[dannibalcorpse]

The Olympics are over, and all the players who participated have found their way back from South Korea and right back into the home stretch of the NHL season. The Golden Knights were proud to send several players over as representatives of their nations: Kevin Shattenkirk score a goal and had 4 assists in 4 games for the US, Ondrej Palat was a 5-3-8 in 5 games for the Czech Republic (including an amazing 6 point game against Germany!), while Dennis Seidenberg and his German team might want to forget this year’s Olympiad - he was scoreless in 4 games and managed to be a -11 in that small sample size. In somewhat of a surprise, Sweden wound up winning the gold medal in a game against Finland, with Erik Karlsson taking home the Olympics MVP honors.

Back in the States, the Golden Knights have continued their strong play, rolling into the break with a 35-29-4 record and a good hold on the 7th spot in the conference. The goaltending has really solidified over the third quarter of the season - Craig Anderson has taken the majority of the starts and sports a 25-21-3 record, a .903 SV%, 2.76 GAA, and 4 shutouts. Antti Raanta continues his strong play as the backup, going 10-5-1/2.42/.914.

The offense has picked up somewhat but still remains a committee approach, with no one really taking over the scoring responsibilities. Jakob Silfverberg still leads the team with his 17-27-44 line, while Tyler Johnson leads the team with 20 goals. T.J. Brodie rode some hot performances to his current 3-36-39 line, and at this point in the season 10 players have at least 25 points, with 7 of those players sporting double-digit goal numbers. Coach Luke Richardson has been easing new acquisition Josh Ho-Sang into the lineup, as the rookie has only one goal (scored on his first shift in Vegas!) in 5 games with the Golden Knights. Ondrej Palat’s scoring touch wasn’t limited to the Olympics - he’s gone 8-7-15 in his last 24 games and seems primed for a strong finish to what was an underwhelming campaign at the halfway mark.

One notable prospect showing a lot of potential has been goalie Blake Weyrick of the team’s AHL affiliate. Despite coming into the year as the presumptive backup, Weyrick has taken over starting duties in Lowell and sports a crisp 24-10-4/2.54/.915 line. Blake was signed despite a middling line in the FHL in 2016-17, and has rewarded his team’s faith by appearing to evolve into the goalie of the future.

League-wide, the Chicago Blackhawks have started to look slightly human, even losing a few games at home, but still have a commanding lead in the race for the league’s best record. One of the biggest surprises in the NHL this year, however, comes at the other end of the standings - the LA Kings have bottomed out to a 22-36-7 record and are even behind the other expansion team, the Seattle Metropolitans, in the standings. The team fired coach Daryl Sutter halfway through this year, and GM Dean Lombardi might be next on the chopping block if he can’t offer some hope for the future, at least.

Sidney Crosby still leads the league with 43 goals, but Patrick Kane and Alex Ovechkin have started gunning for him - they each have 41 and 40 goals, respectively. Connor McDavid still leads the overall scoring race with his 27-57-84 line, but Kane and Crosby are right there in the mix a point or two behind him. Corey Crawford seems to have run away with all the goalie honors this year - his 45 wins are 9 ahead of Braden Holtby in second place; his 1.61 GAA is nearly .4 better than runner up Carey Price; his .927 SV% is .001 behind leader Al Montoya, and most impressively, his 15 shutouts already have him tied for the expansion-era record for most in a season, and within shouting distance of the all time leader (George Hainsworth’s 22 in 1928-29).

There haven’t been many trades since the Ho-Sang deal, but Vegas did deal AHL D Ryan Graves to the Leafs in exchange for a 6th rounder in the upcoming draft - word was that Graves was unhappy with his role and GM Dan Hampton decided to move him out and give another player a chance to get some ice time. Hampton also renewed some upcoming free agents - as a reward for his good work, goalie Craig Anderson received a one year extension worth $5.4M, while potential RFAs Alan Quine(3 yrs/$3.4M) and Jordan Subban(3 yrs/$2.75M) both accepted offers to remain with the team as younger building blocks.

Only 17 games remain in the Golden Knights’ inaugural season - with a playoff seed in hand at this time, can the rookie franchise keep up the pace and become one of the few expansion teams to make the playoffs in their first year of existence? We’ll check back with the team after game 82 and wrap up the first regular season in Vegas!