going to Beijing, there are three full weeks to squeeze in these makeup games.
I believe we are going to play seven total games in February, might be eight. -The Creator
The current schedule calls for a home game against Buffalo on February 1st and then a home/road back-to-back in Arizona and against Colorado to end the month of February 25th and 26th. Assuming the four games are rescheduled, that would make for seven. However, the mention of eight leaves room for the possibility that another game from later in the season is moved up as the league rearranges the schedules for the teams needing to make up north of 10 games.
Seven games in February would be the lightest month in the Golden Knights’ five year history. They played 10 in in February last year and played at least 13 each of their first three seasons. It’s not all great news though.
Unfortunately we have two back-to-backs, because the league commands we do. We’ve gone back and we’ve tried to get some things adjusted because unfortunately we play a back-to-back then skip a day then play a game and then we have something like seven or eight days off. -The Creator
He wouldn’t give us the exact dates as they are still being finalized, but did give out a few hints.
When you come back from the All Star break you are not supposed to play on the Sunday. So you can practice on Monday but we actually have to travel for two back-to-back road games. -The Creator
This means the Golden Knights are likely headed to Alberta on February 8th and 9th to play the Oilers and Flames. The earlier comment seems to indicate that there would be a home game on the 11th (LAK or COL) and then the Golden Knights would be off most of the week before returning to action with the other home game on the 19th or 20th.
The month would wrap up with the ARI/COL back-to-back on the 25th and 26th with the possibility of another game being snuck in at some point during the month.
An NHL season is like cycling through the most challenging course on the Peloton bike… for six months straight. There are homestands, road trips, back-to-backs, and all sorts of weird quirks that pop up because half the teams in the league play in the same stadium as NBA teams.
This year’s Golden Knights schedule is no different, and like every Pacific Division team, there are some high peaks and some low valleys.
Softest Spots
October 23 – November 2nd vs COL, vs ANA, vs MTL, vs WPG
After what is a bit of a tricky opening few weeks of the season riddled with tough opponents, single-game road trips, and a back-t0-back in different time-zones with 750+ miles of travel, the schedule hits its softest spot of the year. Four home games, in an 11-day span against one good team, two okay ones, and a horrible one. The Golden Knights have two days of rest before the Colorado game and then three days prior to Montreal. They even have two more days off after the last of the four-game set. Really, the whole month of October is favorable for Vegas, and if they start it off well, the last week could turn it into one of their best months ever.
February 12th – March 3rd vs STL, vs NYI, vs WSH, vs TBL, vs FLA, @ANA, vs EDM, vs BUF, vs LAK, NJD
Directly on the heels of the ridiculous 27-day span away from T-Mobile Arena (more on that below), the Golden Knights come home for 10 straight. (Really it’s 9 of 10, but I figure a road game in Anaheim in February is basically a home game.) The opponents are challenging at first, but they ease up majorly as it goes on. There will be 20 points to get here, the Golden Knights should reasonably be after at least 14 of them.
December 29th – January 11th vs ANA, vs PHI, vs STL, vs PIT, vs LAK, vs CBJ
It’s the longest homestand of the year and the first 7-game homestand since the magical one that opened the inaugural season. Only six games are listed because it starts out with a road-home back-to-back, but there are two off-days behind it. This is about as nice a stretch as you can ask for on a schedule as there’s at least one day between every game and the opponents are all average at best (except for St. Louis). Of course, this is directly before the 27-day monster. It’s almost like the NHL knew they were screwing the Golden Knights, so they tried to make it up to them with two soft spots before and after the nightmare.
Hardest Spots
January 12th – February 7th at BUF, at OTT, at MTL, at BOS, at CAR, at NSH, at TBL, at FLA
While we are still waiting on the finalization of the Golden Knights preseason schedule, another set of games just popped up that at least some of those under Vegas’ control will play in.
LA Kings Insider has learned that the Los Angeles Kings will return to Toyota Sports Center to host the Vegas Golden Knights for a pair of rookie games in mid-September. –Jon Rosen, LA Kings Insider
These very well could be the first games ever to feature Golden Knights wearing Golden Knights jerseys. The two games are going to be played at the Toyota Sports Center, the Kings practice facility in El Segundo, California.
Rookie games are common in the NHL and are usually stocked with a bunch of young players on training camp roster invites and/or AHL contacts. It will be interesting to see how many of these such players exist for the Golden Knights in year one as they’ll still be trying to figure out how to shuffle what ever is left from the Expansion Draft with their Entry Draft picks and players that acquire via trade between now and September. Non-roster invitees are likely to be somewhat of an after thought, but apparently not too much if these games have made it in to the schedule.
No matter what the roster looks like, Vegas is on the schedule to play a pair of games in El Segundo against the Kings. I was originally thinking we would have to wait until the end of September to see the beginning of the Golden Knights domination of the Kings, guess now that domination will start with the Reid Duke captained Rookie VGKs.
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VGK vs SEA (Winter Classic – 1/1/24) VGK -130 SEA +110 O/U 6.5 (U -125)
(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
