Whitecloud: “We’ve Been Waiting, We’ve Been Itching To Get Back”

Tonight, the undefeated Golden Knights will host Western Conference opponent St. Louis Blues for their second game on the 2024-25 schedule. Vegas’ offense exploded on Wednesday night, including eight points from their defense. Defenseman Zach Whitecloud joined the scoring parade and recorded his first goal of the season in the season opener. Last season the D-man has to wait until mid-December to open his goal-scoring account. Yesterday, the 2023 Stanley Cup champion joined the NHL Network to discuss the lopsided victory over the Avalanche and the season in general.

For 41 games we want to put on a good show for our fans. They come out strong every single night and support us. Being able to put on a good show like that for them is exciting for us. You don’t want to get into a track meet with Colorado too often, but we have a lot of depth that can score and help contribute. It was good to come home with that one. -Zach Whitecloud

Now one of the veteran players on the club, Whitecloud has seen his teammates strengths in practice translate to success on the ice. The d-man is one of three defensemen to dress for Vegas since the 2017-18 campaign.

Now, he’s an established leader and a voice in the locker room. However, he credits his skilled teammates for pushing him hard in practice. Especially, two of Vegas’ top forwards.

We’ve got quite a few weapons up front. Lines one through four each do things that complement each other. The first guy that comes to mind is Eichel. His speed and deception, the way he creates and uses his speed to open up space. Getting to go against him every day in practice, you can see why a lot of D back off and maintain their gap and give themselves extra room going against him. Guys like Barbashev don’t get enough credit for how much offense and the ability he has to create opportunities for the guys on his line. On two-on-ones, I think with Barbie is 30 of 32 on me this year already. He’s been tearing me apart. -Whitecloud

The 27-year-old expects the Golden Knights to be a deep playoff threat this season. Last season’s first-round exit to the Dallas Stars stung Vegas and motivated them to come out with a different outcome in the 2025 postseason. One way to reach that goal is taking care of business at home. Whitecloud admits the players set out to mirror the energy from the fans at T-Mobile Arena.

We always look forward to playing at home and especially in front of the fan base. I have loved my time here since day one. I felt a part of the community the day I got here and it’s just a fun place to play for numerous reasons. More importantly, the team tries to win every single year and that’s the kind of team I like to play for. -Whitecloud

 

Lastly, it’s evident that Whitecloud drank from Mark Stone’s Gatorade bottle this summer. After being asked if Vegas is being overlooked in 2024-25, the blueliner tried to sell the same hard to believe story his captain spoke about this summer. In seven full seasons, the franchise has missed the playoffs once, won the Western Conference twice and hoisted a Stanley Cup in 2023. With a franchise resume like that it’s difficult to count the Golden Knights out. Especially, with the same leadership from the 2023 Cup championship team. It’s a stretch.

I think Stone had a comment about it to. We’ve been written off quite a few times in the past and we’ve become somewhat used to that. As a group, if you are looking for motivation in the media than you’re obviously not motivated internally. We’ve always had that motivation as a group to prove everyone wrong and prove to ourselves that what we have in that what we have in that room is capable of playing winning hockey consistently. You look at the Dallas series, it could go one way or the other. We believe in what we have in our room. We’ve been waiting, we had a long offseason. We’ve been itching to get back. – Whitecloud

Whitecloud spent almost twenty minutes with the league’s network but there were some technical difficulties on his part. Just like all of us, the d-man’s iPhone overheated during the interview due to the Las Vegas heat. Of course, he had to wait a few minutes before Facetiming back. Thankfully, former NHL’ers Brian Boyle and Scotty Hartnell happily waited for Whitecloud’s redial. As you would expect, the veteran Golden Knight was full of smiles and continues to be an easy guy to root for. However, he should stop reading Stone’s fantasy novels. Nowhere have analysts, fans, or other NHL teams ever written off the Golden Knights. No one has. Zach, can you please pass the message on to Mark?